Adobe Voice is now Spark and it is on the Desktop!

With the latest update to Adobe Voice, the tried and true video creator for the iPad that our teachers have loved has become changed names and added browser access. 

Adobe Voice is now Adobe Spark and the browser allows teachers to use their chromebooks and desktops to create awesome multimedia projects with their students.

The one link: spark.adobe.com  gives students free access to creating videos with voice narration, graphic images, and easy flowing pages to create web stories that are shareable via links and through social media to add to your teaching tool box!
 
The apps are still there, just the names have changed and updated.  If you have iPads these are must have apps for any grade level:

• Adobe Spark Video - Easily Create Videos in Minutes
• Adobe Spark Post - Create Stunning Graphics 
• Adobe Spark Page - Create Stunning Web Pages from your Words and Images

I created a recap of my BreakoutEDU sessions quickly through the desktop version to try out the features...just like the apps, it is clean, easy to use, and no ads!

Flashcards and Jeopardy Board from Google Spreadsheets

Flippity.net is a free online resource that will easily turn Google Spreadsheets into a set of online flashcards, or an online Jeopardy game.

Once you complete the steps to create your online content, it becomes dynamic in nature. As you change the contents of the spreadsheet, including adding or removing rows, the online flashcards or gameboard also changes.

This enables a teacher to maintain one Google Spreadsheet, and then use the same link they have bookmarked for flashcard review or a Jeopardy game.  This link can be a QR code on a wall, or simply bookmarked for easy access.

Have students create their own sets of online flashcards or Jeopardy game boards, and share with each their peers. 

ZeeMaps - Creating Interactive Maps

Have you wanted students to create maps demonstrating their understanding of geographical concepts in locations throughout the world?

ZeeMaps is an online, iPad friendly, tool that allows someone to create interactive customized maps. Simply click "create a free map", enter in a title and a few more starting details about your map, and you are off and creating.




Start making your map interactive by adding markers, which could contain descriptions, photos, and video. You may also want to add map annotations, or colored regions.

Once finished, publish your map and obtain html code which can be used to embed the map onto a website or blog post.  Published maps are dynamic in that when you modify the map, it auto updates onto your website.  Below is an example I've started highlighting some tech rich environments in North East Oregon Classrooms. There are ads with the free version.


No account is needed to create a map if you plan on starting then finishing in one setting. However, to save and comeback later and make modifications, you will need to create an account. Accounts vary in pricing structure, as the free account is more than adequate for educational needs.

Ideas for students could be to create interactive maps demonstrating different ecological climates of the world, an interactive walking tour with photos and videos from historical stops from your town, or charting biographical locations of historical figures from a country. The list of projects is endless.

Free, easy to use, and adaptable for educational environments makes Zeemaps a nice tool for many opportunities.

8 Classroom Photo Sharing Ideas Using Yogile

Yogile is a simple to use clean photo sharing service perfect for the classroom.  To begin sign up for a free account, create an album, and choose between a couple of settings.  

Albums created under the free account status will be automatically deleted after 14 days. It's perfect as they clean up the photo projects. You just need to remember to download the photos you want to save.

Yogile provides a random URL to access your album, or you can create your own.  

With this URL others can send photos to the album using the created email address, or upload them directly from a computer.

Another nice setting perfect for the classroom is to approve all photos before they are added to the album. This is perfect if you have students emailing a variety of photos for a particular assigned task.

There are no ties to social media, so you aren't playing photo roulette with "suggested" photos appearing on the webpage while you open the website in front of your classroom.

Ideas of how you can implement a shared photo album in your classroom:

1. Primary students can use iPod Touch's or iPads to take pictures of items that begin with letters of the alphabet and email those photos to a shared album.  It's best if the teacher types the email address the first time so that the email auto pops up for all following emails on an iDevice.  Other topics could include different shapes, different colors, or different sets of numbers.
2. Students could take pictures while on a field trip and upload their photos to a shared folder.
3. Students can email photos of whatever they want, and at the end of the week students can use the photos as writing prompts.
4. Have students take and share selfies to be used during class projects.
5. Students working on projects can have people from other parts of the world take and email photos into one shared folder, rather than have them arrive in many different emails.
6. Keep a photo record of different lab experiments conducted by students from various periods or classes in a district to be compared with each other at the completion of a unit.
7. Students can demonstrate an understanding of a vocabulary word by taking photo of them or someone "doing" the word, then store the photos in a shared folder to be reviewed later.
8. Have students take pictures of iconic images around town, like buildings, parks, murals or sculptures.  Then use a shared folder to place them all in one location accessible by anyone in class.

Please suggest other ideas how you could use a shared photo album with your class.

Remind 101 - Texting your Students

Remind101 is a communication tool using the technology everyone is carrying in their pockets, their cellphones.  And as a teacher this communication is one-way, which means those receiving your text messages can't reply back.

Start by creating a free account at Remind101.  After you have signed in you create a class then invite your end users to sign up.  End users sign up procedure is completed by having them send a text to a phone number with the body of the message containing a particular code correlating to the class you created.  If they enter it all in correctly, Remind101 replies back asking for further information from the end user and they are then part of your class.

To send everyone in your class a text message, you go into Remind101, type in the message, and click send.  You can even schedule it to send later.  There is even an option to have a Remind101 widget scrolling on your blog or website.

This is a great tool for elementary teachers to have parents of students sign up so they can be reminded of particular events; for instance a field trip tomorrow so please pack a sack lunch, or conferences next week.  High School teachers can have their students sign up into particular classes so they can remind them of due dates for projects, to study for a test, or even offer problems to solve.

For the people carrying tech tools in their pockets, Remind101 does provide access via iPad or iPod apps, as well as Android or Google Play Apps.

HeyTell - Talk on an ITouch?

The Apple ITouch IPod does almost everything the IPhone will do, except allow you to talk on the phone. One app comes close, HeyTell.

This free app available for ITouch, IPhone, and Android, allows end users to send voice messages to other HeyTell users. To register as a HeyTell user you will need a valid email. All voice is transmitted through IP, not through cell service. If the receiving party is not running the app, a pop up box will appear informing them of an incoming message. Once registered invite others to join and be part of your HeyTell friends list.

It's like a modern day walkie talkie. Teachers can use this app to have students connect with each other if doing collaborative projects between two classrooms. And parents, if your child is grounded from using the cell phone, yes, they can still communicate.

Evernote - Creating a "What I Learned" Portfolio

"I learned ...". Wouldn't you like to have each student be able to tell you what they learned after a lesson? Wouldn't it be so cool if that statement were saved on a computer? And wouldn't it be perfect if they were organized into student folders?

Evernote and their corresponding ITouch app allows students to do this with a quick set up.

For an elementary classroom:

• create an Evernote account
• create notebooks inside that account, one for each student
• using the app have students select appropriate notebook and record their message
• This example will save the recording into Andrew's Notebook once Andrew were to click the Voice option.

For upper elementary, middle school, or high school students you may want to have students create their own Evernote account, a notebook inside their account, and share their notebook with you as the teacher.

Other artifacts students can place into their Evernote portfolio are screen shots from IPod Touch's. Once a student completes an app demonstrating a learned skill, they can click the power button and home button at the same time, saving a screen shot into the ITouch photo library. Then use the camera roll button on the Evernote app to upload this image.

Students can include snip-its of documents they've created on the computer into their Evernote notebooks. Using the Evernote client for a computer, students can copy/paste portions of documents or images into their portfolio, or attach the entire file.

Explore options that exist in Evernote. Have students Favorite their 5 best learning items in time for conferences. This will provide an easy to access organization of all your students learning moments during the hectic rush of gathering evidence before Parent Teacher Conferences.