World language classrooms have a history of incorporating visual aids, storyboards, and creative media for learners, and often institutions or instructors have to purchase these resources. With today’s technology at our fingertips, have you ever wanted to create your own professional-looking images, custom infographics, slideshows, posters, videos and other media but it sounds daunting? Check out the free online design tools, Canva and Adobe Spark! They offer the education community easy intuitive platforms, a multitude of templates, and can be used for engaging student projects and to collaborate with others. They are especially useful when working with different languages and LCTLs since they can be completely customized. While these two platforms are different, there is one platform that we keep going back to and it has made a huge impact on teaching and creating materials online, and that is the graphic design tool, Canva. From creating assignments, graphics for online courses, GIFs, digital worksheets to even using it for games and short videos, this platform is versatile and worth a try.
Now Adobe Spark has recently started to compete with Canva with its ability to create graphics and other designs, and we highly recommend this platform if you ever wanted to make a video and didn’t know where to start. With templates that walk you through the process, you can adjust the look, music, and add videos--all of which can be easily edited. This tool can be used for creating personal introductions, scaffolding assignments, practicing vocabulary, sharing cultural components, or producing an entire lesson for both synchronous and asynchronous instruction, depending on your needs. The next time you have a media project or need a visual aid, create your own for free!
There are limitless ways to use these tools. Here are some examples of how you can incorporate these design platforms into your language curriculum:
- Students compile an end-of-term learning portfolio in place of taking a final exam
- Students think up a fictional machine and produce a video or graphic advertisement to sell the product; have the class vote on their favorites
- Students create a visually-rich poster to describe a cultural festival or tradition; students present these science-fair style
- Students collaborate in group projects to publish a brochure to attract tourists to a location, describing food, points of interest, history, and the local dialect
- Instructor designs a graphic organizer to teach word order and demonstrate how position can affect emphasis
- Instructor records a photo walking tour (in video format) of their house as if it were an Airbnb listing; students record an audio review of their pretend stay
- Instructor teams up with colleagues to make a poster depicting 10 activities to practice language at home
- Instructor records videos of stroke order plus pronunciation for character-based languages along with a worksheet to practice writing
We also encourage you to check out the Canva Teachers Community on Facebook to connect with other educators and learn how they’re finding innovative ways to use this tool and bring their classroom content to life.