Digital Storytelling with GoAnimate

This time I tried using GoAnimate to create an animated comic strip. In actuality I had never considered using comic strips in an EFL classroom so this was a great opportunity to try something new and see how it could be adapted for educational purposes. Again this is a site that offers a more limited free version but you still have options for picking out many background settings for the comic, as well as characters and props. This tool allows you to incorporate audio to make the characters speak or they can use text bubbles. I would like to have both options so that students could read and hear what is being said by the characters. The characters can move around the scenes as well which makes the comic strip come alive. I will say that this feature is slightly more complicated to incorporate so I think I would need some additional practice to master all the features and see how they can be used.

I chose to create a comic strip with characters modeling how to use modals in a social context. So, the teacher and student used the more formal version of modals to speak to each other and the two students addressed each other using informal modals. This is actually an area that EFL students can struggle with and I think that a comic strip would be helpful to model the correct uses in a way that is more engaging than a list of written examples. I think that comic strips can be quite helpful in the classroom because they can provide a visual reference for students. Comic strips could be used as hooks or lead ins as well, but I also see a role for them as a way to get students discussing what is occurring in the dialogue and giving them an opportunity to analyze and dissect the interaction.