Comics can be powerful learning tools. The mix of art, dialogue, character expressions, and frames engages learners and is brain-friendly. Comics break down a story's plot and text into bite-sized chunks that are supported with visuals. This is much easier for our brain to process than reading a large amount of text on a page.

Additionally, comics are an effective way to introduce your learners to digital storytelling. Many of the comic creation tools are easy to use allowing the learners to fill in their frames by clicking on a choice of characters, props, scenes, and more presented to them. Your learners will be able to quickly create a story, view it, and share it with their friends and family.

Comics use graphical representations of real or made up characters. When students create cartoons or graphic images of themselves, they are creating avatars. Avatars are a safe way for  students to navigate the web. Avatars often encourage students to express themselves, because the students find the comic world safe. We will explore activities that encourage this in this module.

Comics come in many formats and types to support and engage struggling readers as well as advanced readers. Creating comics engages students and encourages them to explore vocabulary, summarize information, and contextualize what they learn in a creative way.

Creating comics is also being accepted as an effective way to teach complicated writing. Nick Sousanis (2004), a doctoral candidate at Teachers College, Columbia University, wrote his PhD dissertation entirely in comic book form. View examples of his work on his blog, Spin, Weave and Cut.