I recently stumbled across a very impressive app called Lomics on a friend’s page and decided to try using it for my daughter’s karate class. The result was incredible. Instead of an hour long video, I received one . This generated an “ah-hah!” moment where I realized I could use Lomics brilliantly with my students. As a former tutor of economics at San Diego State University and a teacher of Russian cinema for children in the Russian School San Diego at UCSD, I identified two ways in which Lomics can truly assist in my teaching.
First, it allows me to create fun and easily understood presentations for class. This generation of students have grown up in an environment in which they interact and consume media in all sorts of visual and immediate ways. Lomics lets educators produce material that is in line with the environment the new generation of students have grown up in. I have only had an opportunity to scratch the surface of all Lomics has to offer, but here are two opportunities that I hoping to put in place.
Lomics could help students with hearing difficulties learn course content in a more efficient and effective manner. The length of a Lomics and the size of the notes are almost unlimited, so lectures can be recorded with maximum details. The fun nature of Lomics can also be useful for individuals that struggle to concentrate on more traditional teaching methods – “learning by playing” or in this case “learning with comics”.
The same logic can also be applied for online classes – Lomics are an educational alternative which can combine slideshow and video presentation in an effective manner. Although Lomics are easy to make, they do not lack in the necessary content and information to discuss a topic in depth. Lomics also offers integration with social media allowing all sorts of sharing and channels for viewing.
Another direction of Lomics utilization is related to out of classroom student activities or extra credit assignments. For example, one of the most popular forms of extra credit I have observed in economics classes is making videos to break down complex topics. Such videos are usually long, poorly made, difficult to understand and hard to review for a grader. Lomics presents the same content in a simple, attractive and observable form.
How to make a Lomics
The process of making Lomics is an incredibly simple three steps action on a smartphone:
- Record the video saying what it is you want and commenting what you are doing.
- Lomics will select the most interesting moments, recognize what you’ve said and combine everything into live comics automatically. Lomics are autonomously produce without the need to edit, however you are able to check the video and sound associated with each frame and adjust or add your own comments or notes.
- Then you can share you Lomics via a short massage, Facebook, Instagram or Twitter post to discuss it or vote on it.
Learning should be engaging and fun, and Lomics is a great way to put this into practice! If you want to give it a go, check out the app here.
About the author
Fractus guest post by Anna Ossowska. Anna is a graduate student in Applied Economics at San Diego State University and a teacher in Russian School San Diego at UCSD. She teaches students about famous Russian directors and their films in her History of Russian Cinematography classes. Anna is on pregnancy leave and exploring new technologies which may help to raise children.