Comics in Education

Symeon Retalis & Marianthi Vassilikopoulou UNIVERSITY OF PIRAEUS Department of Digital Systems CoSy-LLab [ http://cosy.ds.unipi.gr ] {retal@unipi.gr} Petros Georgiakakis, Michalis Boloudakis ITisART [ http://www.itisart.com.gr ] {petros@itisart.com.gr, michalis@itisart.com.gr} Comics in Education

Scope of this workshop
During this tutorial we will discuss about the new medium of Web comics.
We will demonstrate tools which allow a creator easily compose his/her web comics creations and publish them online.
Some standalone tools (freeware or proprietary) for Macintosh and/or MS Windows operating systems will also be shown. Among the tools that will be demonstrated will be the Comic Book Creator, the Comic Life and the Garfield Comic Creator.
We will also present our own online tool for creating online comics strips, called the ComicStripCreator [http://www.comicstripcreator.org/]
Moreover, the attendees will have the opportunity to express their opinions, make suggestions about the current state of the art of these tools as well as propose new features.

Lets see what we will see …
About Comics
Definitions
History of comics
Strengths of comics
Digital comics- web comics
Comics in Education
Authoring Tools for Web Comics
Digital Comic Book Readers
Educational Comic Book Tools
Web Comic Strip Creators
Web Comic Book Creators
Web comic creator
An Innovative Tool
Topics for discussion

What are comic books?
“ A comic book or comicbook is a magazine or book containing sequential art in the form of a narrative. Comic books are often called comics for short. Although the term implies otherwise, the subject matter in comic books is not necessarily humorous, and in fact its dramatic seriousness varies widely.”
- Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia

Scott McCloud, Understanding Comics

Comic Strips

Graphic Novels
Comic book longer in format than the usual “pamphlet,” and typically contains a complete story unto itself.
Examples are: Bone or Fashion Kitty

Manga ...
The Japanese view of the world in Comics.
Different from the American view
Content : NUDITY and VIOLENCE
Source: “Mang-huh? Comics in your library”presentated by Cathy Kyle, Parma Public Library

Educational Comic Books!
Kids can learn about history, maths, etc. and have fun doing it

Comic Books are wildly popular!
From 2001-2006, comic books have grown from a $75 million to a $330 million industry
Movies and novels are now being made into comic books specifically aimed at children
Many popular writers, musicians and creative designers are working with comics.
Google Chrome presented by Scott McCloud.

History Of Comics In Education (1/2)
From the early 40 ’ s many educators in USA such as W. W. D. Sones (1944) and others conducted a series of studies on using comic books in education, providing data for its usefulness
Comics-supported curriculum appeared, while the Journal of Educational Sociology devoted the 1944's Volume 18, Issue 4 to the topic
Others regarded comics harmful ( F. Wertham, 1954) for literacy and e v entually the impetus of pro - comics educators stopped
In the 1970's teachers dared to use comic books again such as R. W. Campbell, R. Schoof (Koenke, 1981), B. Brocka (1979)

History Of Comics In Education (2/2)
The milestone was set in 1992, when Art Spiegelman's comic book "Maus" about Holocaust experience won a Pulitzer Prize (Sturm, 2001)
English professor R. Versaci (2001), Physics professor J. Kakalios (2002), N. Williams of the American Language Institute of New York University (1995) use comic books in their classes
Today, educators at all levels are designing new ways of teaching through comics
E stablishment of both undergraduate and graduate programs in American universities
L ibrarians in the new millennium find comic books useful in luring teenagers away from their televisions and video games (Bacon, 2002)

Strengths Of Comics ( 1 /2)
a) Motivating . Due to human’s natural attraction to pictures, comics can capture and maintain the learner’s interest;
b) Visual. Pictures and text mutually tell a story. This "interplay of the written and visual" comics "put a human face on a given subject" -> emotional connection between user and characters of a comic’s story, Versaci (2001)
c) Permanent . “Visual permanence" is unique to comics, while time …progresses at the pace of a reader, in contrast to film and animation Williams (1995). Text medium is permanent but not "pictorial

Strengths Of Comics ( 2 /2)
d) Intermediary . Scaffold to difficult disciplines and concepts, give reluctant readers the non-threatening practice and to experienced ones inspiration and confidence
e) Popular . " there should be harmony between the user's on-going life activities and his experiences in the school " Hutchinson (1949)
Comic books promote media literacy, encouraging students to "become critical consumers of media messages" (Morrison, Bryan, & Chilcoat, 2002).
In social aspects students may examine "contemporary lifestyles, myths, and values" (Brocka, 1979)
f) Development o f thinking skills : Analytical and critical thinking skills can be developed, uncovering the deeper meaning of a work and offering a profound insight.

Digital Comics- Web Comics
Computer technology has drastically changed teaching. All media such as text, picture, video, sound can be easily created, reproduced and ported
Web comics can be a vital tool for a digital future integrating
imagery from photography and video featuring audio soundtracks, animation,
interactivity

Comics In Education
Berkowitz & Packer (2001) believe that can be used in a variety of teaching and training settings
They employ a language that apparently is almost universally understood (Sones, 1944)
Their use in education is based on the Clark’s & Paivio’s (1991) dual coding theory:
recall/recognition is enhanced by presenting information in both visual and verbal form
Mayer and Moreno ( 1998, 2002) suggested teaching through computers, presenting simultaneously narration and cartoons
A new challenge: digitised comics and digital hypermedia comic books or web comics

Greek & European Committee Publications
"Adventures of Asterix" in ancient Greek language (Mamuthcomics), Syntax of ancient Greek in comics ( Δίαυλος , 2004), Aristophanes’ comedies, or Sophocles’ tragedies in comic format ( Metaihmio ), Greek mythology etc.
European Committee published some series of comics in all official languages of European Union (E.U.),
to inform students about the E.U. " The war of berry ice cream "
to fight against discriminations and racism. " Me the Racist "

Creating a Comic Book Source: “ L'atelier de la bande dessinée avec Hergé ”

Digital Comic Book Viewers/Readers
In order to archive scanned - digitised comic books new compressed file types came up for comics. The well-known .cbr (for rar archives) and .cbz (for zip archives). These archives are nothing more than a compressed list of scanned images.
Digital Comic Viewers are used to open and navigate through these digital comics
Source: Comical - http://comical.sourceforge.net/index.php?id=4

Comic Strip Creators
Comic strip creators allow the design of sort web comic strips by importing pictures and dialogues.
Garfield Comic Strip Creator (http://www.garfield.com/fungames/comiccreator.html)
Cosy Comic Strip Creator
(http://www.comicstripcreator.org)

Viewers of educational comic books, ΚΑΒΑΜ by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention U.S.A. (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services) which presents stories with dialogues and asks the student to express their opinion
Tools for self-assessment, such as the Concept Cartoons, http://www.conceptcartoons.com designed to provoke discussion and stimulate scientific thinking. Children are asked to answer a multiple-choice test in form of unfinished dialogues among the cartoon characters.
Comic Creators as Educational Tools

Comic Book Creators
Comic creators allow the design of digitised comic books by importing pictures and dialogues and by giving the potential of storage, management, sharing the produced material.
Comic Book Creator http://www.mycomicbookcreator.com
Comic Life
http://plasq.com/comiclife

Comic Book Creator Source: PlanetWide - http://www.mycomicbookcreator.com

Comic Life Source: Plasq - http://plasq.com/comiclife

Communities for Comic Creators
Communities such as Hyper Comics (http://www.hypercomics.com/) and Comic Life (http://plasq.com/) exist where developers & comic artists discuss and exchange opinions.

Comic Creator Tools Function Review Comic Creator by Garfield Comic Book Creator by Planetwide Games Inc Comic Life by Plasq Web Comic Book Creator User Friendly Environment ( drag and drop )     Transform Functions ( Move - Resize - Flip )     Save Function     Edit Function     Export Function     Import Function     Print Function     Content Packages     Free Transform Page Layout     Multimedia Enrichment with Sound and Video     Exporting to File-types  Pdf ,images, online flipping book Images , avi , html Images, pdf, online / offline flipping book Community for Online Support    

Comic Creator Tools Function Review Comic Creator by Garfield Comic Book Creator by Planetwide Games Inc Comic Life by Plasq Web Comic Book Creator User Friendly Environment ( drag and drop )     Transform Functions ( Move - Resize - Flip )     Save Function     Edit Function     Export Function  Pdf ,images, online flipping book   Import Function     Print Function     Content Packages     Free Transform Page Layout     Multimedia Enrichment with Sound and Video     Community for Online Support    

Comic Creator Tools Function Review Comic Creator by Garfield Comic Book Creator by Planetwide Games Inc Comic Life by Plasq Web Comic Book Creator User Friendly Environment ( drag and drop )     Transform Functions ( Move - Resize - Flip )     Save Function     Edit Function     Export Function  Pdf ,images, online flipping book Images , avi , html  Import Function     Print Function     Content Packages     Free Transform Page Layout     Multimedia Enrichment with Sound and Video     Community for Online Support    

Comic Creator Tools Function Review Comic Creator by Garfield Comic Book Creator by Planetwide Games Inc Comic Life by Plasq ComicLab User Friendly Environment ( drag and drop )     Transform Functions ( Move - Resize - Flip )     Save Function     Edit Function     Export Function  Pdf ,images, online flipping book Images , avi , html Images, pdf, online/standalone flipping book,html Import Function     Print Function     Content Packages     Free Transform Page Layout     Multimedia Enrichment with Sound and Video     Community for Online Support    

ComicLab An Innovative Tool Source: ITisART.Ltd - http://www.webcomicbookcreator.com

Awards
YALSA’s Great Graphic Novels List
www.ala.org/ala/yalsa/booklistsawards/greatgraphicnovelsforteens/nominations.htm
Eisner Awards
www.comic-con.org/cci/cci_eisners_main.shtml
Harvey Awards
www.harveyawards.org
Comic Book Awards Almanac
http://users.rcn.com/aardy/comics/awards

Events
Free comic book day ( next event will be on May 2, 2009 ) www.freecomicbookday.com
Free Comic Book Day is a single day when participating comic book shops across North America and around the world give away comic books absolutely free* to anyone who comes into their stores
Comics conventions
comic-con: The biggest convention on Comics. www.comic-con.org
CAPE (Comic and Pop-culture Expo) is a completely free 3-day event http://www.capeday.com/

According to ‘The Secret Origin of Good Readers’ Reading comic books may help to:
Develop an increased interest in reading.
Increase literacy in the broad sense of the word.
Develop language skills and a rich and varied vocabulary.
Foster interest in a variety of literary genres.
Foster interest in a broad range of topics.
Stimulate a creative imagination.
Develop an appreciation of art.
Develop the ability to discuss and critique art and writing.
Increase understanding of how meaning is found in visual phenomena.
Enhance understanding of popular culture
Source: Graphic Novels for Kids, Tweens and Teens presented by Julie Bartel, Utah

Topics for discussion
Web comics are here to stay or not?
New functionality for web comics authoring tools?
User perspectives…

References
Berkowitz Jay; Packer Todd Heroes in the Classroom: Comic Books in Art Education Art Education, Vol. 54, No. 6, Learning to Draw. (Nov., 2001), pp. 12-18.
Brocka, B. (1979). Comic books: In case you haven't noticed, they've changed. Media and Methods, 15 (9), pp. 30-32.
CAPE (Comic and Pop-culture Expo) - http://www.capeday.com Accessed 2-9-08
Cathy Kyle, Parma Public Library “Mang-huh? Comics in your library”
Clark, J. M. & Paivio, A. (1991). Dual coding theory and education. Educational Psychology Review, 3(3), pp. 149-170.
Comic Book Creator - http://www.mycomicbookcreator.com/ Accessed 15-2-07
Comic Book Awards Almanac - http://users.rcn.com/aardy/comics/awards
Comical - http://comical.sourceforge.net/ Accessed 15-2-07
Comic-con - www.comic-con.org Accessed 2-9-08
Comic Life (http://plasq.com) Accessed 15-2-07
Comic Life Education Co m munity http://plasq.com/component/option,com_joomlaboard/Itemid, 55/func,showcat/catid,11/ Accessed 15-2-07
Concept Cartoon - http://www.conceptcartoons.com. Accessed 15-2-07

References
Eisner, W. (1995) Graphic storytelling. Tamarac, FL: Poorhouse Press.
Free comic book day - www.freecomicbookday.com Accessed 2-9-08
Graphic Novels for Kids, Tweens and Teens presented by Julie Bartel, Utah
Google Chrome - http://www.google.com/chrome/intl/el/features.html?hl=el&brand=CHMG&utm_source=el-hpp&utm_medium=hpp&utm_campaign=el Accessed 2-9-08
Harvey Awards - www.harveyawards.org Accessed 2-9-08
Hergé, L'atelier de la bande dessinée
Hutchinson, K. (1949) An experiment in the use of comics as instructional material. Journal of Educational Sociology, 23, pp. 236-245.
Garfield Comic Creator - http://www.garfield.com/fungames/comiccreator.html Accessed 15-2-07
ΚΑΒΑΜ! Comic Creator - http://www.bam.gov/sub_yourlife/yourlife_comiccreator.html# (U.S. Department of Health & Human Services) Accessed 15-2-07.
Kakalios, J. (2002, October). Adding Pow! to your physics class with comic-book lessons. Curriculum Review, 14-15.
Mayer, R. E. & Moreno, R. (1998). A split-attention effect in multimedia learning: Evidence for dual processing systems in working memory. Journal of Educational Psychology, 90, 312-320.

References
McCloud Scott (1993). Understanding comics, Northampton MA Kitchen Sink Press Inc p.9, pp. 64-69
McCloud Scott (2000). Reinventing Comics, New York: HarperCollins Publishers Inc.
McCloud Scott (2006). Making Comics, Northampton MA Kitchen Sink Press Inc.
Morrison, T., Bryan, G., & Chilcoat, G. (2002). Using student-generated comic books in the classroom. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 45, pp. 758-767.
Sones, W. (1944). The Comics and Instructional Method. Journal of Educational Sociology, 18, pp. 232-240.
Sturm, James. (2002, April 5). Comics in the classroom. The Chronicle of Higher Education, pp. B14-5.
Versaci, R.(November, 2001). How Comic Books Can Change the Way Our Students See Literature: One Teacher's Perspective English Journal, Volume 91, Number 2, pp.61-67
Williams, N. (1995). The comic book as course book: why and how. Long Beach, CA: Annual Meeting of the Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service)
Yang Gene -Comics in Education 2003 online version of the final project proposal for Masters of Education degree of the author at California State University at Hayward. www.humblecomics.com/comicsedu/index.html. Accessed 15-2-07

http:// www.educomics.org ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This work has been partially funded by Life Long Learning Comenius project EduComics Project ( www.educomics.org ) (ref num 142424-2008-GR-COMENIUS-CMP). http://www.webcomicbookcreator.com

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Comics in Education

by EduComics Project on Mar 10, 2010

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