Presented at LILAC 2024.

1. Comics are for kids. They
don’t belong in serious
academic instruction
Comic Strips As
Educational Tools LILAC 2023
‘Cartooning
the library’
workshop
Bot is in the supermarket looking at a more specific
shopping list
Success! Bot followed the criteria and takes a smaller,
more relevant pile of items to the checkout assistant
The Adventures of Boolean Bot, and Why Can’t I Just Google It? were created using Vyond, in collaboration with Rosemary Purr, Digital Education Librarian, King’s College London
by Holly Brown (she/her)
Learning & Teaching Librarian
King’s College London
Scan here;
…for background
research
…for references
…to join the
conversation!
The Adventures of Boolean Bot
Bot has earned some down time
…wait…
I’m a
cartoon?
OK, I’m interested.
But I can’t draw and I
don’t have access to
fancy illustration
software.
Start small. Create a comic strip that only
uses two or three cells to emphasise a
point via a memorable analogy. MS
PowerPoint is often under-utilised, yet
it’s a handy illustration tool that a lot of
educators have access to. If you click on
Insert > Icons > Cartoon People, you can
easily whip up some cartoon people like
you and I, and have them chat about a
concept that will help ignite the critical
thinking skills of the reader, and
encourage discussion!
Great idea! In a comic strip the reader uses visual
clues in a process that McCloud (1994) refers to as
closure, to interpret story and the passage of time.
Eisner (2008) talks about narrative messages conveyed
even through simple design choices in a character’s
apparel. However, adding visible explanatory text
further supports the translation of those visual
indicators, reaching even more learners. All of this
makes for an accessible and engaging format. Plus,
there are so many possibilities to integrate them into
teaching practices. Deliver new bespoke content!
Provoke socio-cultural discussion through studying
pre-existing comic strips and graphic novels! Or even
have students construct the art and narrative
themselves as a reflective exercise!
I thought so too, until I was
inspired by a workshop
at LILAC last year…
I agree. What if we create learning materials with variety in
mind, instead? Pedagogical frameworks like Universal
Design for Learning (CAST, 2018) promote a multimodal
approach. Miller (2022, 19:01) talks about the power of a
visual narrative with little to no text, and how it sparks
higher-level thinking because the audience engages their
critical skills to interpret the story. Mayer (2014) talks about
the Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning, and how
teaching with comics can support some of its key principles,
for example how the reader has better control of their own
learning pace because they frequently stop reading to
analyse the images. Analogy lends itself nicely to visual
communication, and it can facilitate understanding and
recall of tricky concepts…
You can’t
replace all
written prose
with doodles
just because it’s
fun to look at
…and that’s how
cartoons and comics
can be applied to
information literacy
learning!
Why Can’t I Just Google It?
I can see how that
would work. For
extra accessibility
you could even make
the alt text visible to
everyone…?