The beautiful Crown Plaza Resort in the Hunter Valley, was the venue for a STEM conference involving about 650 NSW teachers.

STEM stands for Science, Technology Engineering and Mathematics

With the implementation of the Digital Technologies Curriculum throughout Australia as well as a major innovation push by the federal & state governments, there has been a strong emphasis on the teaching of STEM related content to better prepare Aussie students for the future.

This event was organised by Regional Development Australia Hunter and the Cessnock Community of Great Public Schools which includes 15 schools in the region.

The Newcastle Herald was quick to get this article published.

I was asked to do a keynote session, a hands on Adobe skills session as well as to be part of a Q&A panel session hosted by the wonderful Adam Spencer (from ABC fame) and featuring the amazing Eddie Woo (Australia’s Local Hero 2018).

My Keynote was titled Focusing on creative problem solving skills will enhance employability in the age of automation.

It was a pleasure to share some of the research in this area including Adobe’s research titled Creative Problem Solving in Schools – Essential Skills Today’s Student’s Need for Jobs in Tomorrow’s Age of Automation.

The workshop I ran was focused on the way Adobe’s free mobile apps such as the Adobe Spark tools can be used to help present STEM related content.

A highlight for me on this event was meeting and working with the amazing Eddie Woo from WooTube.

Eddie is a Mathematics teacher at Cherrybrook Technology High School in Sydney. His YouTube channel (WooTube) has over 280,000 subscribers and more than 14 million views worldwide as of May 2018. Eddie is a great example of what a teacher can do and be when they use the technologies around them to help engage their students.

Another highlight was listening the the wonderful Sally-Ann Williams from Google. Always an engaging and inspiring presenter, Sally-Ann is also an inspiration for women and anyone interested in IT as a career.

All my resources from this event are available via – http://bit.ly/adobe-CESSNOCK18