Takara Brownridge

Adobe Slate

Price: Free

Discription:

Named App Store Editors’ Choice, Slate lets you turn your next newsletter, report, invitation or travel adventure into a gorgeous visual story that delights readers on any device. Simply tap to select a unique look — beautiful fonts, color and magazine-style design are automatically incorporated. Fluid movement and elegant motion are applied instantly. Share your Slate story link anywhere. Grab attention, increase awareness and inspire action. Stand out.

What Slate Users Say:

“Our WIRED Slate Story, is almost like a mini magazine in its own right, and it couldn’t have been easier to make.”
— WIRED UK

“A useful and easy way to create text-and-photo-based scrolling web pages, Adobe Slate is a great, free tool for building universally viewable photo galleries, promotional materials, presentations and other communications.”
— CNET, 4/2/15

“Adobe’s been on an iPad app tear recently and is now releasing Adobe Slate so you can make presentations and stories look way more professional.”
— Gizmodo

If you like Slate, you’ll love another member of our family — Adobe Voice. Featured by Apple as one of the Best Apps of 2014, Adobe Voice is a free iPad app that helps you create stunning animated videos – in minutes.

BRING YOUR WORDS & IMAGES TOGETHER IN FUN WAYS
• Fun, fast and super simple.
• Just talk or type to add text.
• Use photos from your own device, your Lightroom library or Creative Cloud files.
• Pick a layout you love and Slate will make it look great.

CAPTURE ATTENTION WITH GORGEOUS DESIGN. INSTANTLY.
• Just tap on a variety of magazine-style themes for a custom, polished look.

Find a style to fit your story – one tap automatically changes fonts, colors and motion.

SHARE THE LINK EVERYWHERE. IMPRESS READERS.
Your Slate story looks beautiful on any device – phones, tablets and desktops.
• Inspire readers to action with buttons that link to: donate now, volunteer or learn more!
• Share your Slate story link on Twitter, Facebook, email, text message or embed it on your website.

To start creating your Slate, simply sign-up for your free Adobe ID or use your Facebook log-in. Log-in allows us to publish and host your Slate stories, so they will always be associated with you. Adobe ID’s are completely free and don’t require a subscription to Creative Cloud.

Application in the classroom: This app would be perfect in the classroom. Students need different ways of expressing the information that they know. If students are just given paper and pencil test to show thier knowledge base then they may become burnt out. When given the opportunity students will show what they know in many different ways. This app allows students to do so, with this app I would let the students tell stories of the information that they have learned on the classroom. I would let them use this app as a project to explain what they have learned in the lesson. This app is also great for teachers, it allows for them to have a slide show with a few pictures a bullet points and they can explain what is on the slides they have.

Reflection: I loved using this app. This app was creative and easy for me to use. With a few explanations and examples students all be able to use this app with no problem. This app is free which makes it an even better choice to use. Also I enjoyed how one can see the project that they have just made on the Internet as well. Using the iPad is not the only way to access the projects which can be extremely useful when the students go home and what to show thier parents what they have made without having to have an iPad.

Pros/Cons: There are many pros to this app such as the easy to use and all of the diffent ways one can make a project. I also think that the edit tool is super easy to use which can come I handy for the students. The only con that I could find of this app is the fact that one must sign in to create and view the projects. This is only a problem because students can easily forget the username and the password that they have created for the site. A way to combat that would be to create classroom friendly password that everyone would use with a different username.

Resources: Here is a look at the beautiful stories that can be told using the Adobe Slate app.

Here is a look at my story using the Adobe Slate application.

There are many educational applications that can be used to enhance the learning of students using an iPad or a regular computer. If the school has iPad’s, the Apple company has come up with an excellent resource to help teachers discover apps that they can use in the classroom for their students. The using apps in the classroom collection is a collection of apps that teachers can use in their classroom, when you look up the program on the iPad there are 18 different books to choose from and look through. While looking through the books there were 3 that I was really interested in.

1. The first book I selected was titled Scoodle Jam (3.99). This app allows for students to explore different concepts using graphic organizers. This also a built in whiteboard, with this app students can even share what they are working on and work on the project together. This is a great app because it allows for the students to work together to create something great.

2. The next book I explored was called Explain everything ( 2.99). This app is a screen-casting app that allows for students to record what they are doing. A lesson idea for this app was to have the students take a picture of the classroom and have a scavenger hunt with the picture.

3. The last book I looked into was Puppet Pals ( there is a free version and a 3.99 version). This is a fun way for students to learn how to retell stories and other important information from class. Also puppets can be very therapeutic for some children in the class to express themselves. All students can use this app to learn how to express themselves as well.

How to get there. Here is an explanation on how to access these books from your iPad:

1. Click on the iTunes U app icon (Graduation Cap)

2. Scroll down to the for educators and click on it.

3. Scroll down until you see Using Apps in the Classroom. To see all of the books click SEE ALL.

4. Then you can select one to download.

5. Unlike the Lesson Ideas, which are located in the my courses section of iTunes U, to access the app books again you will need to go to the iBooks application on the home screen to view them.

The book I chose to look at was called Hopscotch. ( there is a free version and a 9.99 version). This app helps students to learn code and develop important computer science, problem solving, and logical thinking skills. The app has games that range from ages 5-14 and come in a variety of subjects such as math, literacy, science, for ages 5-11. For ages 12-14 the list changes to include foreign language and geography. The book goes through the many different things that students can do in each category, for example in the math section for ages 5-11 they have given the lesson of having the students build their own house, which incorporates geometry. This is a fun way for students to learn about geometric shapes instead of them having to just listen to the teacher talk about them. For ages 12-14 the book gives the example of having the students design a vocabulary game for learning foreign language.

Learning a new language is easier the younger students are and by having them create their own games then they will be able to learn in a fun interactive way. What I really liked about this book is the fact that they gave sample lesson plans to go along with the app. This is excellent because sometimes it can be hard to know what to do and with a little guidance teachers can make a great lesson. I would use this app in my classroom because it is fun, interactive, and students would really enjoy getting to design different things. I would use this in my math classes the most, there were a lot of fun interactive ideas that I could use to really help my students learn. Over all this app will be very useful in the classroom and the book gave great examples as to how to use it.

Portfolios are an important tool within the realm of education. Portfolios can be used to assess a number of things about students and their learning. Using portfolios is an easy way to see if students are advancing in subject areas or if they are falling behind and needing extra help. The best thing ibook that I chose deals with the idea of digital portfolios. Traditionally portfolios are done in manila folders or a binder with paper stuffed into them, this method can be successful with lots of organization and making sure that the portfolio stays neat. The idea of a digital portfolio is that students get to create their portfolios using different apps, pictures, videos, and blogs to make their portfolios what they need to be. Digital portfolios can be very useful in the classroom and can enhance the technology skills of ever student in the classroom.

While reading this blog I learned a ton of information that could help me implement this into my future classroom. The sections that explain the rules of the blog were very insightful, she had rules such as the students can not post pictures of their faces, and everything must be approved by the teacher these few but necessary rules are for the protection of the student in the classroom, the internet can be a great creative place for the students but it can also be a dangerous place. Next section of the book speaks on which host to use for your students, I have used both of the options that she gave for using in the classroom. She gave edublog and kid blog as good examples to use in the classroom. The rest of the book speaks about what students can add to their portfolios and the ways that they can do it, it also gives explanations as to why those add ins are important to the portfolio style blogs.

This book has given me a lot to think about then deciding on how to use portfolios in the classroom. Reading this book has given me a real insight as to how to keep my students safe all while making sure that they are creating quality portfolios for the classroom. Another way I would use this information would be to send it out to parents so they know what is going on in the classroom, also so the parents are able to know what their students are doing in the classroom. This information will be useful in the classroom because students would be able to have a new way to use technology while creating a portfolio that they can continue to update for years to come. All in all this was a great read and I hope to incorporate the digital portfolio in my classroom one day.