PPS Instructional Technology

With only 8 and a half days left in the school year, we are all looking for ways to keep out students engaged in the learning process while we wrap up the remainder of the curriculum for the year.  I may have found just the tool to help you with that very goal! Adobe Spark  allows you to "turn your ideas into impactful social graphics, web stories and animated videos—in minutes."  This free tool is super simple to use, works on Chromebooks, iOS devices, desktops, or laptops, and allows even our youngest users to create a professional looking project in minutes. There are three tools in Spark.  The first, Post, allows users to create a graphic, like a twitter banner or poster, to share a message.  I had my second and third graders create their own faux twitter banners.  They loved trying to share a message with simply a picture and a quote.  Here is a project created by Teah.  She chose this quote because it is what her family says every n...

Having students create videos and podcasts is a great way for them to demonstrate their understanding of a concept. Unfortunately, finding music tracks for these types of class projects can be tricky because you need to use songs that are not subject to some form of copyright. This becomes an even bigger problem if you want to share your project online, and it gets taken down by YouTube for copyright infringements. To help with this issue,  YouTube have just released a library of tunes that you can download freely and use in your multimedia projects. There are over 100 songs and melodies to start with from different genres and styles. You can access the library at www.youtube.com/audiolibrary This great tip was found at:  http://www.whiteboardblog.co.uk/2013/09/youtube-launches-library-free-use-music/