Not long ago a nice piece of software known as Comic Life entered the market. It is one of the most exciting software applications released in recent years. It allows anyone to express themselves in a manner that is simply fun and memorable. People, animals and inanimate objects can be given their own words and thoughts.

What can you do with Comic Life?

Essentially it allows you to drag and drop your digital photographs, scanned photographs, drawings and even still video captures into a comic book page template. You can drag word and thought balloons on to the template and create as many comic book pages as you wish. There are a diverse range of page templates and styles to draw from in the creation of your project. You can publish to the web, create images and even produce a movie.

What about educators?

In terms of education it has ready applications across all of the Key Learning Areas. Straight off the top of my head, for example, students could 'dress up', take digital photographs of their historical characters and relive great moments in history.

• Human Society and Its Environment: Recreate a key moment in history, a geography field trip or a legal argument.
• PDHPE: Illustrate safety in sport.
• Religion: Recreate a story from the bible or illustrate a moral dilemma.
• Mathematics: Create a tongue in cheek analysis of shapes and angles wherein the comic book characters are debating the pros and cons of the cartoon panel shapes that entrap them.
• Science: Recreate those eureka moments in science. Give a voice to electrons, leaves, planets and internal organs.
• Creative Arts: Reproduce a drama. Experiment with new artistic styles.
• English: Create a comic based version of a Shakespearian play. Recreate the dialogue from a movie.
• Languages: Illustrate a conversation and dialogue in real life scenarios presented in comic book format.
• Technology and Applied Sciences: An illustrated cook book, a metalwork safety primer, computer software how-to's just like the ones attached to this page.