Generally, to make learning more fun, I use some small comedies or very short stories in correlation with the concept, when the similarity or the analogy permits. It gives a great success to make students happy, focus, love the course, be relaxed from their internal stress, etc.
However, we must be vigilant, we risk to lost control, especially with some students who go far away. We must keep a discreet watch on their reactions or behaviors instantaneously. It’s very hard, it makes me very tired, but very successful.
Yes, it is a good idea to use them if you can get hold of them. Sometimes I use Dilbert and other comic strips in between the lecture slides to reinforce the concept. Here is an example for product safety comic art.
Dear Noureddine
To teach is not to transfer knowledge but to create the possibilities for their own production or construction. (Paulo Freire)
Jokes with scientific content require some prior knowledge to be understood.
The use of humor in teaching tools ends up generating greater involvement of students in relation to the content being taught by the teacher. With the right dosage of humor in the classroom is perceived that students awaken and show a lot of interest, especially if that something different is fun and still associated with them everyday
Yes, it is a good idea to use them if you can get hold of them. Sometimes I use Dilbert and other comic strips in between the lecture slides to reinforce the concept. Here is an example for product safety comic art.
I do. When I formulate illustrative problems in statistics, research, mathematics, and other subjects, I use comic characters. In discussing velocity and acceleration, I use as subject, Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman. When I explain business statistics, my businesspersons are Captain Barbel, Kenkoy, Darna (local comic characters). These are a few of what I do.
Thank you very much for all.
It will encourage me to develop this technique in classroom.
I wish you excellent enhancement. and progress in your work .
Comic caricatures have a powerful influence as a attention seek during the lecture sessions, it avoid monotony and registers in the mind of students.... however this demands specialist attention by the teacher while preparing the presentation materials.
As a faculty member of an university i do not like to use comic art for university teaching. But this teaching system (comic) is much more essential for primary level education. Because comic teaching gives them pleasure but it should cover your relevant topic.
Yes I agree with positive aspects relating to using humour in class but it is difficult- a delicate balance as you say, However, I think the use of comic art points to something even more interesting in teaching which is the usual visual/verbal debate- does a picture tell a thousand words sometimes? And does comic art do both- tell a thousand words and make students feel more relaxed? Interesting...
I use comic examples to illustrate points in accounting and MIS courses. The most outlandish examples that I use seem to be the ones that students recall the best.
I have created assignments to complete using GoAnimate, an online text-to-speech animation software. GoAnimate has an LMS-style classroom shell to protect students' privacy. Powtoons also has a classroom shell, but it is not as robust.
Here are the instructions that I posted for a student introduction video http://vimeo.com/72795866.
Here are two samples that I created for my students. http://vimeo.com/72795867 and http://vimeo.com/72795868.
Although I cannot show you students' videos because of privacy issues, I can share that my students revealed much more about themselves in these videos than they ever have in a similar assignment using discussion boards or in class.
I also took a boring written homework assignment and required student to produce a two-minute GoAnimate video using two characters to discuss the issues in the question.
You can also use this medium to create instructional videos. Here is one that I made using Xtranormal http://vimeo.com/61119297. Unfortunately, XN is no longer in business. There are other text-to-speech web sites and desktop applications. I can post my PowerPoint presentation on this topic if you want to see it.
I forgot one thing about the student homework videos. Many students exercised a lot of creativity and had fun with it while others merely recited a written response and did not like the assignment.
John, I love their stuff. Also, their marketing approach would likely make for a good discussion in a marketing course.
This is a topic close to my heart - as a newly qualified chemistry teacher a long time ago now I devised some chemical element superheroes - carbon the oxygen grabber, Al the powerful reducing agent and envisaged the burning of a hydrocarbon molecule from wax as an attack of oxygen atoms on the molecule akin to the X wing fighter attack on the Death Star in Star Wars - shows how long ago this was. The Nuffield Coordinated Sciences Chemistry Book published by Longman in 1988 included some very good comic strips involving balancing an equation (page 18/19), students talking about structure and properties imagining what the atomic world was like (pages 136/7) polymers and how they might have been discovered (pages 150/151) understanding electrolysis (pages 308-310). I'm biased of course as I had a hand in writing them. But worth a look I think if you can find a copy of the book.
Warriors of the Internet is a fantastic animated video about how the internet works. Even though it is 14 years old, the concepts are still spot on.
Dear sir,
I do use the skills by using the nature and styles of the students and their habits for giving examples of the subject which i teach in that class. Because of this habit all students carefully listen what i am telling and this help me to get their attention towards me. Because of this habit repairing of students bad habit happens.
Please try and let me know. All the best
Thank you
I thought I'd share an avatar video with you that I prepared for alleviating some of the boredom of hearing me talk in our online class.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubDDCSrI-eA
It's not exactly comedy, but definitely a different way to get their attention. Check it out.
Thanks.
Hello,
do you use any comics based on classic literature? Any idea if there are comics about ancient Greece, India, Egypt?
Thank you!
Barbara,
Nice video. What are you currently using for your animations now that Xtranormal is no longer in business?
I saved the videos I created in Xtranormal to YouTube, so I can continue to use them. I haven't found anything to take its place yet, but I'm trying out several other sites, but they are more complicated than Xtranormal. In the meantime, I've used Voki (mainly as a reminder to students to complete their course evaluations; I create a freaky picture and have the character say that this is what I look like, when they haven't completed their evaluations). Animoto also is an option, but it doesn't do the same thing.
Http://birdandmoon.com/
https://www.xkcd.com/
http://phdcomics.com/comics.php
Georg,
I can identify with the cartoon on the third webpage you shared. How many times have I sat at my desk all week, working diligently, only to wonder, at the end of the week, what I can cross off of my to do list, realizing that I've finished nothing! That IS the life of researchers. Thanks for sharing that.
Barbara
Some comic arts and flash videos can you build in the lessons. You can find funny pictures witch have good connection to the part of the learning material and in the lessons help to get the attention of the snoozy students...
Yes, I use cartoons and videos . Even Dilbert series is also good. It helps in connecting with young audience !
I do, quite often. There is this funny page you may already know:
http://www.sciencecartoonsplus.com/index.php
Youth are very prone to cartoons. It is highly valuable mean to the road to science.
Yes I do sometimes to give a topical focus. Obviously it is very important to be aware of copyright restrictions. I have a good friend who is a cartoonist and I know how often work can be exploited.
Yes. I use cartoon when I conduct statistics short courses for post-graduates, and I use cartoons in my research books as well (I draw the content-based cartoons on my own, and some readers told me that the cartoons help them understand more on the contents, and this is a very effective way of teaching through reading.
I can't say I have used comics but I don't see the problem if it serves didactical purposes. If you loose the students, it may be because the comic does rather lure them away than bring it on the point. I mean learning is not only repeating things but making students to think of an argument, proof or method as if they would in a way find/formulate it by themselves (at least that is what I try to feel studying rather dry but nevertheless genial contributions in my field). Actually, just came across a marvelous use of a comic for explaining a rather complicated theory, i.e. Marx theory of relational exploitation within capitalist societies. I don't know whether that fits the point of the discussion but maybe I'ld just like to share what I feel is a marvelous use of a comic in social sciences:
http://www.ssc.wisc.edu/~wright/Published%20writing/Class-Counts-chapter-1.pdf
Yes, I frequently use it specially in between the long standing classes. It is always effective in my class when students are tired and exhousted specially at the last hour of the day.
Yes, sometimes I use some comic art in my teaching especially in correlation with the concept.
I teach thermal engineering subjects. I use many practical examples. While engaging boiling heat transfer, I take the processes we have in the kitchen. Examples are as given below:
1) I correlate the hot plates used in preparation of a dosa and Leidenfrost phenomenon;
2) Why milk made to boil in a vessel with a long spoon inside does not form and overflow;
3) How a specular reflection of light (radiation) can be used to measure low electric resistance with a Kelvin bridge; and so on.
I keep one thing in my mind that I should not over shoot with time allotments.
Dr.S.Ravindran
In the nursing area there are several appropriatesources of graphics for disease states such as diabetes that put the salient points in a visual manner. Many students find the hard to understand concepts easier when they can visually see the point. Take Addison's Disease for example. I immediately think of the graphic with the older female with a mustache, brownish skin, thin, leaning on a cane with words describing signs and symptoms. Memory Notebook of Nursing does a great job on putting visual graphics with hard to grasp disease states.
Usually, buy, at the end of class. If if necessary, during class a "thematic comic story" can change the attitude and "wake-up" students.
Yes, I often use it in between the lectures but not everyday. I keep it for those days when the students appear less interested. If they are very much interested or at least appear to be interested in the topic then cracking a joke between the lecture may be distracting.
And sometimes it happens that the students remember the story or comic art related with the topic but forget the subject matter.
So in my opinion using it sparingly may be more benificial rather than a lecture filled with laughter.
I use it only when students are tird/ exhausted or to make the class room atmosphere lively after a lacture..
John E Cicala
The cartoon caricature on teaching marketing... depicts the common thinking of any person in an organization.....None can understand the pains these marketing people face during the current periods of recession... they are the one who go and identify the real market for the product or service an ultimately for the whole of the organization to exist and run further...
Dear Noureddine, I'm teaching subjects associated with disabilities (Intellectual Disabilities(ID), Adults with DD Rehabilitation, etc.), so using comic art requires my attention. However there are lot of absurds and almost surreal situations in our social life, which influence lives of persons with disabilities, where I found source and inspirations for comic art during lecture. Look at this image, I shared once in my former topic on RG.
It is relevant to connect with local situations. I use such for setting the pace or in integrating concepts about life.
I have used comic art as the concrete part of math activity, for story telling and in classroom graphic displays of the curriculum and topic web. Art in general is a powerful medium and in the case of children who are emergent readers it helps to fuel their imaginations to make their own representations, to construct and tell their own stories, to convey their feelings and emotions. As classroom therapy art, comic or otherwise can make one laugh..
Creating comics is an interesting way or strategie to develop dime specific contents concerning history. I make my student in primary teaching programms make comics in order to comunicate through images and dialogues in a mucho more innovative and creative way of learning new knowledge..as well as a wsy to teach special events, institutions or concepts
In some cases I used to infuse my lectures with comic scenes from old arabic films but it depends on the topic itself. I remember that I used a video before ten years in an educational psychology class to describe the relationship between the motive and the response from the dialogue between two actors. I think we can invite students to take active roles in the classroom for example throughout playing a shot to explore facts and express ideas in their own words and then the teacher can conclude and unify their thinking/observations in scientific statements to reach the targeted learning outcomes.
I teach thermal engineering subjects. I use many practical examples. While engaging boiling heat transfer, I take the processes we have in the kitchen. Examples are as given below:
1) I correlate the hot plates used in preparation of a dosa and Leidenfrost phenomenon;
2) Why milk made to boil in a vessel with a long spoon inside does not form and overflow;
3) How a specular reflection of light (radiation) can be used to measure low electric resistance with a Kelvin bridge; and so on.
I keep one thing in my mind that I should not over shoot with time allotments.
Dr.S.Ravindran
Comics and small videos do help in getting students' attention and making the learning more relaxed. However, apart from the risk of losing control there are other problems too. Students are likely to have seen the clip already if it is from social media like You Tube or Facebook. In such a scenario they lose interest immediately. Making your own videos / animations is time consuming. But, if you can do it and present an all new clip teaching would be more effective
...... used as a touchstone to explore many of the theoretical and historical issues to be addressed in the course.....quoted in LIT 4305, Animation and Comics, Donald.
http://www.english.ufl.edu/courses/undergrad/2010fall_up-d.html#LIT_4305
Yes, it is a good idea to use them.i remember in many lesons i use some comic art
Students interact in the presence of these comic art .Each gives his opinion but it is necessary that the teacher let the students express themselves with freedom to release their ideas ,their imaginations and their emotions and sometimes you can use their faults in the remediation.
If we use it, the teaching learning process is more efective because the students doesn see the theory as something boring an the relationship and emotion professor - student its possitive. The teacher never lost the esence of the class and make it more interesting.
I use cartoons in class and in presentations. I talk about research and transpersonal experiences associated with death and dying. Not only do the cartoons help make a point, they lighted up a presentation on a heavy topic. It also makes me as the instructor and/or presenter more approachable. One aspect of Near-death experiences is coming back to this life by making that choice or being told to come back. One of my favorite cartoons was a cartoon character coming down from the heavens saying, "I decided to come back because I forgot to change my underwear this morning." It also broke up the audience.
I use a lot of the "Fer Side" in Biology classes as the comments in the art are usually about a topic that students can enjoy and connect with.
The use some comic art in your teaching is fruitful. But I think that is hard for a Women Teacher.
I am trying to use comics or cartoon more and more in my presentation. I think if done properly This method can give a very deep impact.
It's very fruitful technique, but I think there is some differences between the teacher gender.
Comic art forms can be incorporated into Management studies.
It requires creativity and would facilitate easy understanding.
Comic books are a good media to teach a wide range of topics, from physics to philosophy. You can check, for example, James Kakalios "Physics of Superheroes", or Matt and Tom Morris (ed.) "Superheroes and Philosophy". But also a lot of comics from Alan Moore and Grant Morrison contain a lot of discussion themes. For more basic levels you can use Asterix or Tintin comics to teach geography or history, either to give examples or to criticize them. And there are manga about politics, religion or history too (Buda or Adolf by Osamu Tezuka, f. ex.). Comics are a very useful tool if they fit your educational purposes!
We use graphic novels in engineering graphics education. We designed a specific web-comics to introduce lectures: "The adventures of Mr. Clumsy, the engineer". The use of such approach was very appreciated by students and it was found particularly useful to better motivate weaker students to arouse and keep their attention at a high level during engineering graphics lessons.
In the tales, the character Mr. Clumsy faces several problems about engineering graphics. The character’s approach to problems is just ‘clumsy’ and he usually meets mechanical technicians who have some problems with the technical drawings Mr. Clumsy drawn. In fact Mr. Clumsy is an engineer who does not know anything about engineering graphics and his drawings are always full of mistakes. At the end of every tale he is given by another character an advice to fill his gap of knowledge: following the theoretical lesson that is just going to start.
See below an example of some strips.
If you are interested in reading the experiment we made by using the webcomics in engineering graphics education, please check my paper "Engineering Graphics Education: Webcomics as a Tool to Improve Weaker Students’ Motivation".
Best wishes
Riccardo
comic work is a good and creative way to make teaching activities more constructevely. Comis are multimodal products in which students can show through drawings, images and text main ideas. They can be used in teaching history, social studies, languaje. Students have fun and get more involved in this kind of activities
Valentina Haas
Yes, but with respectable comics, and, we must control the student behaviors.
Well, I am using humour in my teaching, without compromising on the content and quality of teaching, from last 5 years and I find it quite helpful in generating interest of students. Not only that I find, students remember the concepts for longer duration when concepts are explained in a funny way. May be you shall have a look at my two books on the same namely Strategic Humour : Democratizing Strategy and Love Strategy : A New Perspective on Love, Relationships, Life and Strategy available on Amazon.
Do you use some comic art in your teaching? - ResearchGate. Available from: https://www.researchgate.net/post/Do_you_use_some_comic_art_in_your_teaching#5890bfb2ed99e17dc050d655 [accessed Jan 31, 2017].
https://www.amazon.com/Strategic-Humour-Democratizing-Rajesh-Pillania-ebook/dp/B011OECFWG/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1485881360&sr=8-2&keywords=rajesh+k+pillania
https://www.amazon.com/Love-Strategy-Perspective-Relationships-Life-ebook/dp/B01N9WH3ET/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1485881421&sr=1-1
Book Strategic Humour : Democratising Strategy
Book Love Strategy : A New Perspective on Love, Relationships, Li...
I use tons of comic art I my teaching. Check out my web site:
http://www.public.asu.edu/~dnilsen
https://www.researchgate.net/project/Mnemonics-for-the-Teaching-of-Mathematics/update/58786f1408aedc0fc0c3cf42
Yes, use that. The use of such comic art in lectures and teaching adds kind of joy and happiness to study and does not make students feel bored. The use of such fun things corresponds to the diversity of students ’personalities. The students are visual, including auditory, and sensory. When such art began to be used in teaching, students learned more about the lesson and their focus.
'Comic Art' covers a lot. I use the the classic comic strip in English teaching, mostly as a genre to produce in, e.g. using Pixton, Powtoon or similar apps. Main problem is the classic 'time spent cutting and gluing' issue: learners often lose themselves in the art production and too little time is spent using language. However, using narrow genres with tight genre genre rules, such as the strip ('you can only use 4 frames, two characters and no colours' or 'draw stick men only' and 'you must add caption and dialogue') can take care of some of that problem.
Yes, use the times, not always, to break the bored routine of the lecture
Yes, I used in some times, but not always, to break the boring routine of the lecture especially if the lecture in basic science
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