Have you ever been so excited
about something that you just couldn’t put it down or couldn’t stop? Well…..that is what happened to me this
week. I got so “app happy” that I couldn’t
wait to get back to school and share it with our teachers and students! What is this app, you may ask? This wonderful app allows students as well as
adults to create quick and easy presentations with their voice recorded over
slides is Adobe Spark Video (formerly
Adobe Voice).
The possibilities with this
app are endless! The first great part is
that students simply hold down the record button on each screen while talking
and the app records their voice. If they
are unhappy with the result, recording again, is as easy as pushing the record
button a second (or third, fourth, etc….) time.
The recording is automatically synced with the slide.
Another wonderful feature is
that students can create on screen visuals to go with the voice over simply and
easily. There are three basic functions,
layout, themes, and music. The themes are chosen from the menu at the top and can be customized as well.
These is also a full menu of music that can be used in the presentations. The app even automatically adjusts the volume of the music so that it voice over can be easily heard while the music is playing. You can also add your own music if you choose to.
Just like in any
presentation app the slides can be easy re-arranged. When the music and/or theme is selected it
automatically takes everything already in the presentation and matches it to
the newly chosen theme or music.
Once you download the app and
play around with it for just a few minutes you will find that it is so
simplistic that it is perfect for even our youngest of learners. In fact last Thursday I took a group of four
Kindergarten students and helped them use the app to turn the story their class
had written into a Spark Video. It took
us less than 20 minutes to import the pictures of their pages, record their
voices and download the presentation. Click
here to see and hear them
reading their class book titled, Samantha Snake Goes to the Jungle.
Not only is this app fabulous
for students but it is also a great teacher tool. The first night I went home and created two
math problems using the app. The first
was a closed problem about pencils
and the second was an open-ended 3act like problem titled, cookies.
I have one teacher at another
school who is going to have her students try responding to one of these
problems by creating a Spark Video that show both in writing and their own
voice recordings how they went about solving the problem. I can’t wait to see how they turn out!
In addition to this Adobe app,
there are several more incredibly simple and useful apps in the Adobe
family. One is called Spark Post. This app allows you to create graphics. In fact, I redesigned the header for this
blog and the (my favorite) quote, shown here, using the app. Again, this tool
makes something difficult, graphic designing, simple for those of us who are
not trained artists. 
The other app in the Adobe
family, that I’m currently in love with, is Spark Page. This app allows me to dress up and design
fabulous web pages. I’ve only just
tipped the scales on this app but it is easy as Spark Video and Spark
Post.
When I got back to school on
Thursday, I think everyone thought I had lost my mind. I was running around the building sharing
Spark Video with anyone who would give me just a few moments of their
time. Trust me, it was not an easy sell
considering there are less than 8 (now 6) days left in the school year. But, I will not be deterred….I will continue
to try and get my teachers and students to see what a wonderful resource it is.
I hope, this summer, you will
add these FREE apps to your list of great apps to check out and think about
using for the 16-17 school year. If you
do, please share with me what you came up with!
Happy Summer!
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