The effect of a computer-based cartooning tool on children’s cartoons and written stories

• Published in: Computers and education Vol. 51; no. 2; pp. 900 - 925
• Main Authors: Madden, M., Chung, P.W.H., Dawson, C.W.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 01.09.2008; Elsevier
• Subjects: Cartoons; Computer Software; Computer Uses in Education; Computers; Evaluation of CAL systems; Foreign Countries; Grade 5; Grade 6; Human–computer interface; Improving classroom teaching; Media in education; Story Telling; Teaching/learning strategies; United Kingdom; Visual Literacy; Visual Stimuli; Writing (Composition); United Kingdom; Evaluation of CAL systems; Teaching/learning strategies; Human–computer interface; Media in education; Improving classroom teaching
• ISSN: 0360-1315; 1873-782X
• DOI: 10.1016/j.compedu.2007.09.008

This paper reports a study assessing a new computer tool for cartoon storytelling, created by the authors for a target audience in the upper half of the English and Welsh Key Stage 2 (years 5 and 6, covering ages 9–11 years). The tool attempts to provide users with more opportunities for expressive visualisation than previous educational software; its design was motivated by earlier work connecting “moving image literacy” with print literacy, and it was used here in storywriting preparation work: users first visualised a known story, then wrote their versions of it based on the cartoons they had made. The stories produced are compared with stories written using two other preparation activities, one a pencil-and-paper cartooning exercise and the other a teacher’s normal planning session, which also resulted in a retelling of a known story. The study finds that no one preparation process had a noticeably different effect on the final written stories; however, the cartoons produced with the software are found to be quite different to their paper counterparts, showing a greater variety of character action, pose and interaction, slightly more variety of camera shot distance, and more pictures. Children’s and teachers’ reactions to the software tool are also discussed.