Reflection and Evaluation of one Online Tool: Bitstrips (Obligatory Entry #3)

Source: Kaiser, Jeremy. (08.06.2010). Four apps students can use to make comic strips in the classroom. Online: http://web20edu.com/2010/06/08/four-apps-students-can-use-to-make-comic-strips-in-the-classroom/. (Stand 17.01.16)

During one of my internships at a German Gymnasium, I integrated a session using an online tool called "Bitstrips" in order to work with comics in English foreign language teaching. While attending a class on “Presenting Content” which belongs to the module “New Media in Foreign Language Teaching” the semester before, I already got to know several online tools which can be used for educational purposes. Additionally, I got to know many more during the course of this semester and dealt with them in class intensively.

Click here to get inspired and see a list of useful online tools!

Although we presented many online tools in class and thought of opportunities how to use them efficiently as teachers, I grew sceptical when I thought of a realistic implementation of online tools in foreign language teaching – maybe because I never experienced it during my own school career. Therefore, I wanted to take the change of trying something new, implement what I have learned about new media and online tools and gain a practical and real life approach towards the issue of integrating them into educational purposes.

Due to the fact that I gained a broader understanding of the concept of new media in foreign language teaching while attending the course "New Media in FLT" this semester, I would like to share my impressions and experiences and, moreover, evaluate the online tool and the final learning outcome.

Read more and to inform yourself about my teaching idea, which competences can be supported by working with comics and my personal evaluation!

1. How does the tool work and how did I create my comic?

You already know how to use Bitstrips? Scroll down to "1.1 Reflection on the usability of Bitstrips" to inform yourself about the pros and cons of this online tool! (Unfortunately, hyperlinks and anchors are not available for the blog feed, yet.)

Source: Bitstrips (2009). Bitstrips for Schools. Online: https://vimeo.com/2463264. (Stand 17.01.16).

The video above gives you a short impression of Bitstrips for Schools and how it works!

Online access: http://bitstrips.com/r/PPGR3

First of all, I created the two characters I wanted to use for the comic. For this purpose one can find a button on the left hand side corner of the page which says “Create Character” and directs you to the next page. Starting to create a character, you choose its gender and start configurating it the way you want. Among other things, you can select its hair and eye colour, its outfit and even facial details like its skin colour, face, jaw and eye shape, nose, mouth and ears which enable you creating a character which exactly matches your personal ideas. After I had created Romeo and Juliet the way I imagined them for my purpose, I clicked on the button “Create Comic” and started to select an appropriate layout. In the upper part of the page one can choose between different types and panels; I chose the so-called “Story Strip” which suited my project best. The next step on the timeline on the top is to enter the “Art Library” in order to choose a prepared scene or to create an individual setting by adding several props or furniture. I chose a field by night and added a house to the prepared setting by clicking on “Furniture” and on the subcategory “Outside”. One can click on the chosen object, drag it into the scene and place it in the desired position. In order to add your characters you can either use the prepared characters or click on “My Characters” below the button “Collections” and drag your characters into the scene. By clicking on a character I changed its pose and facial expression so that it matched the scene and expressed fear/ happiness/ surprise or every other requested mood. Little figures on the top of the screen depict every predefined expression and pose; by clicking on a specific part of the body or the face one can model every single limb separately to individualise the character’s posture and expression. Often, I changed the mouths and eye lids to strengthen the characters’ expressions like one can see in panel two, three and four. Therefore, I chose a facial expression on the upper left hand side and clicked on the fitting details in the window next to it. I added speech bubbles by clicking on “Text Bubbles” next to “Art Library” on the top of the page which I could drag into the scene easily and enter my text. I chose the bubbles which indicate whispering because the whole scene I depicted is rather a silent one, but there are different types of bubbles one can chose like I did in panel four and five which indicate a high volume of speech. By clicking on a speech bubble I could turn it like one can see in panel number three, or change its colour by clicking on the now opened window on the upper left hand side. Moreover, I added some special effects like tears or circles in panel three and six by selecting “Effects” in the “Art Library”.

When objects should overlap or one object is supposed to be in the foreground while the other one should be in the background (panel two and seven), I clicked on the object which should be in the background and then clicked on “Layer down” in the grey shaded area below the comic.

After I was done with the comic, I recognised that one panel remained empty and I could easily remove it by clicking on the button “Remove Panel” which is located in the same grey shaded area below the comic.

1.1 Reflection on the usability of Bitstrips

All in all, Bitstrips is an online tool which is easy to handle due to its intuitive interface. The user has many different options to change the characters, the scene and the layout of every single panel of his/her own comic which offers a wide range of individualised opportunities. Nonetheless, the tool follows a clear structure which is, more or less, self-explanatory. This definitely constitutes a huge advantage while working with comics in school: the teacher can create comics which fit different topics/ tasks and support teaching with less temporal expenditure and students do not need many instructions while working on their own comics which saves lesson time. Additionally, they get even more motivated when they see how easy being creative and productive can be.

Furthermore, there is nothing to install because bitstrips is a web-based programme which can be accessed at school or at home and allows flexible and self-paced working.

Special attention should be paid to the fact that bitstrips offers special features for use at school like private virtual classroom where students can log in by selecting a nick name and entering the course password. The teacher is the administrator and is able monitor and control what the students upload. The comics the students upload cannot be seen by any other user around the world but only by their class mates and their teacher, which constitutes an essential benefit since data protection, in particular in school, is crucial in order to guarantee a save working atmosphere.

The only disadvantage is that the free trial expires within four weeks. For further access one has to buy the full version or register again with a different email address.

2. My Intentions

2.1 My Teaching Idea: How did I use the comic in class?

The introduction of comics in school has various advantages of whom the teacher can make use in lessons to introduce, deepen or practice contents and, above all, promote motivation and engage students to deal with contents in a creative and artistic way. Using comics for presenting new grammatical phenomena such as new tenses, sentence structures, verb forms etc. and practicing them by means of filling cloze tests in speech bubbles can be one very effective method because students are confronted playfully with important contents. Therefore, the medium creates a high degree of motivation because it depicts abstract rules in a visual engaging and funny way which makes the topic available for students of any age. In addition, comics can be used to depict current (political) issues and evoke discussions or to present the topic of a new unit in a creative way which engages and motivates the students. Certainly, there are manifold other opportunities and ways of including comics in lessons efficiently, but I had the idea to use the comic I have created in a more indirect way.

During my internship I taught a Q2 Leistungskurs dealing with Shakespeare’s “Macbeth”. By means of a beamer I could beam my created comic onto a wall without giving any information about it. One could say that the comic served as a provocative introduction into the concluding unit dealing with Macbeth because first, this scene does not depict “Macbeth” but “Romeo and Juliet” and second, it is not portrayed in a way the students would expect it but in a modernized way. After a short conversation on the comic I asked the students why we might be talking about this comic and what the next steps for the lesson could be. In fact, the task I worked with was...

“The Student Magazine asked you to design a modern and teenager-friendly comic scene of Shakespeare’s “Macbeth” for their next edition. You are allowed to choose any scene you want to portray freely and transfer Shakespeare’s language into contemporary English. Your comic should at least include 4 Pictures. Work together with a partner and use the programme “Bitstrips” (www.bitstrips.com). You have to create a free account before starting to work on your task. Present your product in class.”.

In other words, the shown comic should serve as an example of what the students were expected to do. It should initiate the process of getting active themselves. Therefore, the scene I have chosen for the sample comic is not from “Macbeth” but from “Romeo and Juliet” in order to inspire the learners without anticipating potential opportunities (scenes, character etc.). Moreover, confronting students with a topic they already know might not create the effect of thinking in a broader context. The situation of being confronted with something different and new in terms of topic and medium might stimulate students in a more effective way which engages them in activity: they try to connect it to what they already know and think about how they could deal with the comic. Concluding, the comic should stimulate, motivate and provoke the students and, additionally, serve as an example of what they were supposed to do in the next step. Because comics are a teenager-friendly and modern medium, the students should gain a different access to the topic after they have dealt with Macbeth intensively the previous weeks.

2.2 Which competences can the students acquire by creating comics?

The in-class creation of comics portraying a scene from Macbeth can be a project at the end of the teaching unit “Macbeth” in order to recall the learners’ knowledge and to mobilize the students to actively engage with the drama. By getting creative, the learners should memorise key events of “Macbeth” and gain a broader understanding of its content.

As already mentioned the focus was on working with comics in an active way and creating a comic scene with the students together in class. The presented comic had the task to show the learners what they are supposed to do themselves, engage them in thinking about a task and create a new learning channel which enables dealing with a topic in a creative way. It has to be taken into account that the usage of web tools for educational purposes at school still is rare. Because of this, it is crucial to strengthen the students’ computer literacy due to the fact that media competence is a core skill for job market, studying at university and even private life. While working with web-based programmes, the learners improve their media competence and their methodical approach towards technical challenges and feel more confident about using technical applications.

Because the task addresses visual, communicative and haptic learning channels, it is designed to appeal to the majority of students and create an attractive learning topic. Due to this, the students’ involvement and motivation could increase and many skills and competences can be acquired. The central learning objectives of the unit were 1) Working with a web-based programme in order to improve the students’ media competence and 2) Generating a contemporary access to Early Modern English literature and making the students grasp the up-to-dateness of the presented issues by dealing with Shakespeare in a creative and teenager-friendly way. Further skills can be supported such as:

Subject-specific skills: dealing with EMnE as part of the development to contemporary English, ability to respond creatively to Shakespearean texts, competence in critically assessing resources, contemporary approach to EMnE literature, strengthen competence in identifying the language of Shakespearean drama and to critically evaluate it, identifying critical issues in a literary work, productive skills: develop written and oral expression

Media competences: working with web-based programmes, demonstrate clear understanding of Shakespeare in medium-specific context

Social competences: ability to deliver and accept feedback, develop ability to collaborate as part of a team

Transferable skills: strengthen ability to arrange and evaluate information, develop oral expression and presentation skills, develop textual analysis through adaption, strengthen solution-oriented, structured and self-organized learning processes

3. Evaluation of the lesson

How did the teacher and the students react?

Source: Bitstrips (2010). Bitstrips for Schools. Online: https://vimeo.com/6449965. (Stand: 17.01.16).

Although the video is created to promote Bitstrips for Schools, I can absolutely confirm the students' reactions in the video because I observed them while they were working on their comics. The concept of creating comics and integrating them into foreign language teaching was completely new for the students and their English teacher; they never used online tools before in class. The teacher was enthusiastic about the suggestion to engage the students in dealing with Shakespeare in an active and creative way since she knew from experience that Shakespearean drama is a topic many students cannot identify themselves with. Therefore, she welcomed the idea of rearranging the concluding unit in a more teenager-friendly way. The students, on the other side, were surprised in the beginning and seemed to struggle with the unusual task. Many of them were afraid they could not handle the tool and were sceptical and slightly overstrained when we discussed the task. But as soon as they registered online and started to come in touch with Bitstrips, they recognised that the tool was easy to handle and not a quarter as complicated as they thought it would be. Later, they enjoyed being creative, they laughed and had fun during the production of their comics and seemed to forget that they were actually learning which as great to see because they were truly engaged and motivated to create a creative and content-related proper product.

Contrary to my expectations, the students were so busy with choosing a scene and creating their characters and settings that they completely forgot time while they were involved into authentic discussions on the plot and the content of Macbeth. Maybe I should have prepared several scenes beforehand and let the teams choose one from them to save more lesson time. Nevertheless, I had the impression that translating the Early Modern English into contemporary English and connecting it to pictures and characters was very effective because they discussed a lot and tried to figure out the exact meanings of the drama and worked on how to put the meanings into a modern framework and think in a broader context. They were eager to transform Macbeth in order to enable a contemporary approach. When time was up, they did not even want to stop working on their comics because they were so engaged and had high expectations on their comics. Although the teacher and I decided that 2 lessons should be enough to finish the comics, the students asked us whether they were allowed to work on their comics at home because they wanted to present them in class in the next lesson.

After the students created their comics, volunteers were supposed to present their results in class. A progress in learning could be manifested if the learners could contextualise the scene they have chosen and explain why they created the setting, the characters and the speech acts in a certain way. After giving and receiving feedback, the progress in subject-specific as well as personal competences could additionally be evaluated by means of a self-assessment file, afterwards.

Is Bitstrips an efficient programme for educational purposes?

I would definitely work again with Bitstrips at school because it inspires students of any age. Actually, I liked preparing the comic for the lesson and had fun myself, too. It helps translating and decoding (complex) texts and topics in a visual engaging and funny way and, moreover, offers students the opportunity to gather a different approach towards any topic dealt with in class. Not only Shakespearean drama but also grammatical phenomena and political or everyday issues can be depicted in an appealing way which invites the students to engage in discussions and understand things from another perspective.

Because Bitstrips can serve for productive or receptive usage at school, teachers have many possibilities to integrate comics into their lessons every now and then. Especially the productive usage generates real learning time and authentic discussions which support speaking skills. Additionally, it improves authentic written expression. In particular, the more introverted students or students who have difficulties in (creative) writing can profit from the free learning atmosphere.

Furthermore, I can deny concerns that creating comics is a very time-consuming activity and therefore not suitable for in-class usage. Due to Bitstrip's user-friendly interface no student had problems with the programme and everyone could start immediately creating their comics. It motivates the students to see how easy being creative can be.

The English teacher and I agreed that the concluding unit was a full success and Bitstrips offers huge potential to foreign language teaching. In my opinion, working with Bitstrip is a valuable enrichment to teaching and I can recommend every teacher to try it.

“Language competences, learning strategies, and the individual learner” In: Grimm, Nancy; Meyer, Michael & Volkmann, Laurenz (2015). Teaching English. Tübingen: Narr Verlag, 115-149.

Comics

https://bitstrips.com/create/comic - web tool to design comics

https://pixton.com - web tool to design comics

http://blabberize.com/ - web tool to create animated pictures and make them speak

Collages, Poster and Cover

http://www.ribbet.com/ - web tool to design collages

http://www.canva.com/ - web tool to create posters

http://www.storybird.com/ - web tool to design a layout for your own texts and storys

Presentation

https://prezi.com/ - web tool to present information

Podcasts

http://www.audacityteam.org/ - programme to create your own podcasts

http://www.podomatic.com/ - create podcasts or listen to them

Webquests and Quizzes

http://questgarden.com/ - create your own webquest or choose webquests by other users

http://www.zunal.com/ - create your own webquest or choose webquests by other users

http://www.eslvideo.com/ - watch videos and solve questions

Websites

https://www.weebly.com/ - create your own website

Dictonary

http://www.lingro.com/ - click on words within a text (e.g. online newspaper articles) and discover their meanings

Videos

http://www.dotsub.com/ - web tool to add subtitles to a video

http://www.youpronounce.it/ - web tool to learn the pronunciation of words with authentic video expamples by native speakers