Adobe Spark

Adobe is known for having some great iPad apps, but now the ones we love the best are also available on the web. This is great news for those of us who have students using Chromebooks, and need more ideas for integrating creativity and demonstrating learning in new ways. The new Adobe Spark combines Adobe Voice (now Spark Video), Adobe Slate (now Spark Page), and Adobe Post (Spark Post) so that students can use it right inside their Chrome browsers. These apps are great for creating and sharing impactful visual stories.

Spark Video allows students to add voiceover recordings to still images. Spark Page allows students to beautifully add writing to photos and buttons with links to make a slick website type of online magazine. Spark Post allows us to add captions to photos. Even if students don't have their own photos, Adobe Spark allows for easy search of copyright friendly, free images to use in their projects, and it automatically sites the sources at the end of each project.

Recently we've been using Adobe Spark to create "Page" projects to document our learning from field trips. 6th graders at Dartmouth Middle School went to the Tech Museum in San Jose. Each group had an iPad which they used to take photos throughout the day. All photos were put into a collaborative photo album using Google Photos that was shared with the class. After adding the album to their own Google Photos, students could pull photos into their Adobe Page projects and then add their own writing.

4th graders at Noddin, Lietz, and Guadalupe all went to Mission San Juan Bautista. Even if the students did not have cameras, the teachers and chaperones could all share with each other.

5th graders at Guadalupe all wrote about Science Camp.

For a copy of a lesson plan to use Adobe Page to write about a field trip or other photo album you have from school, click here. Or, if you want students to be able to choose, and have a more open-ended kind of choice on what kind of "end of the year" Adobe Spark project, click to copy this Google Doc gameboard made by Genevieve Pacada for 5th graders. Feel free to modify for your own subject area or grade level. 

Don't have time before the end of the year? Go ahead and set up your free Adobe account, and try making your own project during the summer.

Have fun! And if you would like one of the ToSAs to come in and help your class with an Adobe Spark project, feel free to email us.