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Nearly 2000 of New Zealand’s finest educators have this week dedicated a big chunk of their school holidays at the Ulearn 2014 Conference in Rotorua.

I had heard about the Ulearn conference for a number of years but only this year  had the pleasure of attending. I ran two 75 min sessions, one was a workshop on Adobe Voice and the other a presentation on the importance of creativity.

One thing I really respect about New Zealand is the way that the indigenous culture is strongly interwoven into modern Kiwi life. The start of each conference day features aspects of indigenous history and life and many of the sessions were in part bilingual out of respect for the Maori people.

The highlight was the dinner conference dinner with a 1920s theme. Ulearn’s reputation as having one of the best education conference dinners in the world lived up to expectations.

A big congratulations to everyone involved in the running of the Ulearn conference, I’m looking forward to Ulearn 15 in Auckland next year.

My week began in Auckland visiting Auckland University of Technology (AUT) and The University of Auckland with an aim to enhance the already great work they are doing with a wide range of Adobe software to enhance teaching and learning.

AUT have a traditional meeting house on campus where Maori students gather, share and support each other. This video highlights an interesting connection between the Maori people and technology.

[vimeo:https://vimeo.com/108456677%5D

Tim’s Website

[youtube:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fDO5GCZuQQ%5D

I had the pleasure of presenting at two national education conferences this week, the ACEL (Australian Council for Education Leaders) event in Melbourne and the ACEC (Australian Council for Computers in Education) event in Adelaide.

The above video was filmed just before my session at the ACEC event by Education Technology Solution magazine who were one of the sponsors.

One of the highlights of the ACEL event was hearing from Dr John Medina, Professor of Bioengineering at the University of Washington School of Medicine and the author of the book Brain Rules.His insights into how to improve and develop the brains executive functioning was fascinating, especially the links to creativity, learning and the research into the importance of exercise.

Dr John Medina on stage at the ACEL Conference

The highlight for me at the ACEC event was catching up with so many passionate educators from around Australia and supporting the work of the state based ACCE affiliated teacher professional associations.

With some of my DLTV colleagues from Victoria.

Tim’s Website

This week, the Adobe Education team announced the findings of the study titled Seeking Creative Candidates: Hiring for the Future.

This study involved an online survey with 1,068 US hiring managers in July/August this year.

Some of the findings included …

Seventy eight percent of hiring managers believe creativity is required for economic growth and valuable to society (85%), but only 51% think businesses grasp the importance of creativity.

7 in 10 of these managers didn’t think students are prepared for today’s dynamic workplace. Poor communication and the inability to apply skills to a broad set of problems are cited as the top reasons business managers believe students are not prepared to succeed in the workplace of tomorrow.

75% of hiring managers expressed agreement that the job market will change significantly over the next five years, they have identified the following skills as being essential for the future being:
– 88% said being tech-savvy,
– 82% having the ability to communicate through digital and visual media, and
– 76% said creativity was an essential skill for the future.

Tim’s Website

I love visiting Perth, Western Australia, not only for the great weather but to see the many examples of how Adobe software is being used to enhance creative teaching and learning experiences.

This week began with a visit to Hamilton Senior High where I had a meeting with the Principal Donna McDonald, DP Phil Casis and Adobe Campus Leader Paul Johnston. They shared with me some of the great things they are currently doing with Adobe software and where they see their school heading in the future.

I interviewed Phil, Paul and one of their star students Ivan who I can having a bright future in any direction he chooses due to is passion and enthusiasm for digital creativity.

On Tuesday 9th September  I had the delight of working with about 80 Year 6 & 7 students from Scotch College and PLC. The whole day was dedicated to enancing the student’s video production and film making skills.

They worked really well together in mixed groups with the technology to produced some outstanding work. The main software for the day was Adobe Premier Pro CC, but some of the groups incorporated Photoshop and even After Effects to produce the outcomes they were looking for.

Jared Faint (ICT Teacher at Scotch and Adobe Campus Leader) organised this exciting day of team work, fun and learning. Stay tuned for a video story about this amazing day.

After a great day with the staff and students of Scotch and PLC, I hosted a dinner for 10 of the WA Adobe Education Leaders in Fremantle.

My week in Perth continued on Wednesday 10th September when I had the pleasure of working with Year 8 students from Ashdale Senior Secondary College. This school has a strong focus on innovation, particularly in science and technology and many of the students has a strong background in digital literacy.

Shaloni Naik (Adobe Education Leader) organised the day for the students who produced some very creative video outcomes.

The third video workshop for the week was at Lockridge Senior High School with a class of Year 11 & 12 students. This school is unique in that features a real life farm which is incorporated into the curriculum. They are very proud of a number of awards won at the Royal Perth Show over the years.

Angela Bartles (Adobe Education Leader) organised this day of video production and I was very impressed with the way these students were able to use 21st Century digital communication tools to express opinions and raise awareness of issues that are relevant to them.

One of the other highlights of this week in Perth was two visits to the Central Institute of Technology. Chris Schnell, lecturer and soon to be Adobe Campus Leader, introduced me to a number of the staff and students and showed be samples of of some of the outstanding designs being made by the students using Adobe products. One of the outstanding samples was an image of Steve Jobs made with Adobe Illustrator.

My last day in Perth included a preparation meeting with executive members of the very impressive Atwell College where I have been asked to keynote a conference in November. More on that in November.

Tim’s Website

One of the things that I have enjoyed being part of since leaving Strathcona and joining Adobe’s Education Team has been co-directing the Building Bridges program. This week I had the pleasure of visiting two of the Building Bridges Creative Days.

Eastern Region Creative Day at Luther College

East Preston Islamic College student working with Strathcona students at the Central Region Creative Day

Building Bridges is an interfaith dialogue program that has been running for over 10 years and has involved about 30 schools in four regions of Melbourne.

The Eastern Region’s Creative Day was hosted by Luther College and my Uncle Tim Costello (the CEO of World Vision Australia) kindly agreed to speak to the group of about 80 students in Year 10 & 11 from Avila College, Minaret College, Caulfield Grammar School (Wheelers Hill), Mt Scopus, Aquinas College, Luther College, Emmaus College and Donvale Christian School.

Rev Tim Costello speaking at the Eastern Region Creative Day

Tim shared that World Vision has a large population of Muslims and other people from non-Christian backgrounds working for them even though they are a ‘Christian’ organistion. He encouraged the students to keep this commitment of dialogue an friendship going and to make a loving connections in a world were there are lots of disconnects.

Click here to see an article from the Luther College Website

Bialik College hosted The Central Region Creative Day which involved students and teachers from Bialik College, East Preston Islamic College, Sienna Collage, Strathcona BGGS, Melbourne Grammar & Xavier College. Ruth Sandy (Central Coordinator) and Ellie (Bialik Teacher) put on a great program of activities to help conclude a wonderful year of dialogue and relationship building between the faith groups.

Ruth Sandy addressing the Central Region Creative Day at Bialik College

Ruth told the group that the end of the Building Bridges program is only the beginning of a continued commitment to building trust and friendship with each other and breaking through the stereotypes and misconceptions so widely publicised in today’s media. She reminded them that the aim of bridge is to walk on it and overcome the obstacles.

Special thank you to everyone involved in the 2014 Building Bridges Program – long may it continue.