Using Technology as an Educational Tool: Using Clip Art Comics for Writing
In response to the growing interest in photonovels as an empowering educational tool, Barry Barkin has created a new website at www.photonovela.com
The goal of this site is to have a place where user created photonovels can be shared and disseminated more widely...
Barry's students have often benefited from creating single panel "clip art comics" using PowerPoint or Word. The "insert/picture/Autoshapes" menu item gives you a choice of "speech balloons" that can be used in the same way as the photonovela software mentioned. The students create single panel comics of topics of interest to them using language they're learning in class. Interested teachers could also direct the students to create their single panel comic about a particular topic such as health education. You can view a few finished student projects at this link, or http://esl.adultinstruction.org/ClipArtComics.htm
Barry also experimented with creating photo stories using other people's photos at flickr using an application called Bubblr which allows users to add speech balloons to any picture found on flickr, but stopped doing that when flickr was blocked from school district computers. You can experiment with Bubblr at http://www.pimpampum.net/bubblr/
Barry Bakin Pacoima Skills Center Division of Adult and Career Education Los Angeles Unified School District