My Favorite Thing: Adobe Express

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 By: Koralina McKenna, OIT Academic Specialist

Around this time of year I was always looking for something new and versatile to capture my students interest. I wanted something that I could use from simple things like one-pagers and then use later for their final projects. Which brings me to my absolute favorite tool on the OIT roster - Adobe Express!


Whether you're having students create an infographic, one-pager, thinking map, video or presentation - Adobe Express has you covered. It’s simple and easy to use for any grade level, individual or in groups; it doesn’t matter if you start from a template or scratch what your students create will be polished and professional. Students will find exactly what they need from a robust image, video and audio libraries built right into the editor. Perhaps what is most conducive to building student capacity with Adobe Express is that the editor stays the same regardless of the type of project they create. Students can download their projects to turn them into a Brightspace assignment. 

Graphics: Create professional quality graphics from a template or scratch, choose your canvas size and get started. Use photo editing tools like remove background or crop to shape to make a truly unique design that unleashes student creativity. Download the project as a .jpeg, .png or PDF to turn it in. PDF’s now support hyperlinks too!

 

Video: Create a video by adding an animation to any graphic or selecting a template to customize. Add more scenes, transitions, music or narrate the video with a voice over. I personally recommend any of the “promote an idea” video templates. Download the video as a .mp4 to turn it in.

Presentations: Make student presentations POP with the new presentation tool. With hundreds of templates and the same editor tools as graphics and videos, making a presentation is a breeze. Present directly from Adobe Express or download the presentation as a PDF; select from selected page or all pages.

Animate from Audio: One of the most fun features of Adobe Express is the ability to make a talking cartoon from an audio recording. Select the character, background and record the audio. After students can download the cartoon or open it in the editor to add it to a graphic or video!

With a tool as robust and versatile as Adobe Express, you may never need another creative tool. If you’re looking to ease your students into Adobe Express, check out this month's challenge or any of the past monthly challenges*. Each challenge includes a tutorial video and template. 


Adobe Express is accessible to all teachers and students via Classlink. For more information and resources on using Adobe Express visit Teacher Intro to Digital tools.


*AACPS accounts do not have access to any of the generative AI tools in Adobe Express.



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