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Adobe spark provides tools to create visually appealing graphics and stories, which allows the user the ability to demonstrate their understanding while exploring their personal creativity.
Students can use Adobe Spark for tasks such as: science fair projects, demonstrating math concepts, storytelling, inquiry projects and creating "how to videos".
The simplicity of the application allows users to create a visually appealing, quality presentation in little time, with little experience but with a great overall impact.
Overall, Adobe spark would work well for students grades 3-5. It requires some initial scaffolding and pre-teaching of its features and functions, however I think with breaking down the functions into mini tutorials, students could create a presentation. More time and consideration could be spent on the process of learning about digital storytelling or scripting (thinking about what you will record to match the slides with images and text you have chosen). The script process would be similar to that of the notes taken and used with Microsoft power point.
This was my first attempt at creating a video presentation using Adobe Spark. Spark was user friendly and the initial tutorial and simplified layout made it easy to navigate.
Process
Process
To create a project
To create a project
You can select from “Post, Page or Video”. Options are color-coded and have 3 buttons to choose from making it easy to navigate.
You can select a template and it will guide you through step-by-step.
Top Right (Layout) allows you to select from: full screen, caption, title and text, and lets you populate content.
Theme
Theme
You can select music, color, transitions etc. Spark allows you to adjust the level of background music, providing balance and energy to your presentation.
Adding and deleting slides
Adding and deleting slides
Click on the three dots and delete the slide, duplicate it or add a similar slide. You can add or delete slides in any order throughout the slide layout.
Adding sound
Adding sound
When you hold down on the microphone, be aware there is some intro and outro time. You need to hold the mic button and let it play for 2-3 secs before speaking, otherwise it cuts off the beginning of your recording. You need to hold down the mic button to record the whole time and ensure you hold it for 1-2 seconds after you are done speaking so that it doesn't cut off your recording.
If you make an error and want to re-record a particular section, you select the slide that you are on and hold down the mic button again and record over. You can do this as much as you need. This is an amazing feature that I think would be helpful to students when learning this process as there are no limits to how many takes you can do.
General
General
When using this app and selecting diagrams or visual supports, think about using simple images and then speak to the images in your video, rather then using lots of text. This is similar to the way you would encourage students to design a power point. The less text, the easier it is to read and the more you can speak to your images.
Credit
Credit
It adds automatic credits at the end to the royalty free images and music that you can select from the library. This is a really neat feature when teaching students about citing and referencing sources.
Sharing
Sharing
Options at the end to download or share once completed, which is great (was thinking about the practicality of this, great for students to use in e-portfolios). My only concern around the security and privacy for students was trying to figure out how/ if you can create a password to protect and secure presentation. Adobe creates a link that you can share, however I am not sure how private this really is as it is not password protected.
Teaching Points
Teaching Points
This application encourages students to think more creatively about how to leverage images to convey or demonstrate their understanding. (Verbal communication is balanced with images creating a more memorable experience for learners).
This app is supportive in terms of thought mapping, (helping students to plan and organize with script writing). This is similar to Microsoft PowerPoint, encouraging you to think about what you will narrate for each slide. This is helpful for teaching students about presenting their work to others.
When recording your voice over, you will get a reminder to “keep it short” once you have hit 10 seconds on the recorder. This encourages students to break up the content into smaller chunks and streamline the process.
You can include several slides, although it encourages you to not have more that 25, and challenges you to keep your conversations short, (aim for 10-15 secs each). This encourages your presentation/ project to include media rich slides with simplified text and a balance of voice over recording, keeping your audience interested and engaged.
Pro's:
Pro's:
Spark is free, there is no premium
Very easy to use
Provides 3 in 1 applications: video, images and pages
Includes royalty free images and videos (credits them automatically on end slide)
Con's:
Con's:
Only allows you to share directly with Facebook & Twitter
Transitions are focused more on telling a story
Spark won't allow you to enlarge text or photos
There are limitation on where you can place text
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