Digital Creation
This was a great question on the listserv yesterday: "I’m looking for a program that students can use to create digital art. Posters, design shoes, etc. Any ideas? Not just word/pdf/PPT…. is there a specific program anyone has used? (for middle school)"
This is not an exhaustive list at all, but it might help with giving your students some fun and creative options to demonstrate their learning. Do be sure to check with your technology folks to make sure they meet your district requirements for security and/or privacy. (many of them allow single-sign-on with a school Google/Microsoft account, but some don't require an account)
First... Google Sites (that's what this list of tools is in right this second) Sites is not much of a tool for creating media, but it's a great place to organize and share/present it. It's collaborative, easy, and FUN! https://sites.google.com/
https://drawings.google.com/ (inside of Google suite, it has the same drawing features as Google Slides, but without the slides part, and allows for exporting transparent PNG files) Here are 35 creative Google Drawings activities for classes from Ditch That Textbook.
I REALLY love this one. Adobe Express (which used to be Adobe Spark) is like Canva... you can create images, basic photo editing/cropping, portfolios, animated images, and voice-over videos, and like Canva, there are so many templates to rework. The Adobe Educator Exchange is a great place for ideas and student challenges. There is information here for steps on district deployment of Adobe Express.
https://genial.ly/education/ Genially is another one of those "all-in-one" type tools like Canva and Adobe Express. You can create one-off images, interactive images, and websites. There are tons of great templates too. I love the ability to upload audio files to include in your creations. Check out their teachers' toolkit here!
https://www.figma.com/ Figma is a bit newer, or at least newer in the education space than some of these other sites. It's actually two different tools. Figma allows a team to edit vector graphics and export them as SVG or PNG. FigJam boards are interactive whiteboard projects that are awesome and packed with features and plugins.
https://www.canva.com/help/about-canva-for-education/ Canva lets you create lots of things now... graphics from templates, posters, presentations, videos, etc. I love the resources, ideas, and design tutorials that they have in their Canva Design School. If you sign up as an educator, you get some added features for free that are normally only available in the paid version.
https://www.microsoft365.com/template/sway Microsoft Sway is... different. But, that's the great thing about having options. It offers some cool features for presenting a set of information. They include some templates to get you started. Here's just one example template to give you an idea. Sway is included as part of the Office365 suite.
https://procreate.art/ If I have my iPad and Apple pencil, Procreate is my favorite tool for sketching, note-taking, and doodling. It is not free, but in my opinion, well worth the price of $10. You can create custom brushes, animated GIFs, and multiple layers with effects (like Photoshop). Procreate also records your creation process, which you can later export as a video. Check out their education and classroom ideas here: https://education.procreate.art/. (iPad only)
https://canvas.apps.chrome/ (free drawing app inside the browser) It's simple and has just a few features, which can be a good thing sometimes. You can check out some support here.
https://paint.sumo.app/ This one is a free option for web-based drawing/painting. I haven't yet, but I'd love to try this one on a Chromebook that has a touchscreen and stylus.
https://sketch.io/sketchpad/ Sketch.io is another web-based drawing/painting site with a free option.
Minecraft has some incredible staying power. It is a sandbox game and students can create so many things inside this environment. Here is the official site: https://education.minecraft.net/en-us
https://www.tinkercad.com/ Tinkercad from Autodesk would be a cool option for designing 3D models which can be 3D printed (but could you and kids could also take screenshots of that work depending on the project). Here's a gallery of projects to explore.
https://edu.sketchup.com/app/ SketchUp is also for 3D (it's just a little more complex than TinkerCad, but a cool and fun option for creating in three dimensions).
CoSpaces is a fun tool for creating augmented and virtual reality creations. The included library of 3D assets allows for some powerful creations. Students can take their creations to the next level through block-based coding. https://cospaces.io/edu/
Google Earth is a crazy cool interactive globe. However, it is also a creation tool! You and your students can create projects within Google Earth. Text, images, videos, placemarks, and StreetView imagery can all be combined into an interactive presentation project. https://earth.google.com/ (More education ideas here too.)
Right now, Felt is a free option for creating maps collaboratively. It is super intuitive, and it's easy to add images, layers, spreadsheets, and more. Check it out. https://felt.com/education
Google Looker Studio (formerly Data Studio) is a tool for creating interactive presentations of data. These Looker Studio projects can use a Google Sheet as its source data, but allow the end user to easily interact with filters and charts, without affecting the source data. https://lookerstudio.google.com/