Since we occasionally discuss the idea of "dumbing down" here on tips: Ive been playing around with a fun site called ToonDoo (www.toondoo.com) which allows people like me who have zero drawing skills to make some pretty cool comics. Of course, I had to see if the tool would enable a kind of fun quiz or learning experience, so I made a cartoon quiz out of 6 of the Freudian defense mechanisms. ToonDoo is still a new site and the comics-maker is still a little buggy, but the comics didnt take too long to make. Pretty intuitive.
Curious about tipsters reactions. I have to admit that while making the comics, the expression dumbing down was in the back (or front) of my mind. Heres what I was saying to myself: A) This is silly and unnecessary. Students should be able to understand the defense mechanisms without having to spend time creating childish comics. This is time consuming and adds little value to the learning experience. B) Creating a comic like this, which on one level appears kind of silly, requires the student to really think through each defense mechanism and come up with very concrete examples and actually put words into people's mouths. Thus, itll help students get a deeper understanding of the defense mechanisms. So, which way do you go? A or B? Heres the link to the cartoon comic: http://bit.ly/1kRto3 Michael Britt [email protected] www.thepsychfiles.com --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly ([email protected])
