Spark Video

Reviewed by Maria Widmer
Details: Adobe Systems, Inc., June 10, 2016, iOS 8.1 or later
Cost: Free
Review: Adobe Spark Video is a simple, intuitive app that helps users to create professional-looking animated videos in minutes. Users record their voices and combine the audio narration with a selection of personal photos, Spark Video’s free images and icons, and a musical soundtrack for the background.
Spark Video offers a fast and simple solution for instructors looking to incorporate Digital Storytelling activities into their formal learning environments.
Spark Video can help to bridge informal and formal learning contexts by enabling students to transform the photos on their personal mobile devices into personal narratives, with which they can externalize, share, and reflect on aspects of their identities. Digital storytelling can be an effective way to support team and community building in the classroom, as explored in Gerstein’s 2013 chapter. Spark Video’s straightforward, intuitive interface fulfills Gerstein’s recommendation that mobile technologies selected for use in the classroom be easy to learn and easy to use (Gerstein, 2013, p. 275).
Sources:
Gerstein, J. (2013). Team and Community Building Using Mobile Devices. In Handbook of Mobile Learning (pp. 268-284). Routledge.
