Make Beliefs Comix https://www.makebeliefscomix.com/
Pros
- Easy to use, create, can share, print, edit and email
- Has lesson plans you can put into place in your library
- You can make such items as greeting cards on the site
- Has ideas for how special needs students could utilize comics
- Saved as a PDF easily
- Easy for kids to use
- Has a parent section as well!
Cons
- Limited amount of characters, backgrounds, etc. you can add and not a lot of variety
- Can’t enlarge text box
- Simplistic images
Toon Doo www.toondoo.com
Pros
- There are variety of horizontal and vertical layouts
- Spanish options
- You can enlarge text box
- Lots of options for images - shrink, clone, etc.
- You can write in the boxes and color them in
- Upload pics from computer can be uploaded for background
- You can make the pic you took of a person look like a cartoon
- Easy to create
Cons
- Young kids may find it overwhelming, but older ones would love it
- Took me a while to find out how to save the image
Pixton https://edu.pixton.com/
Pros
- Has more of a professional, almost Google type of feel
- Scenes are colorful and engaging
- Kids would like being able to build and customize their own avatar, which would be entertaining for them
- You can add assignments/comics as a class
Cons
- You are locked into a certain scene at the beginning in the free version, so there isn't much creativity.
- You can't seem to move the figure around once you add it to a scene, besides changing the pose
- Not a lot is free
- It took a little bit of time to understand how to save it
My Choice : If more of Pixton was free, I would have that one as my top choice. It would still be fun to play around with. Since it is not, I would pick ToonDo to use the most in my library with my students. I think that Make Belief Comix is great, but the graphics would cater more to the younger grades.
If I was explaining it to my faculty, I would be sure and talk about how it can continue to build on student success and be integrated into what they are already doing in the curriculum. I would mention such activities as these from the Make Beliefs Comix website :
* Summaries
* Autobiographies
* Vocab words
* Digital citizenship
* Social Skills
* Help for ESL students
* Creative writing
I would finish the presentation of by showing the teachers some student examples of the comics!
Here is the link to the Tellagami I made. It was a bit hard to get the app since the creators said it has not been updated to the latest version of iOS, but I found a device I had that already had it loaded!
I agree with your critique. I really enjoyed using Pixton, but there was not a big selection of backgrounds, characters, etc. to work with for free. ToonDoo had a ton of different options that anyone can access, which makes it the best value for the cost. It did take me awhile to find out how to save my comic on ToonDoo, as well. I just kept clicking until I found it! ;-)
ReplyDeleteCreate cartoons! I like that you used dinosaurs in the last one. Making bullet points for pros and cons is a great way for readers to help them pick a program.
ReplyDeleteI too liked your bullet list for pros and cons. It’s easy to get a quick glimpse at each option. You pointed out some features of ToonDoo that I overlooked. I didn’t notice the Spanish option or that you could change a persons’s photo into a cartoon. I’ll need to play around with ToonDoo some more. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteI agree with your assessment of Pixton. I was disappointed that it was expensive to unlock all the features because of the three reviewed this one is specifically geared for teachers and classrooms.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the bulleted list of pros and cons of each comics site. For some one who is new to creating comics, this would be an excellent tool to read and apply to which comic my students would be able to use successfully and purposefully. Great job on a thorough and detailed blog post!
ReplyDelete