It is my pleasure to promote a series of presentations at the APAC Adobe Education Leadership Community Summit on the 4th & 5th October in Sydney to be streamed live.
Click here for the live feed & recordings site
Click here for the related EdEx site
Highlights to watch …
Be part of the twitter feed via #CreateEdu
When I was judging the Victorian chapter of the Young ICT Explorers Competition, I came across a unique project from a group of four very creative Year 9 girls at Haileybury in Melbourne. To help encourage young readers, the girls used a wide range of modern technologies to enhance a story book into a Book Portal. The following video explains all …
I was particularly impressed with the Adobe tools they worked with to make this project including Adobe Fuse (3D character development) which I had yet to see being used in a school. I was also impressed with their use of the 3D capacities within Adobe Photoshop CC and the amazing hologram they created with Adobe Premiere Pro CC.
Special thanks to Haileybury teachers Damian Del Vecchio and Gerard O’Dwyer for supporting, teaching and encouraging these students with their endeavors and of course congratulations to Year 9 students Milly, Katya, Florence and Esther.
Check other video like this on CreateEdu TV https://vimeo.com/createedu
Nathan Jones was one of the most courageous men I have had the pleasure of knowing. Sadly, Nathan lost his 4 year battle with cancer last Friday.
I first met Nathan when he was a primary teacher at Carey Baptist Grammar School and I was teaching at Strathcona. We were both Apple Distinguished Educators and enjoyed regularly sharing ideas on how to use technology to enhance creativity in each others classrooms and schools.
I had the great pleasure of leading the sub-committee that awarded Nathan the 2013 VITTA (Victorian Information Technology Teachers Association) Outstanding Achievement Award. It was doing the research for this award that I got know more about Nathan’s skills as a passionate educator and came to really appreciate him as a colleague.
More recently, in Nathan’s new role as Professional Learning and Development Manager at Comp Now, I have been connecting with him at various education events around Australia.
The way he fought his illness was an inspiration to many, none the least his beautiful three daughters and loving wife Lisa. He will be greatly missed by many.
The following video provides a lovely insight into who Nathan was and what he meant to so many …
Merrimac State High School on the Gold Coast, was where Richard Turner-Jones (Adobe Solution Consultant) and I had the pleasure of running an Adobe Day on Thursday 14th September.
A select group of Year 7 & 8 students, along with some Year 12 media students, were given the challenge to produce a a short film about something that is important to them.
They began this challenge by getting into productions groups to plan what their story was going to be about and who was going to play what roles in the production.
Once the students had established a basic plan, I provides them with a range of production techniques to help film their video stories.
One of the groups interviewed some of the teachers and students to put together a documentary about the Adobe Day. Above you can see Adobe Education Leader, and Merrimac teacher, Mrs Rose Duggan being interviewed.
Rose was the main instigator of this event. She is very passionate about creativity in education and providing the best opportunities for her students to express themselves.
Richard and I took a group each to show them how to edit their stories with Adobe Premiere Pro CC.
Premiere Pro is considered the industry standard editing software for TV & video production. Being a part of the Adobe Creative Cloud, it is readily available for Australian students to work with and learn.
Video literacy – an importnat 21st century skill
One of the messages I regularly share with students is that video literacy is a 21st century skill that is considered by many to be as important as traditional literacy. It’s almost as vital these days to lean how to make a quality video as it is to write a quality essay.
With limited time available, I was impressed with the quality of what the students produced. The winning film, Unite to Fight, was produced by a group of girls who were keen to share the importance of uniting together to flight discrimination and racism.
Teacher event
Later in the afternoon, about 30 teachers from Merrimac and around the Gold Coast came to see Richard and I demonstrate the value of working with a wide range of Adobe software to enhance creativity in their classrooms.
Merrimac SHS Principal, Chris Tobin welcomed all of us and shared some of the innovative programs that are happening at his school.
Richard, shared the value of a wide range of Adobe’s free mobile applications.
Rose, Richard and I ran workshops to help the teachers further develop their skills in, and knowledge of, a range of Adobe applications such Premiere Clip, Spark Post, Spark Video, Spark Page, InDesign and Photoshop.
Teacher feedback
Getting to try out Adobe Spark and Premier Clip (with a little help from Tim) opened my eyes to the ease, and therefore possibilities in and out of the classroom. Many thanks!
I am wanting to move forward with Adobe apps … Feeling more confident now.
It was surprising how many free apps were available from Adobe. It’s something worth bearing in mind.
A highlight was learning about all of the new mobile apps, and the upcoming apps. Awesome! Thank you.
Special thanks to Rose Duggan, Chris Tobin and the staff and Merrimac State High School for helping to make this day such a success.
Animation is thriving in Newcastle, NSW following The 2016 Newcastle International Animation Festival.
Adobe Education was one of the sponsors of this festival and donated 12 month subscriptions to the Adobe Creative Cloud to help encourage the winners in their future creative endeavors.
Earlier this year, I met with University of Newcastle lecturer Jane Shadbolt who teaches in the Design, Communication and IT Science and IT faculties. I was very impressed with the creative way she encourages animation through Photoshop. Here is a showcase sample of students work via the festival Facebook site …
Congratulations to the following winners who received Adobe CC licenses and Wacom tablets …
Forest Lake State High School is one of the Adobe Schools of Creative Excellence in QLD. Today, Adobe Solution Consultant Richard Turner-Jones and I worked with a number of Year 7 students during the day and teachers from around Brisbane in the afternoon.
Forest Lake Teacher and Adobe Education Leader, Beth O’Malley, help to plan the activities for the day which included working with the Adobe Spark apps and an introduction to video editing with Adobe Premiere Pro.
Forest Lake Principal, Tom Beck and his students and staff were very welcoming and appreciated what we had to share.
The after school session involved about 30 teachers from surrounding Brisbane schools.
Together we looked at the education value of a number of Adobe Creative Cloud apps as well as a vast array of the free Adobe mobile apps.
JB Tinker from XCERIO (http://www.xcerio.com) also presented about the value of the Adobe Certified Associate certification examinations, which contribute to the QCE.
All the resources for this session are available on the Adobe Education Exchange via:http://bit.ly/adobe-qld-sept16
Special thanks to Adobe Education Leader Beth O’Malley and Adobe Campus Leader Nalin Naidoo for their help in organising these events.
The Adobe Spark apps for iPad & iPhone as well as the web version (via https://spark.adobe.com) are being used by thousands of teachers and students across the globe to enhance creativity in the learning & teaching process.
Making great looking digital posters, videos stories and web pages has never been easier.
Below are a series of Adobe EduTips videos that I have made to provide an overview of Adobe Spark and how to work with each of the apps on an iPad.
Adobe Spark Overview part 1 from CreateEDU TV on Vimeo.
Adobe Spark Overview Part 2 from CreateEDU TV on Vimeo.
Adobe Spark Post Demo – Adobe EduTip from CreateEDU TV on Vimeo.
Adobe Spark Video Demo – Adobe EduTips from CreateEDU TV on Vimeo.
Adobe Spark Page Demo – Adobe EduTips from CreateEDU TV on Vimeo.
