Comic Life

For a few reasons, I think the best application of this program is for me, as the teacher, to create a unique presentation for my students. Let's say we're having a unit on the industrial revolution and I want the students to learn about Henry Frick (I'm deliberately not choosing someone a little more prominent because there are actually Washington, Lincoln, and even Carnegie comics out there). This would be a good way to visualize his story, helping students who learn better visually, and presenting the information in a more action-oriented, exciting manner.

I found as I was creating my comic that I was forced into coming up with captions and emphasis on the points I wanted to get across, boiling it down to the important information. I like that this altered the way I thought about the information and perhaps could be used to present information to students who have a hard time learning through reading or lectures. I am a terrible drawer, and I was able to create a two page comic in a relatively short amount of time. The most difficult part was finding the images I needed, but if you found the right one, it was easy to create the illusion that it was drawn. Because I am not a comic artist, but appreciate the medium, this is a superior way to get across information in that manner. 

Another obvious use would be to assign students to create their own historical biography. I'm open to the concept, but I think it probably wouldn't be as good. I really liked the user interface once I got used to it, but I think the learning curve for high school students, plus the temptation to get distracted with minor features, may make this project a poor use of classroom time. Since it is not a web-based program and you have to pay for it once the trial expires, it would be difficult to assign as homework, too. I think I would, however, present it as an option for a historical biography project to help those who would be better motivated by using this software. I think this is the kind of software that is useful to the right type of person, but a time sink to those who are not interested.

Here's a sample comic I made!