Comic Life and Digital Stories
Yesterday I heard a podcast where the speaker discussed an application for the Mac that allows users to make comic strips from their photos. While listening I really didn't understand the "irrational exuberance" about this product. After all, putting bubbles on pictures doesn't sound like a technical feat worthy of a new software purchase, does it? The software is called "Comic Life" and is sold by a company called Plasq.
I downloaded the free trial and tried it out. I really enjoyed it. The interface was simple and dare I say "engaging". It tied in nicely with the iPhoto suite and I was able to quickly create a little comic about our group.
Made with Comic Life
When Matt Fidler was here as an educator in residence, he taught a lot of people about using digital stories as an engaging way to teach history. When he was here we used iMovie and iPhoto's tight integration as a platform to allow students to narrate a story.
Comic Life has a similar type of integration with iPhoto. The raw material for your comic comes from the iPhoto Library and the app can export your completed work back to iPhoto. A compelling user story may be to:
- engage a student with a series of images
- ask them to create a comic as a way to organize their thoughts and prompt their narration
- export the resulting comics back to iPhoto
- use iMovie to quicky put the comic sections in sequence and add a track for their own narration
I see the comic writing activity as another "script writing" tool like Inspiration, but serving a slightly different type of learner.