ToonDoo (www.toondoo.com)
By crystalcantu | View this Toon at ToonDoo | Create your own Toon
ToonDoo was incredibly easy to use. It offers several options. You can choose the classic bear characters for your strip or you can from an array of different types of characters such as men, women, kids, sports characters, unusual characters, animals, and more. The same applies to conversation bubbles and font. You can shrink conversation bubbles so more text fits, or you can enlarge it to add emphasis. You can also choose from different backgrounds and props. I absolutely loved how I was able to create a comic strip with such ease. I was also able to save my comic strip for the future.
Pixton (www.pixton.com)
Pixton is a little bit more complex which I should have noticed right off the bat since a popup screen informs users of a handy tutorial. The first thing that I did notice (and didn't like) was that there aren't too many options as far as characters are concerned. Users need to choose a background first and then they can choose characters. Each setting is limited to specific characters. What I did like, however, was the different options for manipulating the characters and how you could easily flip the position of the character to either face or turn away from the other character in the same square. Each character also came with its own conversation bubble which sort of made it easy to just type in the conversation, but it also limited how the conversation bubble could do or how much text could be added into the conversation bubble. Just like ToonDoo, Pixton allows users to save their comic strips.
MakeBeliefsComix! (www.makebeliefscomix.com)
To be honest, I did not like MakeBeliefsComix too much. Their site seemed a little scattered and cluttered. I like organization and proper positioning of elements which this site lacked, in my opinion. Instead of a direct menu for backgrounds and characters, users need to click on a specific button. If users choose "backgrounds", then there is a tiny screen that they can scroll through to look at the different available options. I found that this complicated the process of creating a simple comic strip.
Another down side is that the site does not allow users to save their comics online, so you cannot go back and edit them. You can, however, save what you have created directly onto you computer.
Also, take some time to visit the following link. It provides suggestions on different ways to implement comics in the classroom.
http://www.makebeliefscomix.com/How-to-Play/Educators/
ToonDoo was incredibly easy to use. It offers several options. You can choose the classic bear characters for your strip or you can from an array of different types of characters such as men, women, kids, sports characters, unusual characters, animals, and more. The same applies to conversation bubbles and font. You can shrink conversation bubbles so more text fits, or you can enlarge it to add emphasis. You can also choose from different backgrounds and props. I absolutely loved how I was able to create a comic strip with such ease. I was also able to save my comic strip for the future.
Pixton (www.pixton.com)
Pixton is a little bit more complex which I should have noticed right off the bat since a popup screen informs users of a handy tutorial. The first thing that I did notice (and didn't like) was that there aren't too many options as far as characters are concerned. Users need to choose a background first and then they can choose characters. Each setting is limited to specific characters. What I did like, however, was the different options for manipulating the characters and how you could easily flip the position of the character to either face or turn away from the other character in the same square. Each character also came with its own conversation bubble which sort of made it easy to just type in the conversation, but it also limited how the conversation bubble could do or how much text could be added into the conversation bubble. Just like ToonDoo, Pixton allows users to save their comic strips.
MakeBeliefsComix! (www.makebeliefscomix.com)
To be honest, I did not like MakeBeliefsComix too much. Their site seemed a little scattered and cluttered. I like organization and proper positioning of elements which this site lacked, in my opinion. Instead of a direct menu for backgrounds and characters, users need to click on a specific button. If users choose "backgrounds", then there is a tiny screen that they can scroll through to look at the different available options. I found that this complicated the process of creating a simple comic strip.
Another down side is that the site does not allow users to save their comics online, so you cannot go back and edit them. You can, however, save what you have created directly onto you computer.
Also, take some time to visit the following link. It provides suggestions on different ways to implement comics in the classroom.
http://www.makebeliefscomix.com/How-to-Play/Educators/
Crystal,
ReplyDeleteI also liked the fact that both ToonDoo and Pixton allow you to save your comics, as for Make Beliefs, they must print or e-mail it to themselves. All of our students in our district have an e-mail account set up through the district, we're lucky in that sense.
Nice use of SAT vocabulary!
The suggestions are good, but I bet you can already figure out how to apply this to a learning experience for your students! It doesn't seem like enough of a draw compared to the difficulties in using it for you.
ReplyDeleteI really liked ToonDoo. I'm like you and I like organization on the screen. If it seems to cluttered, it makes me not want to use the site. MakeBeliefsComix did seem too cluttered.
ReplyDeleteYour use of comic strips to explain vocabulary is brilliant. Students will enjoy seeing the pictures and the vocab may just stick because of that. Yet another idea I'll be sharing with my writing team.
ReplyDelete