TCEA 16 - Adobe part 2

Amazing Adobe App Smash
Jessica Mozisek and Rachelle Wooten, Fort Bend ISD had a wonderful presentation about the apps I mentioned in the last post. Specifically, they covered ways to use Adobe Capture, Draw, Slate, and Voice in the classroom.

Here is the link to their presentation with many great ideas. http://goo.gl/YoV1af

They had some really good best practices. The following comes direct from their presentation, but it bears repeating because it is very good advice and I give them all the credit.

• Limiting students to only one app is asking them to miss out on opportunities to create something innovative. Do suggest apps for them to use.
• Give students a choice for their final product. For example, allow them to choose which final presentation tool they will use. (Voice vs. Slate in our case).
• Take the time to allow your students to get comfortable with the apps. Demonstrate how the apps function and feed in a short amount of time to let them play.
• Monitor students to make sure they haven’t chosen an app that overwhelms them to the point of not finishing; however, a bit of struggle means they are learning.

Very good advice for any classroom projects that use technology. Make sure to check out their presentation.

TCEA 16 - Adobe

Ok, I realize I haven't been on in a while. Insert work thing, personal thing, life thing excuse here. 

So starting today, I wanted to start a series of posts from the learning I picked up at TCEA 16 this year. TCEA (Texas Computer Education Association) is a member-based organization supporting the use of technology in education. Their annual convention is usually around the first of February. If you have any interest in educational technology I highly recommend going to this conference. Here is the link to next year's convention. http://www.tceaconvention.org/2017/

So, 1st in the post a bit about the Adobe apps I learned more about. I had heard of and tinkered with many of these, but some were new. Here is a quick run down.

Adobe Clip -  easy video editor from your pictures and videos; can add sound from stock soundtracks or your own music

Adobe Capture - take a picture and capture the color theme of the moment to use in other projects

Adobe Draw - draw vector illustrations

Adobe Post - add text to your photos for easy to create social graphics

Adobe Slate - create parallax scrolling websites easily with this app; great for website, electronic newsletters, and invitations; easy to create and share

Adobe Voice - create animated videos from your pictures or stock icons, talk to record your story, and share with the world.

Out of all of these, I probably like Voice the best with Slate and Post coming in close 2nd/3rd. I am still big on digital storytelling as a means for students to create in the classroom. Voice is the project for that. Slate is easy to use and I can see it as a way schools could send out information and students could create presentations. Post is just a fun way to add text to my photographs before I post on social media. Plus, saving to the camera roll on most of these apps is a big plus in my book. I can decide what to do with the project instead of it just sitting on Adobe's server.

The drawback... you do have to have an Adobe ID login. You can use a Facebook account, but that may not help most students. The two presenters I went to handled this in three different ways. 

1. Have each student create their own account. Not particularly handy if they are under 13.
2. The teacher created an account using their email address and logged in to the classroom iPads with one account. The problem there is the lack of security as each project from the iPads shows up on every iPad. 
3. Teacher's created an id based off of their account. If you have a Gmail account you can add a plus sign and number in your email address, create the adobe account, and all email correspondence goes back to the original email address. For example, myaccount@gmail.com is my original email address. For my Adobe ID, I could create myaccount+1@gmail.com, myaccount+2@gmail.com...and so on and use those IDs on each individual iPad. If you want to know more about this watch this video (they use text after the plus sign, but you can use numbers if you want).

The other drawback... The images didn't seem to be filtered. Or at least some images got through that I would have though our district filter would have blocked. So you might use the apps with a word of caution. Perhaps using them personally before turning student's loose with them so you know what to expect.

So go ahead and try these Adobe iOS apps. I think you will like them. 

Adobe Voice for the iPad

Adobe, the makers of Reader and Flash, have come out with a great iPad app called Adobe Voice.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/adobe-voice-show-your-story/id852555131

I have just downloaded this and and starting to tinker around with the app. Here is what I have learned so far.

Adobe Voice allows users to create videos right on the iPad using their own voice, free music, free creative commons photos, and text.
Did I mention this app is FREE!

Pros:
It is Free
Easy to use
Free use of creative commons icons, photos, and Music (no copyright issues)
Can use own photos and music (possible copyright issues)
Puts the credits at the end of the video
Easy to share the video on Facebook, Twitter, by email, or message
Can mark videos Private so they cannot be search out online. Only those with the link can view.

Cons:
No option at this time to save to the Camera Roll
Have to login to free Adobe account
There is a public gallery. Even though the TOS covers inappropriate material, there is the off chance someone in the world could upload something before Adobe has the chance to take it down.
For iPad only


Make sure to check out David Pogue's review of the free Adobe Voice app.
https://www.yahoo.com/tech/you-know-adobe-right-this-is-the-company-that-85081015729.html


EDIT:
After your video is uploaded and you share the link, you are also given the option to share to Facebook, Twitter, or use an embed code.

So look like you can mark the video Private, upload it, go to the website from the link it generates, grab the Embed code and put it on your own website.