Introducing Cognito Comics

Daniel Burwen, Stephen Kinzer,
and Mike de Seve 

present Cognito Comics!!!

Press release: "Cognito Comics is creating a new genre of narrative nonfiction for the iPad with an immersive graphic entertainment experience. Cognito partners with world-renown authors, prestigious institutions and unique causes to tell their stories using emerging technology, top rate art, compelling narrative nonfiction writing and entertaining visual experiences. With the goal to educate on the pressing issues we face as a global community, the company is producing graphic novels that address a wide range of research-rich topics previously inaccessible in traditional print media."

I had the good fortune to speak with Daniel Burwen on Skype this week, and Cognito Comics is a tremendously exciting development in the graphic novel and literacy worlds, especially for teachers...

Responding to the need for modern literacy educators to use contemporary literacy technology in the classroom, Cognito Comics launches a new genre of narrative nonfiction.  Capable of being accessed via the iPad, Cognito Comics offers online graphic novels that educate readers about pressing, contemporary, and socially conscious nonfiction stories, like Operation Ajax (which is informed and advised by the well-known journalistic work of Stephen Kinzer). 

"So what's the big deal?", you may ask.  

For teachers, this means that students can not only read a Cognito Comic graphic novel both in and out of the classroom, but also conduct scholarly research.  Just by clicking on a character or an event, students will have access to all kinds of endless information about anything that interests them.

My recommendation to teachers - check out Cognito Comics, for sure!  

Katie 

Josh Neufeld (graphic novelist behind the successful AD New Orleans) is the MAN!!! :)

If you do not know who Josh Neufeld is, you might want to do a quick Google search.  He is not only one of the most awesome and amazing contemporary graphic novelists, but also a beacon of light that shines beautifully on the comic and graphic novel world.  Check out his newest endeavor to spread the word about the value of reading comics and graphic novels during a new media age!!!  Mocking one of my favorite titles as a kid, "Go, Josh, Go!"

Katie 

PS - And if you don't know Josh's wife you might want to Google her as well (Sari Wilson), for she provides a much-needed voice that, like myself, seeks to link the world of education to the world of comics and graphic novels.  Can you say "POWER COUPLE?"  I can!  :)  

NCTE New Media Gallery

If you want to learn more about new literacies, please join some of my awesome friends and I on Friday, November 20th in Philadelphia, PA. "Graphic novels, movies, television, and beyond!!!"