Category: Comics

Google Drawings Hack -- Comic Strips

3/13/2017

Credit for this idea/hack again goes out to Matt Miller and his "Meaningful Tech Workshop".

Google Drawing Hack -- Photo Comic Strips
Matt says, "Take photos of students using a webcam and add them to a Google Drawing. Add speech bubbles to the photos. Then save those images and add each one to a different slide in a Google Slides presentation."
I would add that you could start with an online photo and Google Drawings search makes it easy to find photos for use in projects!

To get started click here (drawings.google.com/create)

Simply click on the photo icon or choose Insert - image.
Then choose "search" - this will search for photos that are free to use (no worries about copyright). If you were using your own photo - you would choose "upload".
To make it into a comic - add speech or thought bubbles.
You can make as many or as little comic frames as you like -- you can see an example of one I made with four frames below.

In order to make it more of a frame look - I added the outline. To do this make sure that your photo is selected.

You can see the blue around the photo - showing it is selected.
Click on the line weight icon (see photo) and choose the desired weight (or thickness) of the line. In the example above, 1px was used.

Another tip-
You can change the size of your page!

I love Google Drawings more and more - with each awesome hack/idea that I find! It is a very under used tool, in my opinion.
Now you have one more way to put it to use!
And here's a resource to check out for more information and ideas:
Comics with Google Tools & Creativity Games

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A Little Comix Relief

12/12/2016

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My favorite part of the Sunday newspaper has always been the comics/cartoons. It seems like so much can be communicated in such a simple medium.

One of my favorite comix creators is Make Beliefs Comix -- take a closer look below.

Make Beliefs Comix

Make Beliefs Comix is available online or as a free iPad app. It is easy to use and fun! Choose the number of frames (2-4), backgrounds, writing prompts, characters and more! It even supports seven languages: English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, & Latin!

When finished, the site offers the ability to print, save, or email the finished product. Make Beliefs does NOT store the comix! You also do not need an account --which means no signup or login required!

Educators Info -- 25 Ways to Use
Lesson Plans

Free Technology for Teachers (www.freetech4teachers.com) also suggests the following browser-based tools for creating comix strips.
Comic Master
Witty Comics
Write Comics
Pixton
Storyboard That

Some tools require accounts and others do not. As always evaluate which is best for your class and age of students.

Ideas for Using in the Classroom

Richard Byrne highlights 10 Ideas for Using Comics in Your Classroom. You can read his post in full here.
1. A fun alternative to traditional book reports.
2. Create biographies.
3. Create autobiographies.
4. Create goal or vision boards.
5. Illustrate procedures.
6. Summarize events
7. Craft a visual timeline of events.
8. Write & illustrate fun fictional stories.
9. Illustrate concepts & or vobabulary terms.
10. Model polite converstations.

What other ideas do you have to add a little comix relief?

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Google Drawings Hack -- Comic Strips

A Little Comix Relief

Make Beliefs Comix

Ideas for Using in the Classroom

Ed Tech Tools

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