Adobe Success Story

Teaching students to be creative participants in the classroom, not just passive observers, is among the most daunting challenges for today's educators. At North Charleston High School in South Carolina, Spanish teacher Thane Williams taps into the power of Adobe software to help students stay engaged and retain what they've learned. His students—many from lower income families that don't have computers at home—are eagerly, competently, and creatively using Adobe software to complete assignments and collaborate with each other, as well as with students living in Spanish-speaking countries around the world.

"Adobe software helps my students gain hands-on experience with the language, look forward to coming to class, and have fun," says Williams. "When students are having fun, that's when they really learn."

A lesson in exploration
Williams has discovered several innovative ways to integrate Adobe software—Adobe Photoshop, Photoshop Elements, and Adobe Premiere Elements—as well as Adobe Captivate, Macromedia Dreamweaver, Flash, and Breeze software from Adobe into his curriculum. He first became interested in using Adobe software in 1999, when he asked students to create a report about Spanish-speaking countries, complete with descriptions and visuals. After students submitted handwritten poster boards with tiny photos tacked to them, Williams set out to use technology to inspire and enable his students to accomplish more. He also wanted to find ways to engage students, even those with a limited aptitude for languages.

Benefits

• Students are engaged and eager to learn
• Knowledge retention is higher
• More students continue to second-year Spanish
• By hearing themselves speak, students learn Spanish faster

Project Details

Williams started by creating a web page specifically for his Spanish classes and putting that page on the school's main website. On that page, he provided report templates that students could populate with photos, text, references, and other information.

"The minute I gave students the option of creating reports on the web, their creativity took off," says Williams. "Everyone got excited about trying other types of technology. I've found that students learn Adobe software easily and become adept quickly."

The Spanish page became so popular so fast that it soon began overloading the school's website. To remedy the situation, Williams created his own Spanish page separate from the school's website. Unlike Williams' original page, which was hand-coded in HTML, his current page is maintained using Dreamweaver software, which Williams says makes it easy to keep the page up to date. Thanks to the ease of use of Dreamweaver, Williams has been able to teach students to use the software. For instance, students have updated a page containing weather information for Spanish-speaking cities around the world.

Virtual experiences made real
Today, Williams' students use Adobe software in a variety of ways. His classroom is equipped with 16 computers, enabling him to integrate the software into the curriculum. Among the most popular activities for second-year students is creating virtual field trips to different Spanish-speaking locales; to bring the assignment to life, students use Photoshop, Photoshop Elements, Adobe Premiere Elements, and Adobe Captivate to make their own movies.

For example, students might decide to take a virtual excursion to Machu Picchu, in the Andes mountains. They can use a school camera to take digital photographs of themselves and find images on the web—an airport, bus station, llama, or the ancient Incan fortress city, for instance—to illustrate their stories. Students can then use either Photoshop or Photoshop Elements to bring the photos onto their computers, crop them, and clean them up as necessary to ready the images for incorporation into Flash movies.

As part of the assignment, students use a storyboard format and describe in Spanish each mode of travel they use to arrive in Machu Picchu. They use Adobe Captivate software for the assignment because of its easy storyboarding and editing capabilities. After transferring their photos into Adobe Captivate, they assemble a slide show, placing the pictures in the desired order. They write their audio script into the storyboard. Students who wish to record their dialog use the audio recording capabilities in Adobe Captivate; if they stumble, they can easily edit and rerecord their scripts. Williams publishes the projects as Flash movies, which he shares with the class. Students receive immediate feedback and gain insight because they can hear their mistakes and correct themselves in the future.

Speaking up
Williams' first-year Spanish students also use Photoshop Elements and Adobe Premiere Elements to make movies. Each group of students is asked to describe an accident or injury and its aftermath—perhaps someone falls skiing, is checked by the ski patrol, and then on the way home stops at a pharmacy to pick up a knee brace. To complete the assignment, students find pertinent digital pictures, crop them, and put them in order using Photoshop Elements. They use the software's Pan and Zoom tool to hone in on different parts of the body. To finish the project, students bring the still photos into Adobe Premiere Elements and use that software to add background music and Spanish dialog describing their experiences. "Software helps my students overcome their fear of speaking Spanish because they don't have to stand in front of the classroom," says Williams. "They speak and learn better because they are more relaxed. They can also listen to themselves and become aware of how they are using the language."

Learning by doing
Williams is engaging his students with technology in other ways as well. He asked first-year students to describe, in Spanish, what they like to do in their free time. He then gave them an assignment to create a letter of introduction and a survey asking native Spanish-speaking students in Colombia and Ecuador about their favorite pastimes. The students in South America eagerly responded, sending information back via e-mail.

As the survey results came in, Williams and his students captured the data and created a presentation based on the results. Williams decided to use Breeze to share the presentation and enable students in all three countries to provide comments and questions in a live online session. Students at North Charleston High School eagerly crowded around the 16 computers in Williams' classroom, with the overflow filling two more computer labs at the high school.

Using Breeze, Williams and his students shared the survey information in real time. Communication among the groups flowed more easily than Williams and his students expected, and soon everyone was making interesting discoveries; in particular, the students were all surprised at the similarity of their interests.

"Sharing our presentation and talking live with native Spanish speakers gave my students a stronger drive to learn the language," says Williams. "Breeze lets me provide a forum that enhances the learning experience by letting students apply their knowledge."

Hands-on learning for everyone
For Williams and his students, the use of Adobe software has brought many rewards and amazing results. Williams notes that more students than ever are taking second-year Spanish, and they've retained a higher skill level than students had in the past. For Williams and his students, incorporating technology into the classroom is working wonders.

"I've been able to increase students' contextual learning, and I have a great tool for engaging all of my students, regardless of their skill level," says Williams. "The bottom line for me is that I can provide a better experience in the classroom—that's what Adobe software enables."