Pixton

Pixton Click the photo above to visit the site Photo courtesy of [|http://www.appsheriff.com/] **Introduction:** Pixton.com is a comic creation site that allows users to design, edit, and publish their own comic strips. Additionally, they have a school-based portion of their site that caters to classroom use. Teachers can create a group for their classes -- up to fifty students in size -- and control what their students are able to use within the site. For example, all body parts can be enlarged on the comic strip, but a teacher can control exactly which body parts students can and cannot manipulate. Additionally, the users can edit their comic strips and those of other classmates if allowed by the teacher. Therefore, a class can create a comic together while all sitting around their own individual computer. Users can manipulate background, characters, types of speech bubbles and -- obviously -- what is being said, thought or heard by each character. **Classroom Use:** This site is addicting and shockingly engaging. My family and I sat around for an hour creating different comics to share with one another. A use can manipulate just about anything he or she desires using pre-made characters and saving them as their own creations. In a classroom, this would be an incredible tool for students. Students who typically drift away during class time will be engaged throughout the entire block with this tool. While it is certainly fun, it can also be academic. Kids are challenged to experiment with character creation, plot development, and dialogue. Additionally, students can share their comics with the entire class and open their creations up for editing. This would be another way to incorporate revision into the curriculum. Moreover, students who typically receive poor critiques on their writing will have a different outlet to express themselves. They can learn about literacy through their visual interpretations of story telling. I also think it would be interesting for students to use this tool as an assessment piece. I would like to give students a difficult piece of text and use a comic strip to interpret its meaning. For example, Romeo and Juliet is a difficult text for a class of freshmen students. While they might lack engagement in the traditional pen and paper interpretations, students would be eager to understand the text and interpret it in a visual, even humorous way. Unfortunately, the site is not free. There is a fee for teachers to use Pixton in their classrooms, but there is a free thirty day trial available. I started a trial this week and plan on experimenting with it during the first week of school this year. If students enjoy it, it could be worth asking my curriculum leader for the funds -- so far, so good. To access the site, you can click on the picture at the top of the page or go to [|www.pixton.com]. Nina Rygiol

Nina, I think that Pixton is an awesome site. I think students would love to get the chance to make comics in the classroom because it gives them the ability to think creatively. However, because Pixton is a subscription site I think that it would be difficult to use in classrooms. Most schools would not want to pay money for a site for comic strips because they would think somone can make a comic strip in class. I do believe that if the program was free it would be a great tool to incorporate into the classroom because it makes the students think creatively. -Josh Boyd- Josh, I agree with you about the subscription; however, it is pretty cheap. All of my students can join Pixton for an entire year for $120. While this adds up quickly if a larger group of teachers wants to use it, it is still relativity low. Additionally, most schools have comic software (software that they pay for) that is not as good as Pixton. I have never used the comic creation tools in our district because they are limited and confusing. It would not be worth the time to teach it. I'm hoping my curriculum leader will switch this year to make the comics more accessible. Nina