Ben Forta's Blog, page 5

Spark In The Classroom: Video Journals

Lots of teachers encourage students to keep a daily journal, something short, focused, a few minutes of personal expression and communication to start each day. Student journals are usually written, but they need not be, and video journals are cool and lots of fun for kids to create. Here's how it works:Obviously, students need access to Adobe Spark which is fun, free, and runs on iPads and desktops (including Chromebooks).

If using iOS have the student use the Spark Video app and click the + to create a new video. If using the web version click on the blue + and select Video.

Have the student name the new video, call it "My Journal" or use the student's name as I did with mine. To personalize the journal further, have the student click the + on the left of the screen and add a picture of themself as the title screen background. If using iPad the student can even add a picture using the iPad camera.

Students will update the same video every day, opening it, and then adding one new slide by tapping the + at the bottom left. Slides should be added to the end of the video, if students mistakenly insert the new slide earlier in the sequence, just have them tap on it and they'll be able to drag it to the correct location.

The new slide can contain text, an icon, photos, videos, or combinations of these. Younger students will love coloring their own picture which they can take a picture of and then use as the slide background image. More sophisticated students may want to change layouts to Split Screen to have text alongside images and icons, and so on.

The final step each day is for students to record their voice-over, their narration for the day's journal entry. It may help to have them write out what they plan to record, and read it when recording. Have them state the day and date, and then a brief sentence or two for the journal entry.

When done, have the student click the play button to listen to their ever growing journal. The play button next to the slide editor will play just the new slide, the one at the bottom next to the slide carousel will play them all from the beginning.

You can then have students download the video MP4 file, or publish it so it can be shared with family.

The Video Journal can get rather long, so you may want to encourage student to start a new one each month.

Blocking Inappropriate Images In Adobe Spark

One of the most popular features in Adobe Spark is the ability to search the internet for free Creative Commons images for use in videos, pages, and post. Spark is used extensively by children, and so we utilize safe-search to ensure that only appropriate images are returned. But, no public image search is ever 100% safe, that's an unfortunate reality.In our testing, Flickr appears to be the primary source of problematic images. And while the Flickr libraries are vast and the service is thus an invaluable source of images,
you may want to block Flickr results for younger Spark users. To do this:

Go to the web version of Spark at spark.adobe.com.
Go to "Settings" which appears in the drop down under your profile image in the top right.
Turn off "Flickr".
You may also want to turn off "Adobe Stock" to block searches from our paid stock image service, as some Stock content may also be inappropriate for younger users.


These settings are applied to the account, so the block will apply to any browsers or devices logging in to Spark with the same account.

Free Adobe Spark For Schools and Districts

Last week at BETT in London we announced that Adobe Spark, including Premium Features, would be made available for free to students and teachers. The release is planned for April, so not a lot of details were provided with the announcement. But, there's been huge interest in the upcoming offering, and lots of you have been wanting more information. So, with time to spare on this flight from London back Stateside, I've compiled some notes that should hopefully better explain things. (Of course, details could change between now and the planned release in April).
Adobe Spark is already used by students of all ages, from preschoolers through college students. But it's been a little tricky for minors (those under the age of 13) to use Spark because we could not allow them to create their own accounts. Our recommendation to date has been for teachers to create a shared classroom account for all students to use. This type of use will still be possible and allowed when we release the education offering.
The release in April is a different kind of deployment, one suited for schools and districts. It will make it possible for all students of all ages to log in and use Spark with their own accounts. They'll do this via their existing school login (Google, or Office 365, and so on). This way teachers and school staff don't have to manage and maintain additional accounts and logins, and students don't have additional passwords to remember (or forget). Spark will use students' existing accounts and logins, nice and simple.
The Spark school / district deployment is associated with school or district domains, so whoever manages the domain will need to be involved. We'll provide instructions on how to register the domain with us, how to set up federated authentication (don't worry, your IT person will know what that means), how to sync accounts, and so on.
The Spark school / district deployment will be available to both K-12 and higher-education worldwide.
Once set up, students of all ages can safely use Spark school / district deployment in a way that is consistent with COPPA privacy laws.
The Spark school / district deployment adheres to Adobe's Student Privacy Policy.
Students will be able to use both the web and iOS versions of Spark, and content will automatically sync between platforms.
We also announced that students would have free access to Spark's Premium Features which allow users to create custom themes and branded content. These features are usually paid for, $12/month or $100/year per user. Students using Spark via the new school / district deployment will have access to these paid features for free. (Sorry, we can't provide this benefit to students using a shared classroom account, this will only be available for Spark school / district deployments).
Oh, and it's not just for students. Once a domain has been granted access to Spark, all logins at that domain, including teachers and staff, will also have access to all of Spark's goodness, including the free Premium Features.


We'll published more details nearer the April 2018 release. In the meantime, if you need to learn more, comment below, or contact us at SparkEDU@adobe.com.

Adobe Spark Free For All Students

Students (and their teachers) love Adobe Spark. But, Spark isn't quite perfect, yet. The two most common concerns are expressed by teachers are the lack of support for minor (under 13) logins, and the lack of integration with existing school logins.

Well, both are about to be resolved.At BETT in London we announced that in time for Back-To-School 2018 we'll be supporting school-wide deployments, allowing all students (even minors) to safely access Spark using their existing school logins. In addition, we'll be making Spark Premium features (usually $10/mo or $100/yr per user) completely free for all students, their teachers, and anyone else with a school domain login (we want everyone in the schools to be able to learn, teach, and use Spark themselves). Watch for details in in the first half of 2018.

More details to follow.

Creative Problem Solving Research Published

Creative problem solving is the process of redefining problems and opportunities, coming up with new, innovative responses and solutions, and then taking action. Global research shows that tomorrow's jobs will demand creative problem solving skills. Adobe asked 1,600 higher and secondary educators, and 400 policymakers and influencers around the world to tell us about how students are being prepared to be creative problem solvers. This is important reading, and the full study, with supporting infographics, is now online.

My Oracle Book In Chinese

My Sams Teach Yourself Oracle PL/SQL In 10 Minutes has just been released in Chinese (making this my 8th book transalted into Chinese).

Using Adobe Spark To Advertise Your Class

Dr. Younus Y. Mirza, Assistant Professor of Islamic Studies at Allegheny College, has shared how he uses Adobe Spark Video and Adobe Spark Page to advertise his classes in an informative and very personal way.

Adobe XD December Update

The Adobe XD December update is out, complete with underlined text support, improved Lightroom and Adobe Stock integration, and lots more goodies.

Marc Schenker On Design Trends

Flat Design? Material Design? Skeumorphism? Minimalism? I missed this one last month, but better late than never ... Over on the Adobe Creative Cloud blog, Marc Schenker has shared useful insight into emerging design trends.

Adobe XD November Update

The Adobe XD team is on a roll. The most recent update includes the addition of Design Specs to improve collaboration and obtaining feedback, a new Layout Grid, JPEG export, improvements to text display, and a whole lot more. See this blog post for details.