Education Changemakers (EC) is an organisation focused on encouraging edupreneurs, teachers who are keen to innovate the education system and make a lasting positive difference to their students.

EC16 was a major event at NAB Docklands Melbourne on August 26 & 27 involving about 350 teachers from across Australia.

EC began 5 years ago with a passion to change education from the bottom up. It has run programs around Australia and around the world inspiring educators to prioritise students over the system.

Adobe Education had the pleasure of being one of the sponsors for this event and I had the pleasure of inviting the Australian Adobe Education Leaders who have had the greatest impact so far in 2016.

Adobe Education Leaders – Joel Aarons (Vic) , Brett Kent (NSW), Me, Kev Lavery (QLD) &  Rose Diggan (QLD)

Day one of the conference was based on a series of inspiring short presentations from teachers and others who shared their stories of innovation and change making.

A particular highlight for me was meeting Nonhlanhla Masina the founder of the African School for Excellence. At the age of 20, she was the only person in her village who had been able to complete school and attend university so she decided to start her own school to give others a similar opportunity.

Another highlight for me was hearing from Natalie See, Principal of Hilltop Road Public School in Sydney’s west. I have had the pleasure of visiting her school on several occasions working with her staff and students. Natalie shared the amazing and unique community program that has been making very strong connections between the school an the local community.

Day 2 involved lots of breakout opportunities for the 350 delegates delve deep into some of the concepts that were shared by the presenters in Day 1.

Adobe Spark was on show during day 2. Most of the teachers had not come across what the free Spark tools have to offer. It was great having the Adobe Education Leaders on hand to do some demos and share their expertise.

More information on Adobe Spark can be found via these clips …

Adobe Spark Overview part 1 from CreateEDU TV on Vimeo.

Adobe Spark Overview Part 2 from CreateEDU TV on Vimeo.

Special congratulations to the two co-founders of Education Changemakers Dave Falkner & Aaron Tait as well as their team Louka Parry, Summer Howarth and Maddie Scott-Jones for making this event such a success. I am looking forward to continuing the connection between Adobe and EC.