Pixton

Website Link: https://www.pixton.com/welcome

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Full Description

Pixton is a tool that lets you create comics and avatars

online. You can choose from a variety of backgrounds, characters, expressions, actions, and more to tell your story. You can also use it for education, learning, and fun. Pixton is easy to use and has many features to help you unleash your creativity.  

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Classroom Implementation & Educational Rationale

The water cycle is the topic for grade 8 science class. It is the process by which water changes its state and moves around the Earth. The main stages of the water cycle are evaporation, condensation, precipitation, and collection. To help students understand the water cycle better, I will ask students to create their own comic story using Pixton Maker. First, they will pick a background for the first comic panel. It could be a pond, a sky, or an ocean. Then, they will choose a character from various avatars like animals, humans, or creatures to be a water drop. Next, they will add text and speech bubbles to tell the story and show the conversation between the character and other things in the scene. They can also add sound effects, arrows, and clouds to show movement and action. They can make the character more expressive by changing its facial expression and adding props and effects. Finally, more comic panels are added to show how the character goes through the water cycle from one place to another.

 

This activity will help students learn the water cycle in a fun and creative way. They will also share their feelings and thoughts on protecting water resources, using the character’s face and body language. By using Pixton Maker, they can create simple and fun stories for learning the complicated procedures for science.

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Connections to Research

Pixton enhanced EFL writing skills, engagement, and motivation

of university students in Ecuador during the COVID-19

pandemic (Cabrera-Solano, 2021).

According to another research conducted by Engler, Hoskin,

and Payne, the use of comic story positively affect the attitude

toward the history lesson and improve the thinking skills of the

participants. This experience transformed the learning process

into a funny, meaningful, engaging, and permanent process,

enabling distance education to increase motivation and

strengthen in-group communication in the distance education process (Engler, Hoskin, and Payne 2008).

On the other hand, Apple and Kikuchi (2007) showed that computer-based material that enables students to have control over contents can provide benefits such as being student-centered, motivating, and increasing self-confidence and autonomy.

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Reference

Apple, M., & Kikuchi, K. (2007). Practical PowerPoint group projects for the EFL classroom. The JALT CALL Journal, 3(1-2), 105-120.

 

Cabrera-Solano, P. (2021). Using Pixton for teaching EFL writing in higher education during the Covid-19 pandemic. ResearchGate.

 

Engler, K., Hoskins, C., & Payne, J. (2008). Learner-generated comic projects: A strategy for enhancing learning. Journal of the Research Center for Educational Technology, 4(2), 12-25.