Piki Kids Reponds and Blows it Even More

Hi Kate,

I do agree that this is very disappointing, .
We as the pikikids creators do try and moderate the site as much as possible.
Of course as this is an internet website we don't control what image appears as the coolest comic as it is community voted by the users of the site, we do of course moderate this as often as possible so I would say it was very bad timing that this comic happened to be voted as the coolest just as you guys looked it it.

You may note that all comics can be reported as offensive by users and they are atomically remove from the site

We can create a site for you that is separate from pikikids, with your branding and you can moderate this.

Regards
Greg Pentland
Pikikids

Dear Greg,

Disappointing? Seriously? Is that what you had said if the word "N***r" or "F****t" had slipped through? Obviously you have no idea how offensive that word is. I don't want to moderate my own site, I want you to take responsibility for yours.

One other thing. This is a site for KIDS. Children, who by their very nature are likely to make bad decision that need moderating. Who in their right mind would decide not to moderate for offensive or prejudice before they move something to their home page?

My little blog only get 300-500 hits a day, educators all, but my blogger friend Larry Ferlazzo already re-posted my story about this and his hit count is many, many times mine. You should think about how detrimental it is going to be to alienate all those educators for the sake of allowing your community of children to make bad decisions.

Kate

Comic Books for Social Stories

While at CEC I saw many social stories created in the twenty dollar program "Comic Life" (available win and mac). I loved the idea of creating social stories with photographs in a comic strip set-up but I was constantly thinking about all of the free comic book creation sites online (like My Comic Strip, Make Beliefs Comix, ToonDoo and more). Why was there not a free web 2.0 application that made comic books with photographs that could be used for this purpose?

Finally I found two online (with a little help from Go 2 Web 2.0). PikiKids and Comiqs. They may not be as fancy as Comic Life (I don't know I have never used Comic Life), but it does the job. I haven't had any time to really try these out (also comic based social stories aren't really appropriate for any of my current students), but I hope that you all will check them out and comment on how it goes.

Sample (not a social story, just a sample) of Comiqs:

The Sippy Cup from Jimslam on Comiqs

And here is a random sample from PikiKids (note that while this does not have speech bubbles you CAN put speech bubbles in):