Madeline's digital toolbox tips

Madeline’s Digital toolbox tips

Yesterday in class we learned to use storyboard for our poetry presentation.  We wanted to do Pixton but were running into trouble so I decided to explore it further to see if I could troubleshoot the problems I ran into, and how I could fixed them so that you can use Pixton more efficiently.

1. First you go to Pixton.com and log into a new account using your email and Password

2. Then you will be asked to go to your email and click on a link to verify you have an account

3. Once you go back to the Pixton site you will be asked to click on an icon indicating who you are.  If you are a teacher, click on the teacher icon

4. Once you are in the site they give you a 15-day trail that you can extend for 5 days when you run out of time.
5. Troubleshooting getting started:  Yesterday those of us who were using PC’s and google chrome had difficulty with the adobe flash player that Pixton requires you to have.  Over and over again we kept getting a warning that we do not have the latest adobe flash player version so we downloaded the latest version using google chrome and continued to have the same problem.  We then decided to use a storyboard tool instead. When we were done, I decided to restart my computer to see if Pixton will work after a restart.  Interestingly, another search engine (internet explorer) came up with a Pixton tab so when I clicked on Pixton to log in, I had no problem logging on, nor I did not get any flash player errors.  When I went back to try to use Pixton on google chrome I still had the same problem. Perhaps google chrome has a flash player they prefer as a default on my computer that conflicts with what Pixton uses. But this can all be obviated by just trying a different browser.

6. Once you are on the Pixton cite and have no error warnings, choose “create” to make a comic strip, click on the image icon to get your backgrounds.  Keep in mind that the initial images provided are just a sample of the possible themes that are available for you to use in  your comic strip.  For example, if you are doing a comic strip in a city, click on the city icon and it will give you many more cities to choose from.  In other words, you are not restricted to the samples given.

7. When you have chosen your backgrounds, you can then click on the character icon which is a face and pick the people you want in your comic strip

8. If you want additional images you can click on the image icon

9. When you are ready to write your text, then click on the text icon

10. My favorite part to this is the last icon--the picture icon.  If you do not like the given images you can pick your own picture to insert.

11. Finally, if you want to do more than the initial three slides, you can click the + icon at the bottom of the strip and it will allow you to add up to 6 blocks

Final Note:  I liked Pixton better than storyboard because there were more options of backgrounds and characters to choose from and you can add your own picture if you do not like the given pictures.  Below is an example of the backgrounds I messed around with for a city

pixton city example

https://www.pixton.com/schools/teacher-resources/comic-templates



Comments

  1. JamieJune 29, 2017 at 7:50 AM

    I have been really interested to try this. This is helpful! Thank you!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Tara Lou FinJune 29, 2017 at 7:54 AM

    I feel like the practicality of Pixton is unreliable. My students would only be able to use it once before getting blocked or being asked for money. What I realized last year with using technology is there a learning curve to using the tool and then they have to do the actual work. Nonetheless, I like the idea of the projects pixton has, just wish it was free.

    ReplyDelete

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