Pencil is a simple, open source, drawing and animation program. Pencil works on Mac, Windows, Linux operating systems. Pencil is easy to learn and easy to use making it a great way to introduce younger students to drawing and animating with a computer. Pencil has a great message board where users can share information or ask questions about Pencil.

Applications for Education
In addition to being useful software for art teachers, Pencil can be used by teachers in other academic areas. Using Pencil students can create animated comic strips to illustrate stories written for a writing class. Students could use Pencil to illustrate a timeline for a history class.

Here is an example of work that can be done with Pencil.