Pixton: Do-It-Yourself Comics

Brianne Brewer, Manager of Edu4U, Dell's online Primary/Secondary education community, recently invited Clive to blog about comics in the classroom. What are your thoughts on using comics and social media in the classroom?

Read the article here</a>.

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Yesterday I presented Pixton to another class-full - this time, to Art Direction students at the Vancouver Film School, one of the world's best schools for production, animation, and game design. This was the last class before graduation and we all had fun making Pixton comics. The students had plenty of excellent questions and suggestions. Many thanks to the instructor, Maria Kennedy, for inviting me to come in and talk!

~ Clive

Here is a funny comic made by one of the students:

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Last week we were contacted by Aaron, a Bachelor of Education student at the University of British Columbia. He and his classmates were doing a project on technology in the classroom, and they had selected Pixton as the subject for their presentation. Was I available to come in and talk about the website? Absolutely!

I happily went to UBC on Friday afternoon and showed the class of about 30 B.Ed. students how to use Pixton and Pixton for Schools, and we discussed the applications of comics in education. It was fun! Thanks to Aaron, Jens, Jordan, and Gabriel for giving me the opportunity to spread the good word.

~ Clive

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Knowledge Essentials founder Amy James recently did a segment on Pixton and how comic strips have been teachers' "secret weapon" for many years on CBS News affiliate News 9 in Oklahoma City.

"A comic strip contains a setting, characters, a plot (if it's a serial comic), it has all the grammar and spelling elements of a regular writing assignment, and many kids find it so much more interesting that every teacher in every grade level uses a form of a comic to reinforce these skills," said Amy James. "It reinforces all of the State Learning Standards at every single level of your child's education, so it's a really important tool."

Students have so much fun with comics that they don't even notice their learning.

"Pixton is very user-friendly, designed in a safe way for kids... it's a nice, easy, fun way to reinforce all of these language arts skills," said James. "It is a fun way and different way that might engage children that are not strong readers."

To watch the News 9 segment click here.

The News 9 Family Wiki is also available for you and your family to use. You can even add to Pixton's section too! Check it out here.

Amy James is a third generation educator, tenured school-teacher and founder of Six Things, a company that analyzes textbooks and other educational materials for the very best educational publishers. Amy analyzes state assessments and works with state departments of education to ensure that their learning and performance standards are compliant with federal requirements. She is also the local CBS affliate education expert.

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