On the 24th May, I had the pleasure of running a workshop and being part of a panel at the Viewbank College STEAM Futures Conference 2024.

The panel was focused on AI and the Future of School Education and also included Victoria’s Lead Scientist Amanda Caples, the president of Science Technology Australia Prof Sharath Sriram (RMIT), Dr. Sean Gallagher is the founder of Humanova and a leading expert on the future of work in Australia, Anam Javed from Victorian Academy of Teaching and Leadership and Veena Nair, STEAM Head – Viewbank College.

Facilitated by Sharon Grimes (Principal of Viewbank College), it was a fascinating discussion from this very esteemed group of STEAM experts. I felt very honoured to be invited to be part of this session and contribute some of my thoughts about how Gen AI is fast becoming a normal part of life therefore should be considered a normal part of education.

The workshop was represented by teachers and students from a about six different school around Melbourne and focused on the way AI is features in a range of Adobe applications to make creativity accessible for all.

I would like to congratulate Veena Nair (STEAM Head – Viewbank College) and her team for organising such a great event.

Photoshop, Premier, Pro and Adobe Character Animator were the three main applications that dominated a special Adobe Day at Norwood Secondary College in Melbourne East on Wednesday, 22 May 2024.

About 200 Norwood Students rotated through a series of six lessons with me throughout the day. Most of these sessions involved two classes at the one time, so that as many students as possible could find out more about what the Victorian Department of Education has provided all of their schools to help enhance and foster, digital creativity and communication skills.

At the end of the school day, about 30 Norwood teachers registered to be involved in a special professional Learning session that involved completing the Adobe Creative Educator level one course.

I would like to thank Ashlea Guerra (Media and English Teacher) for all the work she did to organise this day. It was a delight to spend the day with so many of the Norwood students and teachers.

On Thursday 9th May, 2024 I had the pleasure of spending the day with a number of students and teachers at the delightful Healesville High School, in regional Victoria.

I worked with 6 classes representing each year level throughout the school and focused on how to enhance the student’s Photoshop skills. We worked through a range of techniques such as how to colour correct, remove objects, crop, select subjects, perspective warp and more.

I also introduced a number of the classes to the power of Adobe Character Animator to create simple animated videos.

After school, a number of teachers from a range of subject areas joined me for the Adobe Creative Educator Level 1 course.

I would like to thank Richelle Hoogenraad (Visual Art & Visual Communication Design Teacher) for organising this event..

On Thursday 2nd May, I had the pleasure of being the opening keynote presenter at the Newcastle Big Day In event at the University of Newscastle. About 400 secondary students from a range of government, catholic and independent schools around the Hunter Valley and wider regional NSW joined us for a day of information about a range of potential careers with a focus on IT.

My presentation was based on the skills required to thrive in the future. Other presenters included the wonderful Andrew Balzer from Microsoft as well as representatives from Defence Force Recruiting, WiseTech Global, Westpac, The Australian Signals Directorate and Amazon.

On Wednesday, May 1st, I facilitated the Adobe Creative Educator (ACE) Level 1 course at St Mary’s Catholic College, welcoming 35 dedicated Catholic school teachers from the Newcastle region in NSW.

ACE Level 1 is focused on looking at the importance of fostering creativity in all areas of education. It is also the gateway to the Adobe Creative Educator program which is community program that provides curated professional development materials, information about virtual and in-person events, and the opportunity to connect with like-minded educators from around the world.

The ACE Level 1 program, can be done on-demand at any time via the Adobe Education Exchange but it usually takes about 3 hours to complete. I offer a special localised version in-person and online that can be completed in 90 minutes. To register interest in a coming session, click here.

I was invited to work with all the Year 8 & 9 students at St Mary’s Catholic College in Gateshead (near Newcastle, NSW) on Wed 1st May, 2024.

We focused on safe and ethical Gen AI image creation with Adobe Express and the students learned about the importance of good prompting, how to utilise the resources of Adobe Stock within Adobe Express and why encouraging creativity is so important.

I would like thank Shane Abell for organising this day at his school.

Also a special thank you to for the support of Hayley & Mark – Digital Innovation and learning Education Officers from the from the Maitland/Newcastle Catholic Education Office NSW.

With only a few days notice, St Paul’s Primary (near Newcastle) heard that I was in the area so they organised some time for me to work with their Year 5 & 6 classes and introduce them to Adobe Express.

Using the United Nations Sustainability Development Goals as the main motivation, the students were encouraged to work with a partner to create a short animated promotion of one of the 17 goals.

It was a delight to meet these creative students and see what they were able to achieve with just a few initial instructions. I would like to thank the Principal of St Pauls’ Greg Cumming and this staff as well as Hailey Bertwistle, form the Catholic Education Network for organising this event.

On Tuesday 30th April, I was invited to run the Adobe Creative Educator (ACE) Level 1 course with Pre-Service teaching students as well as a number of academics at UTS (University of Technology Sydney).

I would like to thank Keith Heggart, Director for the Centre for Research on Education in a Digital Society at UTS for organising this opportunity for his students and colleagues.

It is always a delight to be fostering the value of creativity in education.

Feedback highlights:

• Finishing the assessment and feeling fulfilled as I was learning how to use a new program.
• I loved the use of technology and the practice-based nature of the course
• Seeing the generative AI tool create custom images
• Utilising the diverse tools- but more importantly the focus on creativity and its link to critical thinking.
• Great lesson, very engaging, great presenter
• Clear and concise structure, Tim is a clear and engaging presenter.