Tuesday, March 3, 2015 /8 Adar 5775
The Technology: Adobe Voice
by Debbie Harris deb@debharris.com
Edited by Ann D. Koffsky 

Kids love to tell stories. And teachers love an app that lets kids effortlessly choose photos or graphics, record their own stories and easily create an accompanying video. 
 
Adobe Voice is free and surprisingly robust. The best thing about it is that it doesn’t get in your way – it’s simple and intuitive to use, doesn’t have a lot of unnecessary confusing features, and saves files in a format that you can easily share. Users can choose from a large variety of slide layouts, themes and music to enhance their stories. You can use the images that are in your personal camera roll, or you can search among Adobe Voice’s copyright-free image library (called “icons” in the app). There’s a nice selection of background music, too, or you can use music that’s already on your iPad.
 
Users need to use an Adobe ID (or sign in with Facebook credentials) to create Adobe Voice stories. You can sign up for an Adobe ID right in the app or do it via the adobe  website. Then, simply download Adobe Voice for your apple device. (Sorry – there’s no Android version right now.)
 
In Your Classroom

• Have students bring in Jewish holiday family heirlooms and take photos of them holding them. Then, record the students talking about their object and how it’s important to their family.
• Invite your students to retell a Bible story. Ask them to create between three and four drawing that depict important parts of that story. Then, use Adobe Voice to record students’ voices retelling the story to you, and add images of their drawing to accompany their telling.
• Use Adobe Voice to create a tutorial for students struggling to learn how to pronounce prayers. Record yourself reciting the words to a prayer, and add imagery that relates to the meaning of the prayer.

 
 Debbie Harris is the Director of Educational Technology at Solomon Schechter Day School of Metropolitan Chicago and blogs at http://www.museforjews.com.