Comics in Classroom: A Boon or Bane

Comics is being always considered as an entertainment medium but can the prevailing education system be benefited by using it as an educational tool? This question remains as a question mark to all, particularly the teachers and concerned parents who always prefer quality education. The advantages and disadvantages have to be carefully evaluated before introduction of comic-based learning.

Comics-An Efficient Educational Tool

Try to recollect any animation story or film which you have once read or watched and the lecture notes which you have studied in the morning. I am pretty sure that you will remember the story which was read long back and the notes might have disappeared from your mind!!This is because human brain has a natural power to capture images and visual representations with ease rather than lecture notes. Still, intelligent people memorize complex technical things by interconnecting with diagrams and images. Some benefits of comic-based learning are:

• Creativity Enhancement

Students can develop their computer and research skills which can be later applied to web-designing and illustration careers. The humor and adventure in comics arouses the interests in students. They would thus consider education as fun rather as a burden.

• Intensifies Memory Power

A famous artist has once expressed “A picture can speak a hundred words” which is a worldly fact. Even psychologists suggest this as an effective way to remember the complicated subjects. A single pane in comics can be used to represent a thousand words. This helps students to synthesize and grasp notes in an effective and enjoyable manner.

• Comic life to facilitate student participation

Discussions based on comics, is a lot livelier than lecture notes. The interaction between students and teachers naturally increase if they actively participate. It also facilitates the teachers to assess tool to check whether a student clearly understands a topic.

• Helps students with language acquisition problems

Visual representation is the best way to help students who have difficulties in learning or disabled. They can easily connect pictures and convert them into words with ease.

 Cons of Comic-Based Learning

 The risks associated with this new method are also high. A few challenges are:

• Inappropriate Content

The main problem faced in this issue is that the parents regard comics and films to be similar and consider that the content is too “fleeting” to be seen by their children.

• Interpretation of concepts

The concept behind the comics is interpreted in different ways in different age-groups in an utterly different manner. It would be better to categorize comics based on their age groups.

The dilemma faced by the school authorities and parents can be deduced. They should be provided with proper knowledge of comics-based learning. Once they understand the relevance of new mode of learning, they would encourage the education system to adopt this new strategy.