Adobe Spark: "A free online and mobile graphic design app. Easily create beautiful images, videos, and web pages that help tell your own story."

Within the school day, we can use Adobe Spark to design visually appealing website pages, organize graphic information for posts on Google Classroom (maybe even the wall in your class), and construct videos for a student's project or a teacher's lesson plan. This FREE software lets us show our creative side through an engaging, educational platform.

Logging in is simple. Just click "Sign in with Google," enter your student/teacher VBCPS email (ex. 902101@vbstudents.com), and get started!

Working on an important project and forgot to save your changes before you exit???

DON'T WORRY! It saves every change you make....as soon as you make it :]

User Friendliness

Within every section of the web-based app, you will find plenty of clearly labeled tools to help you get the job done. Whether you need to resize a graphic, modify text and images, or even change the background...this app can do pretty much whatever you can think of. In addition to these tools, Adobe also provides an "Inspiration Gallery" where you can browse other published works for an idea or template - anything to get you started. Once you start your own work, it will show up on your home screen as a "Project." With all of these projects neatly laid out as soon as you log in, it's easy to navigate everything you have going on. From this page you can also edit, publish, and share your products.

Okay.....so not everything is perfect.

There are a few pitfalls to Adobe Spark. If you're trying to work collaboratively on a project you will have to find another app because Spark does not support editing or sharing of any projects aside from the user who created it. This means that anything you download from the app will be formatted in a non-editable version.

While there isn't any advertising within the app itself, an Adobe watermark is added onto any finished product (this means that it'll have the little white brand name in the corner of your work). BUT act fast, Adobe has said that it isn't including any watermarks until the end of the year!

One last thing :/

Adobe Spark does not currently have an app for the Android platform. They've said they are working on one, but no date has been set for its release.

Android users, don't lose all hope! You can still access Spark by going through the web browser on your phone and using the web-based app.

Alright, so what can I do with this app?

Three types of projects exist within the app: posts, pages, and videos. Need a little more clarification? Check out the information below.

Posts

Create posts for social media or any other type of graphic! Use this to make your awesome memes, inspirational quotes, classroom announcements, or your club poster.

Pages

Design your own web story, on your own web page! This works great for photo journals, class recaps, art portfolios, and even publishing lab reports.

Videos

Become an expert filmmaker and produce your own animated video! This works great for lessons, presentations, research summaries, and slideshows.

iOS users, you're in luck

Adobe offers three Spark apps on the web store, one for each of the topics listed above.

Spark Post- 151 MB, found at https://itunes.apple.com/app/id1051937863

Spark Page- 117 MB, found at https://itunes.apple.com/app/id968433730

Spark Video- 156 MB, found at https://itunes.apple.com/app/id852555131

To finish up

Whether you're a teacher or a student, Adobe Spark has features that you can certainly use. Need to make a meme, animate a project video, publish an online field trip recap, or design a graphic for economics? Spark can help you out.