On Monday, April 29th, I had the privilege of leading an Adobe Express Gen AI workshop for approximately 65 educators from the Sydney North West Region Professional Development network. This network comprises esteemed institutions like Knox Grammar, Barker College, Abbotsleigh, Arden Anglican School, and The King’s School. The workshop centered around exploring ethical and safe options for Gen AI image creation tailored for junior school students, with a specific emphasis on utilising Adobe Express for image and video creation.

For many educators, the workshop served as their first encounter with Adobe Express and an introduction to the responsible utilisation of Gen AI. The discussion emphasised the importance of safe Gen AI practices, particularly within the context of K-12 filtering integrated into Adobe Stock. This ensures that any content produced adheres to ethical standards and is suitable for publication.

We also looked at how to convert a student’s writing into a multimedia production and I left them with this workshop resource to use in their classrooms.

Many of the teachers reflected how excited they were to apply what they learned as soon as they were back in class with their students.

Prior to my session, the wonderful Education Consultant and Gen AI expert Leon Furze presented via live MS Teams link up. I’ve worked on similar events with Leon and read a number of his articles as well as his new book Practical AI Strategies. He is a great presenter and provided lots of great practical advice to help the teachers understand how Gen AI can be safely and effectively managed in the context of a classroom.

Blake Moon (IT Integrator at Knox Grammar), one of the main organisers of the day gave me a quick tour of the Knox Prep Innovation Hub. I was amazing ed the facilities the school has provided, and this was just for the Junior School. I told Blake that the late great Professor Seymour Papert from MIT would be very proud of the work the school is doing to encourage innovation, invention and creativity.

I would like to thank Susanne Floro, (Head of the Knox Grammar Prep School), and Ian Fairhurst (Team Leader of Innovation and Technology at Knox Grammar Prep School) and their team for hosting this event. Also thanks to Jon Dunk (Digital Learning Specialist and Teacher) from Abbotsleigh School for hosting my session.

On Monday 15^th April, I was honoured to be part of a wonderful panel of presenters at a staff professional learning day at St Michael’s Grammar School in Melbourne. The focus of this session was the Future of Schooling and the other panelist included:

• Dr Glenn Savage (University of Melbourne, Faculty of Education)                  
• Jayne Johnston (University of Melbourne, Faculty of Education) &
• Diana  Hodgson  (HR Strategic Partners)     

We all seemed to complement each other as we shared thoughts on what the school of the future should look like.

I connected Professor Seymour Papert’s 8 big ideas behind his constructionism learning theory as a framework for thinking about how schooling should be done now and in the future. Click here to see my slides.

This event was organised by Ross Phillips, St Michael’s Associate Head – Research, Innovation & Professional Practice.

On Friday 12th April I met just about every careers advisor employed by the Singapore Ministry of Education and shared some of the research around skills that we should be encouraging students to foster to best prepare them for the future workplace.

The title of the presentation was Creativity in a Gen AI World and we looked at some the work of Professor Seymour Papert and Sir Ken Robinson. We also looked at the research from the World Economic Forum form 2016 to 2023 where they rated the most important skills to thrive in the future.

The importance of enhancing creativity skills was a big part of the presentation. We looked at the different types of creativity and how empowering students to engage in the creative process enhances their involvement in the learning journey, making them more able to understand concepts.

One of the interactive activities we did was to create a word cloud that highlighted what words best describe creativity.

The Q&A session led by Amin after the presentation opened up some interesting discussions about how creativity can apply to the current education system.

I announced that I will be back in August for a series of student engagements where 10 lucky students from each school will be able to visit the Adobe Singapore office to work with me to help them create a great looking resume with Adobe Express.

I would like to thank Sara V, Amin Morni, Melisa Lim, Xin Er Lee & Hui Shan Peha from the Singapore Ministry of Education as well as my colleagues Titu Minas and Sue Ho for organising this opportunity.

I’m looking forward to being back in August.

On Thursday the 11th of April I had the pleasure of speaking to about 400 IT students and teachers at Singapore’s Institute of Technical Education (ITE) about skills required to thrive in the future.

The mission of ITE is to Create Opportunities for Students and Adult Learners to Acquire Skills, Knowledge and Values for Employability and Lifelong Learning. The attendees comprised first-year IT students, delving into diverse disciplines encompassing Cybersecurity, App Development, Game Design, and beyond. Among the session’s focal points was the recognition of Creativity as a coveted skill not only within the IT sector but across various industries.

All ITE students and teachers are equipped with access to the Adobe Creative Cloud, empowering them to augment their digital literacy and foster creativity. I encouraged them to seize this opportunity to familiarise themselves with these tools while they’re freely available, cultivating skills in digital content creation essential for their future career pursuits.

I would like to thank Daniel Choo from ITE and my colleague Sue Ho who helped to put this event together. It has been great to be back in Singapore.