From Students to Guides: The Making of "KMJH's Comics Museum Tour

https://kmjh-comicsmuseum-englishtour.netlify.app/

KMJH's Comics Museum Tour

PU English Pedagogy Interactive Website

Unearthing Stories at the National Taiwan Museum of Comics: Our ICE Students Shine as Guides for Thai Students

An EMI Demo Class with 4 Panel Comics

位於學校旁的國家漫畫博物館英語導覽一直是我們的國際文化交流課程發展的重點。有了日前英語教學法學習網站的成功經驗，我又嘗試和AI創作了一個互動的學習網站來幫助學生們更加充分準備接下來韓國姊妹校的來訪，讓他們除了可以用英語導覽之外，還可以和外國朋友一起瞭解台灣漫畫的歷史及創作英語4格漫畫!

This isn't just a story about a website; it's about building a bridge between cultures. It started with a need to help my students practice their English and ended with a tool that helps them create comic strips and make new friends.

I absolutely love it when a project begins with a real, tangible need. My inspiration came last semester after my International Cultural Exchange, or ICE, students gave a successful English tour of the museum to a group of visiting students from Thailand. The tour was indeed a success, and it sparked a brilliant idea. With a delegation from our Korean sister school visiting next month, I realized I needed a way to help my students practice their English tour-guiding skills, leading directly to the creation of this project in collaboration with Gemini Canvas.

 

Bringing the Tour to Life: My Favorite Features

This is where the project really came alive. I designed several features specifically to help my students learn and practice:

1. Tour Guide Mode: This is the core of the practice tool. With a single click, key tour sentences are highlighted, and a speaker icon (🔊) appears. My students can click it to hear the correct English pronunciation, which is fantastic for building fluency and confidence.

2. Bilingual Pop-Up Descriptions: I integrated detailed, bilingual scripts for the museum's historic buildings into clean pop-up windows. This allows students to explore the rich history of each location without cluttering the main page.

3.Test Your Knowledge: I included a short quiz to reinforce key facts. I love that it's designed as a learning tool—if a student gets an answer wrong, the quiz provides a helpful explanation to guide them toward the correct answer.

4. Create Your Comic Story!: This might be the feature I'm most proud of. I developed a seamless activity that guides students through a collaborative storytelling process. It helps them interview a friend, use the "Somebody-Wanted-But-So-Then" (SWBST) method to plan a story about a shared Taiwan experience (like trying stinky tofu!), and then provides a panel-by-panel guide for drawing it.

5. Let's Be Friends!: To encourage ice breaking and active interaction, the park section of the tour has a button that generates random, fun questions. It’s a perfect icebreaker to spark conversation between my students and their new friends.

 

Overcoming a Creative Hurdle

Early in the process, I encountered a technical snag: images were not displaying reliably on the site. After trying a few different approaches, I landed on a solution that was both simple and effective. I decided to remove all external image files and instead use CSS-styled panels and built-in emojis. The result is a 100% self-contained, "glitch-free" website that works perfectly every time!

 

Ready for Our Guests!

From refining the language to be just right for my I.C.E. students to choosing a lively and energetic color palette, every detail of this website has been thoughtfully crafted.

I am thrilled with the final result. The project has yielded a robust, engaging, and highly effective educational tool that is perfectly tailored to my teaching goals. Most importantly, my students now have a fun and unique way to prepare for the upcoming visit from our Korean sister school. I can't wait to see them shine!