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Adobe Express
Pros: Create and share a wide variety of visual media all in one platform.
Cons: As a primarily visual platform, the tool might be challenging for students with varying accessibility needs.
Bottom Line: Beautiful templates and user-friendly tools empower students to turn their creative ideas into professional-looking media.
To get started, use a premade template to customize a quick poster or graphic organizer for your classroom. If you have an hour, visit the Adobe Education Exchange website for the K–12 version. Here you can search for lesson templates and watch short, self-paced videos that teach you the ins and outs of Adobe Express and how to maximize creative learning.
Adobe Express is good for making teacher materials, but the real magic happens when you hand it over to your students. Create a free Adobe Express classroom account or work with your technology department to connect students to Adobe Creative Cloud. Adobe Express integrates with the most popular learning management systems, making it easy to assign and manage projects. Students can invite each other to collaborate on a shared project and can share it in a variety of ways.
Still trying to figure out how to use Adobe Express? Here are a few ideas: As an intro to the platform, have students create an "About Me" poster or timeline of their life. In language arts class, build a graphic organizer to analyze literature or do some pre-writing prep. History students can design a faux newspaper or broadside about a historical event, perhaps from a firsthand perspective. In science, ask students to create an infographic to illustrate lab results or share research data. Though print media is the simplest way to get started in Adobe Express, you can also use the platform to create and publish videos. And if you really want to get your students' attention, do a project in which they create memes or GIFs.
Adobe Express is a media creation platform that's available on the web as well as via a mobile app. There's a free K12 education platform for schools that also includes access to the Adobe Photoshop Express mobile app and Adobe Premiere Rush, a desktop video creation platform. Teachers and students use their Google Education accounts to log in to Adobe Express; teachers can provide students an access code to join.
Most novice users will start by selecting a template for a presentation, poster, or other type of document and then modifying it to fit their needs. You can also use Adobe Express to create videos, edit images, make PDFs and GIFs, and generate QR codes. Students can invite each other to collaborate on their projects. It's super easy to share and publish work too. You can share it via link, email, social media, Google Classroom, or Microsoft Teams, send it to Google Drive, or download it to your device. Adobe Express also supports several types of integrations with a variety of popular classroom platforms including Clever, Classlink, Canvas, Blackboard, Book Creator, Wakelet, and Flip.
To see how this tool works, watch our video overview of Adobe Express.
Full Disclosure: Adobe and Common Sense Education have partnered in the past.
The learning potential of Adobe Express is dependent on the quality of your lesson plans. Take a little time to explore the templates, watch a few videos, or read the Adobe Express blog to imagine the product's full potential and spark some creative learning and help students stretch the boundaries of their creative thinking. Be sure to take advantage of the Publish and Share features by giving students an authentic audience. Collecting finished projects in Google Classroom is fine, but don't stop there! Build an Adobe Express website or use another platform like Wakelet to share student projects with parents and friends. Allow and encourage students age 13+ to share their work on their own social media accounts. For those poster-style projects, find a ream of large-format paper and display color prints along the hallway or classroom walls where students can take pride in their work and learn from each other.
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Model Being a Creative Communicator Using Adobe Spark
Like so many tools available to us as educators, Adobe Spark may seem a bit daunting the first time you use it. Once you select the type of project you want to create (Post, Page, or Video), you are directed to a template that will guide you in creating the product. You will find prompts to guide your text and dozens of suggested themes. If you are like me, you may spend a little extra time clicking through options and playing with design. On the other hand, our students will appreciate being able to clear the slate and start with an empty canvas that they can personalize.
Since most of the schools I work with are Google Apps for Education, students and teachers can get started by logging in with their GAFE account. If your school is using the Adobe Suite and students have existing accounts, those can be used instead. Since Adobe Spark is on the cloud, the one login works across all devices and browsers. In schools without 1:1, this means students aren't tethered to the computer lab.
One of the biggest advantages of Adobe Spark is that is compatible with most devices including Chromebooks (love BYOD-friendly tools). The only conflict is that it is not currently in the Google Apps Store (sorry Android phone/tablet users). iOS users can download the suite of apps (Post, Page, and Video).
To answer all your user start-up questions, check out the Guide for Educators and Schools.
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