OK. I wanted to document my most recent embroidery practice through an animated video BUT I tried to get videos of me doing the stitches & it was just not working, so I pivoted (again, cue Ross Geller).
Adobe Express
My pivot lead me to an Adobe tool, and, WOW! I have always been a fan of Adobe but it just keeps getting better and better, this week I tested out Adobe Express as a way to show case my most recent efforts in my embroidery journey.
I was overwhelmed with the templates to choose from, please see a summarized list below:
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- Social Media Stories & Posts (Instagram & Facebook)
- Posters
- Logos
- Flyers
- Collages
- Book Covers
- Album Covers
- YouTube Thumbnails
- Resumes
- Invitations
- Menus
AND these were just the templates on the homepage – if you click on the ‘Projects’ tab on the left side there is even more!!!! This is where I found the ‘Worksheet’ templates, over 1,600 of them, SCORE! Now initially, I was thinking this is what I would use Adobe Express for, to create worksheets for my lesson planning, but as I explored further I began to think it would be a great tool for students to use as well!
Unfortunately, there is a Premium feature – though I found many of the templates and editing tools to be free! One premium feature that would have come in handy for my project in particular would be the photo background remover, but I could still made do without it.
I clicked around the homepage, checking out the different tools and templates that I could use, there were some Premium templates but for the most part I found them to all be free. I decided I wanted to create a poster and my with creative skills lacking, I selected a template rather than starting from scratch. Once I was in the project editing I found that there were many cool tools to be used including: Text, Photos, Shapes, and other Design Assets.
You can also start from scratch by clicking the big purple + in the left hand corner of the home screen, where you will be given the option on what time of project you want to create. In addition to creating a project, you can also edit photos a number of ways – one being by removing the background, though this requires a subscription. There is also the option to edit videos and pdfs – neat.
Once in the ‘Projects’ tab you can see your work in progresses, but what I found to be particularly cool was that you can also share your projects with others and vice versa where you can collaborate together. That is an awesome feature for group projects!
How would I use Adobe Express as an educator? I would use it to create posters for my classrooms and worksheets for my students.
How would my students use Adobe Express? To create visualizations that they otherwise might have done by hand. One example I have would be for students to create a Book Cover as an alternative for a book report!
How does Adobe Express fit into The SAMR Model? I think that it sits on Augmentation – the features of Adobe Express can improve the creative process as there is more ideas and both teachers and students can be more creative or flexible with their ideas – but it does not completely transform what would be done without it.
My overall review of Adobe Express would be that it is easily navigated, full of incredible variation and a great tool for both teachers and students!
Back to My Embroidery Journey
This week I practiced the stitches I had learnt in the following week – really focusing on the 4 basic stitches, seen in my Adobe Express creation below.
I also free-handed a little bit of a make-shift rainbow from the 4 stitches outlined in the poster above. It is very crooked as I still haven’t learnt how to transfer over an outline, but I do feel confident I am getting stronger with my stitching 🙂
Coming Next
FLOWERS & LEAVES and all that fun stuff is my plan for next week – I am excited for it!!