This was only my second time using Adobe Spark to create videos. I had used it one time before when discussing another topic for this Specialist's program. I feel like Adobe Spark is a very user-friendly application. It is very simple to use, and offers tutorials for those who may be easily confused.
Next year, one of the things that I plan to begin the year with is by letting students get to know me better. I missed out on opening the year up with students this year because the position was not mine until September. However, I'm already planning how to start next year off with a bang! One of the things that I would like to do is to create a video to allow students to get to know more about me. I used this opportunity to create a video with Adobe Spark. I uploaded my Adobe Spark video to YouTube, and it is presented below.
When students are familiar with who I am as a teacher and a person, they may feel more comfortable expressing things about themselves. We also have Literacy Lab as a block class, which is a computer class. I would love to partner up with that class to be able to allow the students to create these videos. This could be completed in small group, or individually. The students can use Adobe Spark, or another application that is similar to create their own video about themselves. We could use these as a "Student Spotlight" opportunity, and play their video on our monitors that we have hanging in the hallway. This could also be used as a project for groups. If telling about themselves is not something that they want to do, then maybe they could choose a different topic to make a video using Adobe. My video may just be an eye opener for students to understand that there are tools out there for this type of thing.
Copyright & Creative Commons
Students need to understand the importance of giving credit where credit is due. Sure, I used all of the pictures that I already had of my family to create my video, but they may not have that option. Therefore, they will need to cite the website that they were able to use to find their images. I would suggest that students stick with a certain picture finder, such as Pics 4 Learning. Pics 4 Learning is an image library that is safe and secure for education. Teachers and students can use these copyright-friendly photos and illustrations for classroom projects, websites, videos, or any other educational setting.
I had no clue what Creative Commons even was until today. Creative commons provides free, easy-to-use copyright licenses to give the public access to people's creative abilities. This is a really great resource to have! I will be sharing these resources with teachers at my school. I really liked reading, "When we share, everyone wins," on the website. This is so true! Not only does everyone win, but everyone learns. This site gives great opportunity to research topics and watch videos, view images, as well as add your own to their library. Collaboration is a method that this site is working toward. If you look below you will find organizations that Creative Commons has been working with. Wow!
While researching this topic, I couldn't help but go back in my mind two years ago, when I was a special education co-teacher in the fourth grade. At that point, I was still getting the "hang" of being a special education teacher. It was my second year, and I was still learning and growing each day with my students. I had our Assistive Technology Director come work with me to come up with some add-ons and extensions that would benefit one of the students that I worked with daily. Some of the things that we discovered really changed things for the both of us. These tools can be used for differentiation and have been used with students with disabilities as well.
2. AdBlock for YouTube- Do you get really annoyed when watching a video on YouTube and the advertisements just keep on coming? Do yourself a favor, and if you don't have this extension, please download it now. This was one of my favorite extensions! I was able to set this extension to use with YouTube. Any time that a video would have an advertisement pop up, it would block it. I was always really worried that the ads that were coming up would have curse words in them, and now I don't have to worry about this any longer. The ads could be quite distracting to my students with disabilities, so this is a great way to cut out those distractions. This helps with communication and critical thinking. Students will be thinking about the topics instead of the advertisements that are appearing. It helps communicate the message that they are trying to present.
3. Office Editing for Docs, Sheets, and Slides- This extension was another useful one for me to use. Sometimes, people, or school systems, may be broke. They may not be able to afford to put Microsoft Word, Excel, or Powerpoint, on your computers. Therefore, this extension will help with that problem. This extension allows the user to open and edit any of the Microsoft programs by using Google Docs, Sheets, or Slides. This is more geared toward teachers, but most students today are more familiar with Microsoft Word, unless you are like our county with our Google-focused brains. This helps with creativity, collaboration, and communication. Students will be able to be creative with their writing, edit and proof other people's works (even in Microsoft), and allows the communication between the students to take place (Google Chat would be a great way to talk about the editing that is happening).
Resources:
“Adblock for Youtube™.” Google, Google, chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/adblock-for-youtube/cmedhionkhpnakcndndgjdbohmhepckk?hl=en.
“Office Editing for Docs, Sheets & Slides.” Google, Google, chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/office-editing-for-docs-s/gbkeegbaiigmenfmjfclcdgdpimamgkj?hl=en.
“Pics4Learning.” Pics4Learning, www.pics4learning.com/.
“Read&Write for Google Chrome™.” Google, Google, chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/readwrite-for-google-chro/inoeonmfapjbbkmdafoankkfajkcphgd?hl=en-US.
“When We Share, Everyone Wins.” Creative Commons - Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported - CC BY-SA 3.0, creativecommons.org/.