Transcript Making students authors of their own interactive Web

Making students authors of their
own interactive Web comics
S. Retalis
UNIVERSITY OF PIRAEUS
Department of Digital Systems
CoSy-LLab [http:// cosy.ted.unipi.gr]
{[email protected]}
[http://www.itisart.com.gr]
Lets see what we will see…
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About Comics
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Case study
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Definitions
History of comics
Strengths of comics
Digital comics- web comics
Comics in Education
Design of the learning process
Time for action
Understanding Comics
Understanding Comics
Scott McCloud,
Comic Strips
Manga ...
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The Japanese view of the
world in Comics.
Different from the American
view
Source: “Mang-huh? Comics in your library”presentated by Cathy Kyle, Parma Public Library
Digital Comics- Web Comics
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Web comics are designed for viewing on the
web
Take advantage of the web's unique abilities
 Hypermedia & Interactivity & Infinite
Canvas
Comic Books are popular!
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Movies and novels are now being made into
comic books specifically aimed at children
Many popular writers, musicians and creative
designers are working with comics.
Google Chrome presented by Scott McCloud.
Educational Comic Books!
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Kids can learn about history, maths, etc.
acquire digital literacy skills and have fun
doing it
European Committee published some
series of comics in all official languages of
European Union (E.U.),
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to inform students about the E.U. "The war of
berry ice cream"
to fight against discriminations and racism. "
Me the Racist“
Mayer and Moreno (2002) suggested
teaching through computers, presenting
simultaneously narration and cartoons
History Of Comics In Education (1/2)
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From the early 40’s many educators in USA such as W. W.
D. Sones (1944) conducted a series of studies on using
comic books in education, providing data for its usefulness
Comics-supported curriculum appeared, while the Journal
of Educational Sociology devoted the 1944's Volume 18,
Issue 4 to the topic
Others regarded comics harmful ( F. Wertham, 1954) for
literacy and eventually the impetus of pro-comics
educators stopped
In the 1970's teachers dared to use comic books again
such as R. W. Campbell, R. Schoof (Koenke, 1981), B.
Brocka (1979)
History Of Comics In Education (2/2)
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The milestone was set in 1992, when Art Spiegelman's
comic book "Maus" about Holocaust experience won a
Pulitzer Prize (Sturm, 2001)
English professor R. Versaci (2001), Physics professor
Kakalios (2002), N. Williams of the American Language
Institute of New York University (1995) use comic books in
their classes
Today, educators at all levels are designing new ways of
teaching through comics
Establishment of both undergraduate and graduate
programs in American universities
Librarians in the new millennium find comic books useful in
luring teenagers away from their televisions and video
games (Bacon, 2002)
Strengths Of Comics (1/2)
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Motivating. Due to human’s natural attraction
to pictures, comics can capture and maintain
the learner’s interest;
Visual. Pictures and text mutually tell a story.
This "interplay of the written and visual"
comics "put a human face on a given subject"
→ emotional connection between user and
characters of a comic’s story, Versaci (2001)
Permanent. “Visual permanence" is unique to
comics, while time …progresses at the pace of
a reader, in contrast to film and animation
Williams (1995).
Strengths Of Comics (2/2)
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Intermediary. Scaffold to difficult disciplines and
concepts, give reluctant readers the nonthreatening practice and to experienced ones
inspiration and confidence
Popular. " there should be harmony between the
user's on-going life activities and his experiences
in the school " Hutchinson (1949)
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Comic books promote media literacy, encouraging
students to "become critical consumers of media
messages" (Morrison, Bryan, & Chilcoat, 2002).
In social aspects students may examine
"contemporary lifestyles, myths, and values"
(Brocka, 1979)
http://www.npr.org/player/v2/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=4581832&m=4581871
Educational Comics Projects-Initiatives
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In the United Kingdom, a report entitled “Graphic Novels Across the
Curriculum” presents an overview of such projects (Gibson, 2008).
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In the United States, the Comic Book Project is an arts-based literacy and
learning initiative started at an elementary school in Queens, New York, in
2001 by Michael Bitz and now hosted by the Teachers College of
Columbia University.
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Mainly English language and literature
Help children write, design, and publish their own comic books as “an
alternative pathway to literacy” (http://www.comicbookproject.org/).
The Maryland State Department of Education, in cooperation with
Diamond Comic Distributors and Disney Publishing Worldwide, invited
teachers from approximately 200 Maryland elementary school classrooms
to encourage students to design their own comics.
Educomics.org is a European wide initiative started in 2009 aiming to
promote the use of web comics in education
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Students are authors of their own webcomics
Creating a Comic Book
Source: “L'atelier de la bande dessinée avec Hergé”
Using comics in classroom: The
Educomics Approach
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Learning goal: multiliteracies – skills for the
comprehension of multimodal meanings and
collaborative production of digital stories in authentic
context and conditions of communication
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Pedagogical model:
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use their creativity and imagination & collaborate
problem-based learning &
digital storytelling via webcomics
Students as Creators of their own comics
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web comics can be uploaded at the school wiki
Tools for Comics
Comic Strip Creators
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Comic strip creators allow the design of sort
web comic strips by importing pictures and
dialogues.
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Makebeliefscomix
(http://www.makebeliefscomix.com/)
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Garfield Comic Strip Creator
(http://www.garfield.com/fungames/comiccreator.html)
Cosy Comic Strip Creator
(http://www.comicstripcreator.org)
Comic Creators as Educational Tools
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Viewers of educational comic books,
ΚΑΒΑΜ by Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention U.S.A. (U.S. Department
of Health and Human Services) which
presents stories with dialogues and asks the
student to express their opinion
Tools for self-assessment, such as the
Concept Cartoons,
http://www.conceptcartoons.com designed
to provoke discussion and stimulate
scientific thinking. Children are asked to
answer a multiple-choice test in form of
unfinished dialogues among the cartoon
characters.
Comic Life
Source: Plasq - http://plasq.com/comiclife
ComicLab:
http://www.webcomicbookcreator.com/
Phases of an Educational scenario
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Access to material (articles, novels)
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Presentation & hands-on experience with the ComicLab in the
school lab
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Planning of scenario and organisation of narration of their story
(Theme, Setting, Characters, Plot-action, Dialogues) in the
classroom
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Access to selected online resources
Planning of action in each panel according to the scenario of the
previous phase, transformation of the scenario in comics format by
using the ComicLab tool in the school lab
Projection and evaluation of digital comics - evaluation of both
activity and tool in the classroom
Upload of students’ comic books in school wiki.
Phases of the Educational Scenario (2/2)
2nd Phase (2h) Explanation of the basics for a
narrative plot & Design of the plot on
paper
Use of the narrative (or dramatic) plot
structure:
exposition (setting, characters) conflict, rising
action and climax/turning point, followed
by a falling action and
resolution/Denouement (Freytag’s
analysis).
Narrative Plot
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Worksheet for organising the narrative plot (Freytag’s analysis)
time/place
Actors
Initial situation
Adventure – hero’s problem & goals
Action, role of all actors
End result from action / problem solution
Another Educational scenario
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Part A: Familiarization with the ComicLab tool
Part B: Tricky Tracks (adaptation from Bell, 2008)
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Introduction: Students read an introduction in a comic strip where the
characters of the story that will follow are introduced
Students use a set of predesigned by the teacher incomplete comic
strips. They are guided so as to complete them in order to develop a
comic story to explain patterns of fossil footprints that are gradually
revealed on a video projector.
Part C: Scientific stories
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Students are given specially structured stories concerning scientific
concepts that were invented in order to interpret natural phenomena.
Students are asked to transfer the stories in a digital comic format.
Example of a student’s comic
Kabam
Viewer
Editor
Εφαρμογές δημιουργίας ψηφιακών κόμικς που υποστηρίζουν την ελληνική
γλώσσα
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CoSy_ComicStripCreator
http://www.comicstripcreator.org
 ComicLab
ITisART.Ltd
http://webcomicbookcreator.com/
Evaluation process
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Evaluation goals:
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Whether the learning process was engaging & fun
Whether students acquired skills in multi-literacy,
skills in the production of plurimedia (multimodal)
stories in authentic context and conditions of
communication about multimodal texts
Understood the notion of intra school violence
use of language
Toolkits
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questionnaire and
assessments rubrics which value the products of
learning by giving them qualitative characteristics
Rubric – a snapshot
CRITERIA
EXCELLENT
VERY GOOD
MEDIOCRE
WEAK
(1)
(2)
(3)
(4)
Dialogue and captions Insufficient
Dialogue and captions
Dialogue and captions
promote the
DIALOGUE &
were relevant to the
dialogue and
are mostly relevant to
story, though in certain irrelevant
development of plot
CAPTIONS
the story and are
and are thoroughly
points they are not
captions.
comprehensible.
comprehensible.
comprehensible.
Use of language on the
levels of syntax,
vocabulary, and
Correct use of
Correct use of
FUNCTIONAL USE
Many
punctuation is over
language in 50% to
language in less than
70% correct, as far as
70% of content.
50% of content.
OF LANGUAGE
Grammatical and
syntactic errors.
communication of
heroes is concerned.
RESULTS
Some comments…
allowed me to
activate my
imagination
it was a
different
course
felt the joy of
creation. I want to
use web comics in all
courses…
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Comics about environment
Time for Action…
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Part A: Familiarization with the ComicLab
tool
Part B: Write scenarios for your own
comics stories
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Use as starting point the stories of ActionAid
Write down a narrative plot
Narrative Plot
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Worksheet for organising the narrative plot (Freytag’s analysis)
time/place
Actors
Initial situation
Adventure – hero’s problem & goals
Action, role of all actors
End result from action / problem solution
Join our community
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New techniques for using Web comics in classroom
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http://www.educomics.org
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This work has been supported by the RADC project “Raising Awareness on Development
Cooperation” which is partially funded by the EuropeAid Co-Operation Office, Thematic
Operations: “Relation with Civil Society, Central Management of Thematic Budget Lines NSALA under DCI and Coordination” (grant contract: DCI-NSA 2009/202-400).
http://www.developmenteducation.org/