As we bring 2020 to a close, I would like to thank the Adobe Education Team, the Adobe Education Leaders, members of the new Adobe Creative Educators program and all primary, secondary and post-secondary educators for the great work they have done this year.

This year, the importance of being creative in the way we learn, teach, work and play has been more evident than ever before as reflected in some of the impacts we have had within out 2020 Adobe in Education active use programs.

I was delighted to be involved with 190 events, 170 of them being based online via BlueJeans, Zoom, MS Teams, Blackboard Collaborate or Adobe Connect. We impacted about 17,000 teachers and students, and more teachers than in the past few years.

A highlight of 2020 for me, has been producing 35 episodes of Inject Creativity Live and having the Chat-show go live on the official Adobe for Education YouTube channel. I would like to say a very special thank you to Erin Raethke from TAFE QLD for Co-hosting with me. She has gone above and beyond what is expected from an Adobe Education Leader. And a special thank you to Jerry Wong who is an Adobe Customer Success Manager in the Education Team and has been instrumental is helping behind the scenes as we broadcasted each episode.

Another highlight this year was the APAC Adobe Education Summit. Being an online event, we were able to cater for about 500 participants over the three days and 50 presenters from all over the globe.

Globally, the Adobe Education Exchange welcome and it’s 900,000th member and in Australia and New Zealand, we welcomed 7,752 new members bringing the ANZ membership up to 43,353.

Half way through 2020, we launched the Adobe Creative Educator program. Globally over 13,000 teachers enrolled in this program with nearly half of them successfully passing level one. In ANZ we have had 481 teachers enroll and 221 past the first level.

The Adobe Education Leader (AEL) community is an exclusive leadership and high-touch program where teachers need to be nominated to be involved. Globally, we currently have 365 AELs with 58 coming from the ANZ region. I would like to thank all the AELs for their contributions this year in helping to promote the Adobe Education Exchange and most importantly encourage digital creativity within their schools and universities.

Two personal highlights for me this year were engaging with over 4000 Filipino teachers in one event (over 1000 live and 4000 viewing the recordings) to help them with their online teaching skills and also working with 800 at risk Vietnamese students during 6 online Adobe Spark workshops.

We have a number of great programs planned for 2021 and look forward to working with thousands more teachers and students, hopefully with a blended approach of both face-to-face and online. I’m looking forward to the Get to Know you Adobe Apps series of webinars starting in February and of course a new set of Inject Creativity Live show that we have planned.

Have a wonderful break over January get yourself prepared for a very creative 2021.

Dr Tim Kitchen (Senior Education Specialist, Adobe – APAC)

As we come to an end of a very strange year, I would like to pay tribute to all teachers and students who have managed the teaching and learning process throughout 2020 via an array of creative digital solutions.

So far this year, after running about 170 webinars across the Asia-Pacific region & impacting nearly 17,000 teachers and students, we have been so impressed with the adaptability, creativity and ingenuity of everyone we have worked with and their willingness to learn new communication skills.

In Australia, we are likely to be back to face-to-face teaching when we commence the 2021 academic year. Let’s make sure that we take the best of what we have learned this year and apply it to a continued blended approach to education.

See below for information about:

• The new EduTech & Adobe Webinar
• Get to know your Adobe apps series
• Adobe Creative Educator program – guided webinars
• Inject Creativity Live – 2021
• Holiday Spark activities for students
• ACCE Conference 2021
• Craig Daalmeijer-Power’s Behance Live Sessions & more …

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Professional Development Goals for 2021

As you plan your professional development goals for 2021, keep in mind the wide variety of opportunities that are provided by the Adobe for Education team. Note all the opportunities that are listed below and please share the most relevant events with your colleagues and wider education social networks.

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Special Adobe & EduTech webinar

Keep 10th February 4PM (AEDT) free for a special Adobe in Education webinar in conjunction with EduTech. Guest will include Lauren Sayer (now from Melbourne Girls Grammar), Joe Cohen from the NSW Department of Education T4L team and Deb Hicks from the Victorian Department of Education. Find out how and why Adobe tools are making such a positive difference to a wide variety of curriculum areas and levels. Please share this event with colleagues, especially those who are new to the world of Adobe in Education.

More information & registration here.

Get to know your Adobe apps – webinar series

A new series of webinars is being planned for 2021 that cater for teachers at various levels of K12 and Higher Education all over the Australasian region. These will be run by the Adobe Education team as well as Adobe Education Leaders from February 23 to May 26.

Register in advance for the sessions that are most relevant for you and share these events with your colleagues and wider education network.

Adobe Creative Educator program – guided webinars

The Adobe Creative Educator (ACE) program is for any teacher, of any subject area in any level. You don’t have to be an Adobe expert to get an ACE badge. Start Level 1 over the January break. It involves a short course and the creation of a simple digital artifact.

If you are keen to be guided through this program, a new set of webinars is being planned for K12 & Higher Ed teachers in 2021. Click here for more information and registration. Note that we are offering these sessions as a customised event (face to face &/or online) for your school/facility. Email Tim Kitchen kitchen@adobe.com if interested.

Inject Creativity Live – 2021

We are currently planning a new set of Inject Creativity Live events for 2021. Click here to register in advance to get a reminder email prior to each event as well as a link to the recordings. Note these events are being streamed live on the Adobe for Education YouTube Channel. Click here to see past recordings.

Holiday Spark activities

The Global Adobe Education team have created a set of fun holiday activities for students to get involved with during the Christmas break. Click here to find out more information.

ACCE Conference 2021

The ACCE/Digicon Conference will be a virtual event from March 15th to March 19th  2021. The conference will be held each afternoon from 4pm to 6pm. Keep those dates & times free and check the DLTV site for more information. Click here if you are interested in presenting at this event.

DLTV Journal

The latest DLTV Journal is now available online. It features a range of articles from cross-curricular classroom initiatives incorporating Digital Technologies to AI and ethics. Check my tribute to Sir Ken Robinson on pages 18 & 19.

Adobe Education Exchange | Highlighted Course

Adobe Acrobat for Teaching and Learning

Understanding the power of the Adobe Acrobat family of tools is important for any educator who wants a fast and easy way to improve student learning outcomes and improve their classroom practice. Click here to find out more about this free self-paced course.

Click here to discover the latest on the Education Exchange.

Craig Daalmeijer-Power’s Behance Live Sessions

Adobe Education Leader Craig Daalmeijer-Power from TAFE NSW regularly streams live via Behance a range of Adobe tutorial. Click here for past recordings.

Adobe Education Blogs

Click here to keep up to date with the world of Adobe Education Blogs. The most recent post is by Sebastian Distefano from the Creative Campus Team with his article titled – The future of work: How colleges are preparing students for the jobs of tomorrow

Coming events

Click here to access the Adobe in Education Events and Resources site and book in for some free professional learning for you and your colleagues.

Contact the Adobe Education Team

Use the following QR code or link to get in contact with the Adobe in Education team for Australasia and share this link with any colleagues who you think would value getting these monthly updates.

http://bit.ly/adobe_contact

Australasian Adobe Education Community Facebook Group

Click here to join the Australasian Adobe Education Community Facebook Group and get first hand updates on the Adobe in Education program.

Dr Tim Kitchen – Senior Education Specialist, Adobe (APAC)

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It was a pleasure to highlight the fabulous work of Adobe Education Leaders Andrew On Yi Lai and Joel Aarons at the most recent Inject Creativity Live event.

Developing video literacy skills has become more important than ever for teachers and for students. These two teachers demonstrate what is possible in a primary & secondary context and have provided excellent examples of how to do video well.

Have a look at Andrew’s Year 12 student work via the Fresh Media YouTube Channel.

Make sure you keep the time aside to join us live at the final Inject Creativity Live event broadcast for 2020 on Wednesday, 16 December at 6:30 pm AEDT.

Check out some of the comments from this last episode …

Highlights:

• The films from Freshwater
• Andrew’s chat with Tim was fascinating, and I always enjoy Joel’s enthusiasm.
• The videos created by those students were inspirational and the quality was unbelievable. Thank you for that session.
• Being inspired by the videos shared
• Andrew Lai’s use of Adobe Premiere Pro with Adobe After Effects – professional quality short films produced by his senior students; the other being Joel Aarons with his very useful tips on applying the Adobe Spark Video to the elementary classroom.

Other comments:

• It is worth the effort in getting up at 2.30 am to view and participate in this Adobe Live Event – wouldn’t miss the opportunity to network with fellow AELs.

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