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PDF Presentation Tool: Meet Sumatra PDF

by Miguel Guhlin
written by Miguel Guhlin

Ever wish you could easily display a PDF full screen? Every other Zoom or Google Meet meeting, I found myself wishing I could make a PDF into a full-screen presentation without having to install fancy software. Now, turning your PDF into a dynamic presentation is easier. A tool to use is Sumatra PDF. It is simple to use and free. Use it to read PDFs, ebooks, comic books, as well as view images on Windows computers. And, you will also find a grab bag of AI PDF Summary tools below. Come along and take a look.

Before I share more about Sumatra PDF, let’s see how these align to the TCEA Essential Learning Expectations (ELEs) for Teachers.

Essential Learning Expectations (ELEs) Alignment

The most important alignment is the one focused on Digital Literacy. Working with digital documents to create presentations remains a challenge for many. How many times have you gotten a PDF from the web or a colleague, then had to share it at a staff meeting?

ELEAlignment
1.0 Tech IntegrationSumatra PDF seamlessly integrates technology into teaching practices (1.1)
2.0 Digital LiteracyEnhances digital document presentation skills (2.1)
5.0 Critical ThinkingAllows for interactive analysis of digital content (5.1)

There are several ways to share a PDF full-screen, of course.

Alternate Ways to Share a PDF

You can always drop a PDF into Canva for Education (free), Google Slides, or MS Powerpoint. You can even choose to use Adobe Acrobat.

Once there, you can turn it into a presentation. But the drawback to that? That PDF is now filling up your cloud storage space. And, the translation of an Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) may not work well.

If you are on Windows, you have another alternative that is free and portable. In fact, I’m putting PDF Slideshow on my USB flash drive as one of my must-have tools on the go.

Unleashing the Power of PDFs

With Sumatra PDF, you can now view or present your PDF files. It describes itself in this way:

SumatraPDF is a free PDF, EPUB, MOBI, CHM, XPS, DjVu, CBZ and CBR reader for Windows. It’s small, fast, customizable and full of features.

As you can see in the screenshot above, it’s easy to flip to fullscreen or presentation mode with a Ctrl+L or press F11 function key on your keyboard.

Pricing

If you are wondering, “How much does Sumatra PDF cost?” you need not worry. It is free. You can get it in a variety of versions, including a portable version that can be run from a USB drive. This makes it a perfect helper in situations where you are working in an academic setting and want a reliable PDF viewer on the go.

AI-Powered Summaries

Before you leave, let me share a list of AI-powered PDF Summary tools. These are popping up everywhere, so make sure to check out my list. If you don’t see your favorite one, let me know, ok?

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A list of AI-powered PDF Summaries

Conclusion

SumatraPDF offers an easy to use, versatile solution. Use it to quickly display PDFs full-screen, or set up a computer to cycle through the PDF. What’s more, it comes in a portable version you can take with you on a USB flash drive. That might make it the perfect solution for a presentation station or wall-mounted display. Give it a spin.

Additional Resources

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Adobe

Visual Literacy Boost with Adobe Express

by Miguel Guhlin
written by Miguel Guhlin

What will you create today? It’s the question that greets anyone visiting the Adobe Express website. A more important question may be, how are you teaching students to interpret, create, and use visual content for communication and learning? In this blog entry, you will get some suggestions on how to accomplish that with Adobe Express.

What is Adobe Express? It is a free tool that offers powerful image editing tools. Educators can use them to make content that models visual literacy.

Author generated image
Author generated image

What is Visual Literacy?

The easier digital design tools get, the more important that students learn how to use them. Visual literacy describes what this entails, including these components:

  • Decode Infographics. Today, infographics abound online. Knowing how to make sense and critically analyze them remains important. How do these share information or emotions? What’s our own reaction to them?
  • Craft Content. In this case, the content includes presentations, social media graphics, and infographics. This content has to be both visually appealing and get its message across to the viewer.
  • Apply Principles. This can include color theory, layout, and typography. Pre-designed templates and filters can ease the burden of applying these principles.
  • Weave Stories. You can combine text, images, and other elements to tell a story.
  • Navigate Ethics. This includes everything from copyright, fair use, to making and using visuals in ethical ways.

There are many tools to model visual literacy to students. Before jumping into Adobe Express, let’s take a look at some of the others available.

Did You Know?

TCEA offers several courses that address visual literacy, including Adobe Photoshop, Canva Educator, and Canva Specialist. These are affordable ways to get started with learning about how to best model visual literacy for your students.

Alternatives to Adobe Express

While there are no one to one alternatives to Adobe Express, you might consider the amazing options below. One of my favorites is Canva for Educators. And, there are many free, open source tools. See a short list of alternatives below:

Now that you’ve seen some of the alternatives, let’s jump into some of the fun activities you can do. Adobe Express makes these possible with ease.

Note: All scenarios below are fictional to demonstrate the effectiveness of the quick actions mentioned.

#1 – Quick Actions for Basic Image Edits

“Adobe Express lets us focus on creativity rather than getting bogged down in technical details,” says Ms Johnson, a middle school art teacher. She uses digital image manipulation and demonstrates the quick actions feature.

You can use Quick Actions to:

  • Resize images for consistent presentation slides
  • Remove backgrounds to create digital collages
  • Teach composition principles through image cropping exercises

How to resize an image:

  1. Open Adobe Express and select “Resize image” from Quick Actions
  2. Upload your image or drag and drop it into the editor
  3. Choose a preset size or enter custom dimensions
  4. Click “Download” to save your resized image

Here’s a quick video tutorial on how to do that:

#2 – Make Visuals Better with Filters

“These tools allow us to discuss how color and contrast affect mood in images,” says Mr. Garcia, a high school teacher. “You can use tools like color and contrast to for visual storytelling.”

Some classroom applications include:

  • Lead a discussion on color theory using the Looks filters
  • Demonstrate how to balance exposure in photos for science fair displays
  • Collaborate with students to create visually appealing infographics

How to apply Looks and adjust settings:

  1. Open your image in the Adobe Express editor
  2. Click on “Adjust” in the left sidebar
  3. Scroll through available Looks and click to apply
  4. Fine-tune using sliders for brightness, contrast, saturation, etc.
  5. Click “Apply” when satisfied with the changes

Here’s a quick video walkthrough on how to do that:

#3 – Rely on AI for Creative Projects

“AI opens up possibilities for visual creation,” says Ms. Valdez, a high school art teacher. “We use Firefly AI’s text-to-image feature to make illustrations, visual aids, and more.” Using AI in this way gives teachers the opportunity to model ethical prompt engineering to students.

Here are some ways to do that followed up by prompts:
Here’s a markdown table matching prompt examples to the categories you specified:

CategoryType of PromptActual Prompt
Guide students in generating custom illustrations for literary analysisLiterary Analysis Illustration“Create an image that represents the central theme of hope in ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’. Include a mockingbird, a courtroom, and a tree with warm, golden light filtering through its leaves.”
Teach responsible AI use by discussing prompt engineeringAbstract Concept Visualization“Create an image that represents the concept of ‘freedom’. Use symbolic elements and a color palette that evokes feelings of liberation and possibility.”
Collaborate on creating visual aids for historical events using Generative FillHistorical Event Visualization“Generate an image depicting the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Show a group of men in 18th-century attire gathered around a table with a large document. Include quill pens and an inkwell.”

How to generate images with Firefly AI:

  1. Click on “Text to image” in Adobe Express
  2. Enter a detailed description of the desired image
  3. Click “Generate” and wait for AI to produce options
  4. Select preferred image from the results
  5. Refine the image further using other editing tools if desired[1]

Here’s a video tutorial that shows you how:

Wait, There’s More! Visual Literacy Activities

Want to see some other ideas for using Adobe Express in your classroom? Consider this Guided Activities Table (you will be prompted to make a copy with Google Docs). These activities enable you to take advantage of Adobe Express image editing and nurture visual literacy in your classroom. Guide students in this critical digital life skillset.

Adobe Express simplifies visuals. See how educators can use this tool to boost visual literacy in any subject.

Other Resources

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Explore five low-prep to no-prep end-of-year activities for the last days of school!
AdobeEnd of Year

Five End-of-Year Activities for the Last Days of School

by Emily Horn
written by Emily Horn

It’s that time of year when everything is wrapping up, things are winding down, desks are being cleaned, and supplies are being organized for summer storage. In the middle of the hustle and bustle, here are a few no-prep or very low-prep end-of-year activities to use! Have a little fun taking strategies, games, or tools you may already know and love and giving them a little twist. Let’s dive in!

1. Mix-Pair-Share 

Have fun with the beloved and simple-to-use Kagan strategy, Mix-Pair-Share. Add in some end-of-the-year questions, and you have a simple, prep-free activity for the final days of school. Have students spread out around the room or stand by their desks. Play music and prompt them to walk around the room to “mix up.” When the music stops, students can high-five the person closest to them. If you’d prefer not to use music, you can use a timer and say, “Pair up!” when it’s time for students to find a partner. Each time they partner up, choose a different question to ask, and students share their answers with their partner.  Here are some questions you can use, or edit this document to create your own! Read them over before using them to be sure they’re a good fit for your class.

Extension: Display the template with your projector and come up with questions as a class! Students can also create questions in pairs, and you can compile them for this activity.

End-of-year questions about school to use with Mix-Pair-Share!
Access the Editable Questions

2. Elbow-to-Elbow Read Alouds

Take students of any age to an elementary library! Have them choose their favorite children’s picture book to read with a partner. Even older students love to revisit favorites from their childhood! Ask the students to sit elbow to elbow, switching off the reading by page so that both get the opportunity to read aloud. If you don’t have access to an elementary school library, you can pick up some favorite picture books from the local library to bring in.

Extension: Have students write a brief notecard book review and summary of their book like some bookstores do! These can be given to the librarians and displayed with the books to add interest. Or, students can record their reviews using Flip! These videos can be turned into QR codes to be displayed, scanned, and watched in the library.

Access the Editable Book Review Template

3. Adobe Express Creative Challenge

Adobe for Education just dropped a brand new creative challenge for May, “Top 5 From the School Year.” Here’s a rundown of how it works:

The contest will close on May 31, 2024. This activity provides you with the link to an editable template to use with your students. Click the link, edit the template, explore generative AI features, customize the design, and even add voiceover if you’d like! You can also submit a post-challenge survey and enter to win Adobe Express-branded Stanley H20 Tumblers!

4. Commit and Toss

Commit and Toss is a great formative assessment that allows students to answer questions anonymously. With a twist, it can also be used as a fun end-of-year activity! Display these made-up words and definitions for students to see. Go over each one before beginning the activity.

  • Whimsyhop: (Noun) A fantastical shop that sells bottled laughter, jars of dreams, and bouncing clouds as pillows.
  • Scribblefluff: (Noun) A fluffy creature made entirely of colorful scribbles that comes to life when a child uses their imagination.
  • Sniffersnack: (Noun) A delicious snack that can only be smelled, not tasted, but fills your mind with happy memories.
  • Blinkhopper: (Noun) A tiny creature with enormous ears that can jump from story to story in a book by using illustrations as stepping stones.
  • Moonbeam Weaver: (Noun) A magical spider that spins shimmering webs of moonlight that grant wishes when touched.
  • Gigglegrass: (Noun) A type of grass that tickles your toes and makes you erupt in uncontrollable laughter when you walk on it.
  • Worlybabble: (Verb) To speak in a language only understood by clouds, creating beautiful shapes in the sky.
  • Moonsnooze: (Noun) A peaceful lullaby sung by the moon, guaranteed to send anyone into a restful sleep.
  • Fuzzgle: (Verb) To snuggle up with something so soft it makes you feel warm and fuzzy inside.
  • Doodlekins: (Noun) A tiny insect with wings made of colorful doodles, that leaves behind a trail of creativity wherever it flies.

Fill up a bowl or cup with pieces of paper, each with a made-up word written on it. Have students pick a piece of paper from the cup or bowl, keeping the word they drew a secret. Set a timer and have students draw an illustration for the word they picked, but they should not include any text in the illustration. When the timer is up, students crumple the drawings and toss them into the middle of the room (or a bag, box, etc.). Then, you pick up each crumpled piece of paper, open it up, and have the students guess which word the drawing represents.

Extension: Have students come up with their own made-up words and definitions. This can be done individually or with partners. Shake it up even more by having half the class make up words and the other half make up definitions; then, they can mix and match the words to the definitions for some funny, new vocabulary.

5. Connections

If you’ve not yet played the second most popular game from the New York Times, you should definitely give Connections a try. In this game, you sort 16 words into four groups of four based on an unknown connection. For example, you might choose the words cow, zebra, dalmatian, and panda. In this case, the connection might be “Animals that are black and white.” TCEA’s Peggy Reimers explains the game in her recent TechNotes article.

Make Connections Games for the Classroom

Additionally, Peggy outlines the benefits of Connections for students and provides three resources for quickly and easily creating your own Connections games! Make Connections for your students to solve or have them create their own to share with their peers. This is a fun and simple way to get students thinking. Plus, these puzzles can be solved individually, in pairs, or even as a whole class activity.

Which of these activities will you try? Maybe you have an idea for another twist or extension to add. Let us know how it goes in the comments, and have a great last month of school!

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Screenshot by author of Adobe Express website
AdobeArtificial Intelligence

Adobe Express: Generative AI and Digital Literacy Resources

by Miguel Guhlin
written by Miguel Guhlin

Need resources on how to best blend generative AI into your middle or high school classroom? Want to foster creativity and media literacy among your students? Then you will want to explore Adobe’s newest generative AI resources. These offerings focus on using Adobe Express for AI education. What’s more, they include media literacy resources available on their education website.

The Adobe Education Exchange

Before you start exploring the new AI features, a quick question: Are you aware of Adobe Education Exchange’s K-12 Resource Hub? The hub offers a wide variety of resources for celebrating holidays and special events, including Earth Day and National Creativity Month. You’ll also see ways to get students started with drawing through three activities: reading a map, the stages of mitosis, and color theory. The exchange provides a host of teaching resources and four ways to support students in getting started with generative AI in multiple subjects with these activities:

Give the K-12 Resource Hub a walkthrough. You won’t regret it! Now, let’s take a closer look at Adobe Express’ generative AI enhancements.

Adobe Express and Generative AI

Are you familiar with Adobe Express? It’s a free platform for teachers and students that offers tools to create classroom visuals and other content. Here are some examples of generative AI features you might find useful:

  • Text effects. Transform basic text into art with a description. You only need to describe the desired graphic style, theme, or texture. Students can create “All About Me” posters or classroom quote posters for digital or print use.
  • Text to image. Students can type in written descriptions and generate high-quality images. Use these AI-generated images inspired by student writing for a variety of purposes like alternative book covers, report illustrations, presentations, or writing anthology art.

On the site, you will find a variety of quickstart guides for how administrators, parents, educators, and students can use generative AI in Adobe Express.

Screenshot of Adobe QuickStart Guide for Students
Screenshot of Adobe QuickStart Guide for Students

Here is an overview adapted for readability from the Middle and High School Educators’ guide:

These educational materials offer an introduction to generative AI. They explore critical questions, including: How does generative AI affect me? How does it affect others? What are some of the challenges and concerns about generative AI? How can I use generative AI in safe, ethical, and effective ways?

Lessons encourage students to think in a critical way about topics covered. Supplementary readings appear, deepening their understanding of AI’s impact on their lives.

These lessons…equip students to think about their relationship to future technologies.

Middle school students build on what they already know about generative AI. They identify questions that arise from their studies, and reflect on their learning. High school students are further led to identify topics formorel exploration. They reflect on issues related to generative AI. Students consider the benefits and drawbacks of this new technology.

You can even take a thirty-minute course to introduce you to Adobe Express’ new generative AI tools. The purpose of the course is to broaden your awareness of how to best use AE’s AI tools for teaching and learning.

Screenshot by Emily Horn | Adobe Education Exchange |
“Generative AI in the Classroom with Adobe Express” Course

Media Literacy with Adobe

In addition to these generative AI resources, Adobe offers a variety of lessons on media literacy in their Content Authenticity Initiative (CAI) Media Literacy Curriculum. You can find them organized by middle school, high school, and higher ed. These can assist students in developing critical thinking skills and develop necessary skills to fight mis/dis-information:

Media literacy is a key component of addressing mis/disinformation. These curricula help students develop critical media and visual literacy skills. This is so they can better navigate the ever-changing digital information landscape. Each curriculum includes a foundational unit as well as lessons. Use the lessons in social studies, the arts, and English & language arts (ELA). Media literacy lessons and themes appear integrated throughout all components.

The Adobe-led Content Authenticity Initiative (CAI) plays a significant role in this effort. You can learn more about its efforts online.

More Adobe Express Benefits

Adobe Express is extremely versatile when it comes to creating and sharing visual media. While you’re exploring its resources and generative AI capabilities, be sure to take advantage of the following additional benefits:

  • Premade templates. Find the starting point for your next poster, graphic organizer, or presentation. Teachers can find lesson templates and self-paced videos, too.
  • Collaboration opportunities. Set up activities that enable, if appropriate, students to work together on projects.
  • LMS integration. Use a popular learning management system? Adobe Express may integrate, enabling you to assign and manage projects within the LMS itself.
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AccessibilityAdobeChromebooksGoogle Tips and Tricks

Five Big Google Announcements From June 2023

by Miguel Guhlin
written by Miguel Guhlin

Wish you could stop students from copying from ChatGPT and other AI tools? Google might have an answer for that if students are doing it on a Chromebook. Let’s explore this and a few other big announcements made by Google, including:

  • Google Classroom enhancements
  • Stop AI plagiarism
  • Improved accessibility
  • Google Meet’s paired tiles, Q&A, and polling
  • Google app licensing management

Let’s take a closer look at these updates. May you find the emergence of long-awaited features exciting!

#1 – Google Classroom Enhancements

Analytics. Wish you could leverage Google Analytics-style graphs and information for student work? Then you will love the announcement of Google Classroom’s new analytics features.

Gif showing several new analytics features in Google Classroom recently announced by Google.

These provide insight into student performance and engagement. What’s more, they address the following:

  • Assignment completion
  • Average grade
  • Active students
  • Missing assignments
  • Growth and loss for courses

That’s a pretty incredible analytics update. The analytics features will be launched in the coming months and are currently being evaluated.

Temporary Class Access. What’s more, Google made the announcement that Classroom now has the option to visit a class with temporary class access. That is, any of the following can now have temporary access without needing to be a co-teacher:

  • Principals
  • Department heads
  • School counselors
  • Curriculum leaders
  • Administrative assistants
  • Coaches and mentors
  • IT admins

In addition, trusted educators visiting a class can do the following:

  • Share links to class templates
  • Import content into classes
  • Plan, organize, and analyze assignments and grades
  • Choose grading scales to align with the district’s grading system
  • Disable submissions after the due date*
  • Make comments more engaging*

These features will be available to select Google Workspace for Education editions, including Teaching and Learning Upgrade and Education Plus, and must be enabled by administrators.

*All Google Workspace for Education editions will have access to asterisked features shown.

#2 – Stop Student Copying from AI

Ready to stop plagiarism and AI-assisted learning before it happens? Google announced that it’s adding ChromeOS data controls that allow Google Admins to:

  • Prevent copying and pasting from AI-based tools
  • Stop screen capture, sharing, and printing efforts
  • Disable cameras and microphones when not in use
  • Turn on an electronic privacy screen when viewing content

These features make it easy for school technology staff to enact restrictions. Some ways to identify when restrictions are enacted include:

  • Data source
  • Destination
  • User access

There are system requirements. ChromeOS devices must be on version 103 or later. What’s more, they must be in user or managed guest session mode. These ChromeOS updates have profound implications for device management in schools. Google provides some example scenarios and rules online at Google Support for you to explore.

#3 – Improved Accessibility

Google reiterated its commitment to accessibility with new releases and improvements. These releases improve viewing in the browser and read alouds for Adobe Portable Document Format (PDFs).

Image showing Google's announcement of an image to text feature available in the Chrome Browser.

Now, you can also take advantage of improvements on:

  • Google Reading Mode. This is now available for Chrome browsers on all devices. Reading mode makes text larger, changes the font, and eliminates distractions.
  • Image to Text Conversion in PDFs. This ensures screen readers can convert images in a PDF to text. Then, the screen reader can read the text aloud.

These changes will become available in the coming months.

#4 – Google Meet’s Paired Tiles, Q&A, and Polling

Have two people presenting in a virtual meeting? Will there be a translator or a sign-language interpreter? You can now “Ask to pair the tiles” so that the tiles appear together. If one of you speaks, both tiles are highlighted.

Image of four people in a Google Meet.

There was also a Google announcement of new question and answers (Q&A) and polling features that will be available for livestreams. Additionally, for schools with the Education Plus option, the limit is now set to 1,000 attendees.

#5 – Google App Licensing Management

In a move sure to please finance department superintendents, Google announced streamlined app purchasing. That is, Google Admins for schools can now buy apps from developers directly. Locate these available apps in the Google for Education App Hub.

The Google for Education App Hub makes it easy to access apps that work with Google for Education tools. App licensing “can be provisioned and managed within the Google Admin Console.”

Image of Adobe Express showing app licensing options.

Source: Adobe Express at the Google for Education App Hub

What’s available? Explore the Hub, but you won’t want to miss these offerings:

Any one of these alone would be amazing, but to have easy access is wonderful. Also, these are now available at no cost (FREE!):

  • Adobe Express for Education. It’s free for schools using Chromebooks across the U.S.
  • Figma. This is already free for all K-12 schools in the U.S. who use Chromebooks.

I hope these Google Announcements benefit you, your school, and your students. Once you give them a try, let us know what you think in the comments.

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AdobeArtificial IntelligenceCommunicationContent Creation

Adobe Firefly’s Text-to-Image and Text Effects Models

by Dr. Bruce Ellis
written by Dr. Bruce Ellis

If you are creative, you may already have access to Adobe Photoshop. Photoshop has tons of tools to help you communicate visually and effectively. If you find that Photoshop is a little too much, either due to the learning curve or price, then you might consider using Adobe Firefly.

What Is Adobe Firefly?

Adobe Firefly is currently in beta, and I’d highly recommend you join. Firefly is Adobe’s AI art-generative tool that creates text-to-image photos and text effects that will amaze you. You’ll be able to easily create photos that rival Starry.ai and Midjourney but without the cost or daily token updates. Unlike other creative AI generative models, Adobe Firefly can be considered “ethically trained” since it was trained on Adobe stock photos, openly licensed images, and public domain content where the copyright has expired. Adobe says users of various Adobe products (Photoshop, Express, etc.) will soon have the model to use within these tools. Adobe hasn’t announced if Firefly will move to a monetized strategy or not.

Adobe Firefly Text-to-Image Creation

Once you log in to Adobe Firefly, click on the blue Generate button in the Text to Image section. This will bring up a new page where you can enter your text into the input area near the lower portion of your window. If you aren’t sure of what to enter as the prompt, mouse over images in the gallery to see what was used to generate each specific image. As you mouse over the gallery photo, you can click on Try Prompt and use it as your own. For this first example, I entered “polar bear with sunglasses drinking lemonade” and clicked Generate. A short moment later, I had four images created for me by Firefly along with a few editing options and style choices. Play with the various settings to see which work best for the image you are wanting.

Adobe Firefly Text Effects

While the Text-to-Image feature is cool, I think you are really going to enjoy the Text Effects feature. Enter your text of choice and then enter your prompt to describe the image. The effect fills it in, generating the word using the default text style, though you can choose a different font as well as a few different styles. For this example, I used the word “calm” and “colorful butterflies.”

butterfly letters spelling the word calm

Implementation Ideas

Yes, this can be a fun tool to play with, but how can you use it in your teaching? Sure you can create images and decorate words for bulletin boards and communications, but how can you use it with students? Here are just a couple of ideas to consider. Can you think of more?

  • Ask students to suggest prompts for academic vocabulary.
  • At the beginning of the school year, customize your classroom using students’ names and prompts they write to describe themselves…or using the school mascot, which would definitely simplify the task. 
  • Create memes or custom letters for information from lessons, important reminders, acronyms, or visual cues with your students.

Sample Smorgasbord 


motherboard
furry kittens
planets

fish holding an arrow sign
brown poodle using an ink pen
LEGO firefighter standing in front of building

How will you make use of Adobe Firefly? Will you be creating items to enhance newsletters or will it be for instructional purposes such as flashcards, instructional posters, etc.? Drop a comment below to let us know. Feel free to tweet out a sample of your creation – be sure to share your Firefly prompt and use the hashtag #TCEA.

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AdobeCanvaOnline Tools and Apps

Three Photo Editing Tools

by Dr. Bruce Ellis
written by Dr. Bruce Ellis

Isn’t it great when you take lots of photos of your kids or family and then take time to sit back and scroll through them, reflecting on the fun (and possibly chaos) that ensued? Unfortunately, sometimes when we do get a chance to scroll through the photos we realize there are some things we wish we could change. If you have found yourself in this situation at least once, then you’ll want to check out these three photo editing tools. I’m only going to share a brief bit about each, but these tools offer even more features for you to explore.

Cleanup.Pictures

Cleanup.Pictures is an online artificial intelligence (AI) photo editing tool that allows you to remove items from a photo. This technique is called inpainting. Have a photo where someone photo bombed you? Or did the crazy uncle want to be in the picture (be sure to put him on the end to make it easier to remove)? Or is there something distracting in the background? Use this tool to remove it from the photo.

The AI will inspect the photo and try to recreate what is behind the item you removed. This is a freemium site, so if you want to download your photos in HD, you will need to go with the Pro plan ($3/month) or ClipDrop Pro plan ($5/month). You can find out more about those plans on the pricing page. I’ve found that the free plan, which scales your photos down to 720p is more than sufficient for my tasks.

Here are the steps to follow:

  1. Go to Cleanup.Pictures.
  2. Drag/drop your photo in the target area, or click the target area to upload the photo.
  3. Adjust the size of your brush by moving the slider dot. Move your cursor over the image to see the current size. You want to use the smallest brush size possible for the item, so you don’t wipe out other items in the image.
  4. Click and drag the brush over an item to remove the item. It’s ideal if you can erase the whole item before releasing your mouse.
  5. If any artifact residue remains, you can touch it up. Sometimes it’s perfect, and other times it needs a little tweaking.
  6. To see the before/after of your image, click on the eyeball just to the left of the green Download button (top right).
  7. When satisfied, click the Download button. It will append the name of the file by adding “_cleanup” so your original file is untouched.
before and after edit of sample image from cleanup.pictures. chair, papers on wall, and lamp are removed

Adobe Photoshop

Adobe has included some cool features in Photoshop that make use of Sensei, its suite of AI and machine learning technologies. I’ll be referencing the neural filters in Photoshop – specifically the Landscape Mixer, but I encourage you to explore the other creative filters within the neural filter category. If you really want to apply more filters than it allows, you may need to repeat the steps below two or more times.

Here are the steps to follow:

  1. Open your photo in Adobe Photoshop 2022
  2. Click on FILTER –> Neural Filter
  3. Scroll down the All Filters list and turn on Landscape Mixer. If you have not used this yet, it may need to download on your computer before you can use it.
  4. Now select the preset slider scales on the right-hand side and adjust to the desired strength. The choices include: day, night, sunset spring, summer, fall, and winter. Below you can see the original image and then what it looks like when I set the Autumn to 50% or the Winter to 90%.
  5. Adjust the slider to get the desired strength applied. Note that this is most like rendering it on your computer so I suggest you don’t have other software running unless you have a good bit of RAM.
  6. If you do not want the AI to adjust your subject, then tick the Preserve Subject box. Whether you use this feature will depend on the colors that are in your subject.
  7. When you are satisfied with the filter, apply it by choosing the desired output (new layer, current layer, new layer masked smart filter, or new document). I prefer the New Layer option.
  8. Click OK to apply the filter and voila!

Canva

If you aren’t on the Canva bus yet, are you even online? Seriously though. Canva offers great features without the steep learning curve that comes with Photoshop. No, Canva isn’t an equal competitor to Photoshop, but they each are great design tools for their own target audiences and projects. The feature I’d like to share in Canva is the background remover. Yes, you can use a variety of websites that offer just that feature, but Canva is more than just a photo editing tool. It makes it easy to remove the background and then pull from a huge repository of photos to use as the new background. For the sample below I’m using a photo from a couple of years ago when I visited a friend in Houston. The setting was beautiful but the photo didn’t really capture it. Oh, and, no judging the main subject of the photo. ha! Here are the steps.

  1. Open Canva and begin a new project.
  2. Click on the Upload button (far left menu), and upload the photo that needs the background removed.
  3. Drag the uploaded photo to the stage area.
  4. Click on the photo if it not already selected (you’ll know it is selected if it has a purple border around it.). The resize handles on the corners of the photos and the crop handles are in the center of each edge of the photo.
  5. Click on Edit Image, above and to the right of the stage area.
  6. Click the BG Remover icon. It will analyze your selected image and remove the background.
  7. You can tweak its work by using the Erase and Restore tools.
  8. When done, click on the Apply button.
  9. To put a new background behind you, click on the Photos icon (far right menu panel) and search for an image.
  10. Place the new background image behind you by clicking CTRL+[ or set the photo as the background by clicking on the More icon and selecting Set Image as Background.
  11. When done, click the Share button (top right) and select the share option of your choice. If you choose to download, you may select what file type in which you’d like to download the image (I usually choose PNG).
  12. Click the Download button and save to your device.

So, which photo editing tool do you prefer? And, how will you (or your students) use these tools to enhance photos? Drop us a comment below, we’d love to hear from you. Feel free to share another photo editing tool to add to the list!

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animate your voice
AdobeOnline Tools and Apps

Ahoy, Mateys! Animate Your Voice

by Miguel Guhlin
written by Miguel Guhlin

Ready to create an animation that will engage viewers? You may want to take advantage of a new tool from Adobe that makes voice-based animations easy. Let’s explore this new digital tool from Adobe.

First, though, let’s take a quick look at how animations can engage K-12 students. Engagement, while the final destination for learners, ensures you capture student attention.

Flipping Interest Levels

Students may not find the content interesting. Without an engaging story, anecdote, video, or movement-based activity, students ask, “Why?”

Learning something new is often exciting for the learner. Novel experiences cause a rush of dopamine. This not only makes learning seem exciting, but also makes you want to repeat the experience.  (source)

To hook student learners into a dopamine stream, you want an engaging activity. Animation can be that activity. Some of the ways animation works best for K-12 students include:

  • Ensuring a clear understanding of abstract ideas
  • Use of short, attention-grabbing animations to cover specific, relevant content
  • Make learning interactive and participatory
  • Enable experiential learning

While there are more benefits, this short list demonstrates the value. Let’s take a look at how the free, Adobe Express tool can help.

Introducing Animate Your Voice

This tool makes it easy to:

Make an animated character from your own voice recording using Adobe Express.

There are only three simple steps:

  • Choose a character from those available.
  • Upload your audio file or record your dialogue.
  • Preview the audio and animation, making changes to the character or background as you see fit.
  • Save or share your animation with others.

Let’s take a look at each of these steps in turn. Ready? Let’s go.

Animate Your Voice

Step 1: Choose a Character

As you can see from the image above, there are ample choices of characters. Choose from any of those available, and see them appear center screen.

For fun, I chose a character resembling me and decided to upload the audio I recorded. That’s an option available in addition to recording your audio via the website.

It was the beginning of a free story I found at Kids Love To Know. The story is that of “Captain Silverhook’s Symbol of Strength” (PDF). You can save it to your device or read it online for free.

Here’s a little information about it:

Captain Silverhook’s Symbol of Strength is a 600-word short  story. It is suitable for children of all ages. Kids in second grade or higher may be able to read the story on their own. The story is about a pirate  with a problem to solve. Captain Silverhook must replace his ship’s destroyed, nautical figurehead. That’s the shape carved on the front of his ship. He must  come up with a new design before he loses the respect of the other  pirates.

Using Audacity, a free open-source audio editor. I read the first paragraph of the story with a little flair:

Then, I uploaded the audio file for processing to Adobe Express’ Animate Your Voice site:

You can see the finished product below:

Step 2: Preview the Animation

You can make changes to the animation you’ve recorded, cropping the audio as needed. It’s not too difficult, and you can bring this process to a close if you’ve done your editing in Audacity or a similar tool, which I recommend.

Step 3: Save or Share Your Animation with Others

Click the Download button, and if you aren’t logged in with your free account, you will need to create an account. The process is easy if you use Google Authentication (which I did). Adobe offers access to other authentication schemes, so creating an account isn’t hard.

To share your animation, you will save an MP4 video formatted version. You can watch my creation below:

Once you’re done saving video to your device, Adobe will prompt you to buy their $54.99 Creative Cloud All Apps plan which includes Character Animator.

Final Reflections

Animate Your Voice is an easy-to-use tool, and I can definitely see my third-grade students and older students using it. Give it a go!

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