I love to find new ways to tell a story. When iMovie first came out, I was really lucky to be working for Apple so I immediately had a digital camcorder and iMovie, and I was off making movies and exploring ways students could use this new tool to learn by telling video stories. I also spent five years helping students make multimedia projects using HyperStudio and then immediately fell in love with the lesson-creation possibilities when I was first introduced to the ActivClassroom (ActivBoard and ActivStudio at the time).

But recently, I've found a new love: making cartoon illustrations. I don't have the time nor talent to draw my own cartoons, but I can certainly use the tools that are available now. A couple of months ago, I wrote a blog article suggesting how cartoons can be used to aid learning and I listed a range of cartoon-making tools you may find useful. It proved to be a popular topic, so, having already covered some lesson ideas, I thought I'd follow it up with more detailed instructions on how to create the cartoons themselves. In my earlier article, I mentioned that my current favorite tool for doing this is called ToonDoo, so I'll focus on that one as each program is different.

Without meaning to sound like a sales person, I'll start by sharing with you some of the things I like about this particular program. First of all, I find it easy to use and it's free. I also think the results look great! The software is web-based, so I don't have to have any software installed, which I really like too. Of course, there are other programs out there, many of which I listed in "Ideas for Comic Strips (Part 1)"; if you've found one of those that you particularly like, please share the reasons why by adding a comment below.