Thursday, July 7, 2016

Spark Video: Turn Your Photos into Videos

Teach Me Tuesday: Spark Video YouTube Playlist

This past spring, I took a great MOOC from Adobe called Digital Storytelling.  We created engaging short videos or web pages using several mobile apps available on your iOS device for free from Adobe. Some of those apps are now available in web-based versions at http://spark.adobe.com. You can sign up for a free account at that website, or use your existing Adobe account.

The app I enjoyed the most was Adobe Voice, which is now called Spark Video. With Spark Video, you can combine images, text, and icons into pre-designed layouts and themes, and add you own narration to make short, engaging videos.  Here's the very first one I ever made (downloaded from Spark and saved to YouTube):



Since that first attempt, I've used Spark Video a lot more, and I've learned a few more things that I think make my videos a little better.  I use it now in each of my online classes to do a video overview of the week's work, to help learners focus on the important content as they study.  Here's is an example from my PSY 102 class:



In the future, I want to have students in my online courses create their own videos for project-based learning.  People learn better if they construct their own knowledge and produce something in the process, and Spark video would be a quick and easy way for them to construct an interesting project and something different than the usual written assignment.  For example, in psychology, students could choose a mental disorder and create a video describing the symptoms and treatment of it.  In astronomy, they could create a video about different classes of objects in the solar system.  It's a great way to foster creative thinking in our students and to encourage those higher order thinking skills.

Teach Me Tuesday: Spark Video Playlist


Best Practice Suggestion

The Spark Video Process

Keep your video short.  When I track analytics for my videos on YouTube, students rarely watch more than 3 minutes! In Spark Video, if you keep your narration under 10 seconds for each slide, that's 30 slides - that's quite a few.  So don't go for movie length videos with Spark Video; you can say an awful lot in just a couple of minutes of well-designed images and narration.

This is the process I generally follow when creating a Spark Video:
  • Develop a brief outline, indicating what content I want on each slide
  • Decide whether the slide will contain an image I have or one I will search for, an icon, or text
  • Add "things" (icon, photo, or text) to slides, picking appropriate layouts
  • Apply a theme and doublecheck all slides
  • Narrate my video
  • Add music and adjust timings
  • Preview my video and make final changes
I find spending a little time getting organized up front saves time in the long run. Once I have completed the video, I download it to my computer and upload it to YouTube for inclusion in my online courses. I write about the advantage of using YouTube and how to do that here.

Getting Started

When you log into the Spark web site, you access your project page.  Click the plus sign to start a new project.  You will go to a page with three choices: Post, Page, and Video.


Post allows you to create a new image from an existing image and text you add, while Page helps you create dynamic web pages with images, text, and links and no knowledge of HTML. We're going to look at Video. To start a new Spark Video project, click on the plus sign under Video.


The first thing you need to do is enter a title.  You can change your title later on, and you can even skip this step, but a title is a good place to start.  I'm calling my new video, Motivation and Behavior. Once you enter your title, click the Next button (or the Skip button if you don't want to add a title now).

Now you can choose an existing storyboard or start from scratch.  Storyboards contain a series of existing slides that give you suggestions on what content to include.  You don't need to follow the suggestions exactly; you can add and delete slides and move them around, but the storyboard is often a good place to start.  I plan to use the Teach a Lesson storyboard, which is on the second page of storyboards.  I just have to click on the right arrow near the bottom of the page to get to it.


The Spark Video Work Space

The work space is pretty simple, but let's break it down.


Your main work area is in the center.  That's where you add "things" - icons, text, or photos - into your slide. Since I picked an existing storyboard, I have hints about what type of content to add and my slides in my slide sorter have labels on them.  Again, those are just suggestions; you can add whatever you want to any slide, within certain guidelines.

Icons

Icons are simple two color images that are Creative Commons licensed.  You cannot add your own icons, but you can search for icons from within Spark. When you choose an icon, it takes on the color based on the theme you chose (more about themes is a bit). Icons are visually simple. so they are very useful when combined with text or photos.

Text

Text is just that - text.  You don't have any formatting control over the text you include; it is all based on the theme you choose.  The size defaults to whatever will fit in the text area,  You can add line breaks to control where text will split from one line to the next, but everything else is under Spark Video's control. At first, I found the inability to format text limiting, but now I actually like it, because it's one less thing I need to obsess over.  Spark Video will choose the best fit based on what you are doing, and it turns out that is pretty good.

Photos

In addition to your own photos, you can search from within Spark Video for any photo that has a Creative Commons license.  A Creative Commons license allows you to use a photo in your project without worrying about copyright as long as you give it proper attribution - and Spark adds the attribution for you! You can also add your own photos by uploading them from your computer or by adding photos you have saved to your existing Adobe Creative Cloud or Lightroom accounts (useful if you use something like Photoshop to edit your photos) or from you Dropbox or Google Photos accounts.

Best Practice Suggestion

Searching Outside of Spark

I use search and upload most often.  I search for an appropriate photo from within Spark Video first, and if I can't find what I'm looking for, I see if I can find it in the image files publishers provide to instructors.  If I still don't find what I want, I try searching Wikimedia Commons for freely usable photos; however, if I use a Wikimedia image, I have to be sure to add the appropriate attribution at the end.

Adding "Things"

To add a "thing," you click on the appropriate link in the work area.

If you choose Icon, the Icon search field appears on the right.  Enter the name of what you want, and then scroll through to find the icon you want to use.  If you can't find one, try a different search.  Once you find the icon you want, just click on it to select it, and it will appear in your work area.


When you choose Text, your cursor appears in the center of your work area.  Just type the text you want to enter.  As you type, Spark Video will resize the text to fit the work area, and add line breaks if there is too much text on one line.  You can control where the line breaks occur by pressing the enter key to insert the break where you want it. You will notice that the Layout pane now appears on the right; we will look at that later.


Photo gives you the most choices. When you choose Photo, the Photo pane will appear on the right.  Click the Upload Photo button to upload a photo you have on your computer or Find Photo to search for Creative Commons licensed images.  This is also where you can link your cloud photos accounts, like Adobe's Creative Cloud, Dropbox or Google Photos.


Once you've added the photo, you can resize it and move it around. To do so, you need to access the photo options, which you can do by just clicking on the photo. In addition to zooming, the photo options allow you to change to an icon or text or change the photo itself.  You can delete the photo you selected, too.  If you want to change the photo or replace it with an icon or text, I recommend deleting the photo first, and then entering the new text or selecting a new icon or photo. 



If you select Zoom, the Zoom dialogue (Zoom in or Zoom out) will appear either to the left or the right of your work space.  Zooming in makes the photo bigger, up to the default area defined by Spark for the photo, while zooming out makes it smaller.  If you zoom in on your photo, you can then move the photo around so you can choose the area of the enlarged photo will appear in the default Spark area. 

Using Your Slide Sorter

Sometimes you may find you have an extra slide you don't or you want to move the slides you have into a new order.  You use your slide sorter to do that.  

To delete or duplicate a slide, click on the thumbnail of the slide you want to select.  A menu button will appear in the upper right corner of that thumbnail. Click the menu button to access the menu, and then either duplicate or delete.



You can also reorder your slides using the slide sorter.  Just click and drag a slide into its new position.


Choosing a Layout

The default layout is "One Thing" which is a rectangular area in the middle of the slide, with a small amount of the background visible around it.  While that's often appropriate, there are several other layouts available. 

In addition to One Thing, you can have Two Things side by side.  You can also have a Thing with a text caption below it. You can also have a Full screen Photo, but only a photo; you can't have full screen Icons or Text. You can, however, add an Icon or Text on top of a Full Photo; the Text or Icon uses the same area as One Thing.


Again, at first I thought having just five layout options limiting, but in practice they make me focus on content rather than appearance.  Sure, once in a while I'd like to do three Things, or two Things on a full Photo, but I so far I've been able to make these work.  Anything more, and the video loses the power of simplicity.

You can apply a layout either before or after you add your "Things" - or both. If you choose your layout after you enter your "Things," Spark Video will keep adjust the placement of your Things.  For example, if you add Text to a One Thing Layout, when you change to Two Things, the text will appear in the left Thing box. If you start with Full Photo and Thing, and enter text on top of your photo, that text will disappear if you change to just Full Photo, but it will reappear in the caption if you change to Thing + Caption and back on top of you photo if if you go back to Thing + Full Photo. The key is you can try different layouts without losing the work you have done.

Adding Narrations

Once you are happy with your photos, icons, and text, it's time to add narrations. you narrate each slide individually, and you can narrate each one over and over until you are happy with the result. To narrate, of course, you must have a microphone hooked up to your computer.  The first time you narrate, Spark may ask permission to access your microphone; just click through the dialog boxes to give permission.


To start the narration, click the orange microphone button at the bottom of your work area and talk! Spark Video keeps track of the time and even tells you if you're talking too much. After about 10 secs, the Keep it short message will appear; of course, you can make your narration as long as you want, but if it is too long, you will lose your student's attention. When you have finished your narration for a slide, you can preview it by clicking the arrow to the left of the narration button.  This will play your narration for that slide only, along with any music you have chosen.

Best Practice Suggestion

Doing Better Narrations

I find it easier to build my Spark Video on the web site, and then narrate on my iPhone.  Unfortunately, Spark is not yet available for Android devices, but you can always narrate on the Spark web site. However you narrate, either on the web site or your iOS devices, I have a few recommendations to make your narration the best it can be:
  • Stick to one device: I found that when I narrated some on my iPhone, some on my iPad, and some online, there was a different tonal quality to each device.  You can hear that in the first video I did about the New Horizons mission.
  • Pause before and after you speak: When you are narrating, click the narrate button, and wait just a fraction of a second before talking. You want to see the timer start to go above the narrate button.  When you are done talking, wait another fraction of a second before letting go of the narrate button.  You don't need to wait long; just long enough to think about waiting.  But that will help prevent cutting off the beginning or end of your narration.  Again, you can hear that in the first video I did.
  • Talk at a normal rate: Forget everything you've read about talking slowly for presentations.  Just talk at your normal rate of speed.  Again, these are meant to be short, engaging videos, and if your narration is too ponderous, students won't pay attention.
  • Be animated: Don't be afraid to have a little fun! Put some expression in your voice and avoid talking in a monotone.  While you want to talk at a normal rate, you might want to exaggerate your tone to make your narration a little more interesting.

Themes 

Spark Video has about 30 themes for you to choose from.  The theme sets the background of your slides (unless you choose a Full Photo layout; in that case no background if visible), as well as the color of your text and icons.  The theme also set the font size and type of your text. Just click Themes in the upper right to bring up the Themes pane, then scroll through the themes to find one you like.  Click on the theme preview in the Themes pane to apply it to your video.  You can reapply additional themes as many times as you want, but you can only have one active theme.  You also cannot edit the themes or create your own.



Best Practice Suggestion

Picking Themes

Be sure to preview your video after you choose a theme; some of the themes can crop out parts of your images (like Watercolor!) or the colors may not complement your photos (Ginger?).

Music

Spark has several simple melodies for you to use as background music. To change the music, you click on the Music link in the upper right to bring up the Music pane.  There you can scroll through and select the tune you would like to use.  You can also choose to use no music by clicking the slider button at the top Music pane to turn music off.  To upload your own music (please do not use copyrighted music without permission), click the Add My Music button.

To preview a tune, put your cursor on the name of the tune, and a play button will appear to its left.  Click the play to preview the tune; click the stop button to stop the preview.  To select a tune, click on its name, and a check will appear to the left of its name, indicating that is the one you are using. You can adjust the volume of the music with the slider at the top of the Music pane.


Best Practice Suggestion

Using Music

Watch the audio levels if you add your own music.  The Spark music choices all have a uniform volume, but commercial music often varies in volume.  What may sound great at the beginning may become tooo loud or too soft later in your video.

I did a video about the Jovian planets and added a symphony movement called Jupiter as the music.  It starts off soft, but builds quickly, and if I hadn't previewed the the entire video, I wouldn't have known my narrations were being drowned out by the music!

Previewing Your Video

To preview your entire video (and not just your current slide), you can click the Preview button to the left of your slide sorter your work area.



Your preview will open up, hiding your Spark work area.  You will be able to see all transitions, hear your narrations as well as your background music, and decide if you need to make any changes.  When you are done previewing, click the X in the upper right corner of the preview window to go back to your work area.



Sharing and Downloading

Spark saves your work as you go along and when you return to your projects page, so there is no save button.  To publish or download your completed video, you can click the Share button at the top of the screen. When you do that, the Share window opens up:


Notice that the title you first entered is automatically filled in. You can change it here and add a subtitle, if you want.  You can pick a category if you plan to share it publicly to the Adobe Community; just click the drop-down menu to pick a category. In this case, I chose not to share my video publicly, but instead to just create a link I can send to Facebook or Twitter or paste into a webpage or email.



You can see this little video in shared format here.


Best Practice Suggestion

Using YouTube

I prefer to download my video and upload it to YouTube. This allows me to take advantage of the closed captions in YouTube and to easily embed my video into Blackboard Learn. Here is the same video on YouTube.


When you go back to your Projects page, you will see a thumbnail of your new project. You can also share your project from here, or if you click the menu button in the upper right corner, you can rename your project to change that title you entered at the beginning, you can duplicate it if you want to use the same format for a new video, you can delete it, and you can download it.  You also have the option to unpublish it if you have already shared it. To edit your project, just click on the thumbnail, and you are back in Spark Video!



2 comments:

  1. Hi Karen,
    Just viewed your blog post on spark video. The instructions are clear and easy to follow. I like how you give your personal point of view on what works best. Thank you for this! Cheryl Rogers

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  2. Hi Karen, this is a really great entry. I like what you say about narration speed. I've learned a bit from marketing vloggers who talk about talking normally and not directly from a script, and when I watch a video from Pearson Education the slow drone of the narration absolutely kills me and I keep thinking... how is anyone using this at all! :)

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