The 2024 Adobe Educators’ Conference kicked off at RMIT in Melbourne on 30th September and 1st October. This was the beginning of a four day conference event in Melbourne and Sydney registered by about 800 teachers for both the in-person and online experience with an aim to empower tomorrow’s creators with Adobe Express and ethically safe generative artificial intelligence.

Professor Simone White, Dean of the School of Education at RMIT officially opened the event prior to an introduction outlining all the conference presentation opportunities.

The first of over 60 (in-person & online) workshop options took place including the following topics:

• Intro to Express with Al Briggs
• New Gen AI features in Photoshop & Illustrator with Craig Daalmeijer-Power
• Adobe Express in the Primary Classroom with Craig Nicholls
• Drawing when you can’t Draw – Engaging the Disengaged with Adobe Fresco with Joel Aarons
• Editing images in Adobe Express – How far can you take it with Ben Eyles
• Creativity in the Round: Collaborative Student/Teacher Group Projects in Adobe Express with Erin Raethke
• Intro to Adobe Express (online) with Eden Carey
• Teaching & learning prompt engineering with Adobe Firefly (online) with Ross Johnson
• Your Voice is Your Superpower! Animate from Audio Projects in Adobe Express (online) with Jason Lane
• Adobe Creative Educator Level 1 course with Eric Drew
• Enhancing writing with Adobe Express with Juliette Bentley
• Multi-modal assessments in Adobe Express with Molly Turner and Craig Daalmeijer-Power
• Making as a teaching and learning methodology in curriculum with Clare Dyson & RMIT Coaches
• Making animated gifs and stickers with Photoshop or Fresco with Kev Lavery
• Create shareable editable branded video (youtube) intros and outros in Adobe Express with Mark Christie
• Introduction to Adobe Express (online) with Jason Lane
• What’s new in Adobe Express for Educators (online) with Rollan Bañez
• Adobe Express Video production workflow (online) with Jason Eddie

The main plenary session commenced with a welcome from RMIT’s Deputy Vice-Chancellor Education & VP, Professor Sherman Young.

Molly Turner & Eric Drew from the Adobe Education Team acted out the first of two sets of Teacher Features focused on a range of practical uses of Adobe Express for teachers and students.

The first of eight Creative Catalyst Talks over all four days of the conference commenced with Juliette Bentley presenting the topic Beyond the Classroom Walls: Global Collaboration with Adobe Express.

The keynote presenter for the Melbourne conference was Pip Cleaves (Associate Principal – Global Village Learning) with the topic AI in Education – How I see it. How I use it.

Following a break, Mark Christie (Director Digital Initiatives at Department of Education Northern Territory)did the next Creative Catalyst Talk titled Fair Smoothies.

Al Briggs (Adobe’s Strategy Development Manager for Higher Education) hosted a panel session titled Curly Questions involving:

• Dr Timothy Wiley – Lecturer, School of Computing Technologies (RMIT)
• Dr Thembi Mason – Lecturer, School of Education (RMIT)
• Virginia McNab – Masters student at RMIT School of Education
• Juliette Bentley – Classroom teacher and Adobe Creative Educator Innovator, Adobe Education Leader/Master Teacher
• Rob Flavell – President of VINE (Victorian ICT Network for Education) and Director of Digital Transformation at Loreto Toorak
• Mark Christie – Director Digital Initiatives, Department of Education Northern Territory, Adobe Creative Educator – Innovator

The curly questions were:

• Do you think relying on Gen AI for assignments compromises students’ ability to develop critical thinking and creativity?
• In your opinion, what is the most important thing teachers need to know about the safe and ethical use of AI in the classroom?
• Do you worry that Gen AI might replace teachers in the future?
• How do you envision using Gen AI to enhance student learning and engagement in the future, and what challenges do you anticipate?
• With AI already influencing many industries, what would you say to critics who argue that schools are lagging in preparing students for an AI-driven world?
• How important do you think it is for students to learn about Gen AI, and how should schools incorporate this learning into the curriculum?

Day 2

The second of the conference was for members of the Adobe Creative Educator Community.

It commences with a welcome from Associate Professor Clare Dyson from RMIT

Then we connected with the Global Adobe Education team as well as Adobe Product managers in the USA including:

• Ben Forta (Senior Director of Education Initiatives)
• Will Hsiao (Director, Community Engagement)
• Gail Hammer (Education Community Program Manager)
• Mary Cherng (Director of Product, Creative Cloud Education)
• Dr Brian Johnsrud (Director, Education Learning & Advocacy)
• Tanya Avrith (Education Community Manager)
• Claudio Zavala Jr. (Education Evangelist)

The third Creative Catalyst Talk for the conference was run by Craig Daalmeijer-Power (Head Teacher – Photography, Screen & Media / Games Development at TAFE NSW) titled Being creative with purpose.

Associate Professor Max Schleser conducted the next Creative Catalyst Talk titled ImaginAItion

The next part of the day involved the ACEs partnering up for an Adobe Express Collaborative Activity that involved using Adobe Express to create a (no more than) 30 sec video clip that outlines an example of how Adobe Express has been or can be helpful for you and/or your students in the teaching & learning process.

We then had a discussion led by the following presenters and topics …

• Drawing when you can’t Draw – Engaging the Disengaged with Adobe Fresco with Joel Aarons
• New Gen AI features in Photoshop & Illustrator with Craig Daalmeijer-Power
• Editing images in Adobe Express – How far can you take it? with Ben Eyles

Feedback comments

Highlights

• Learning about Adobe products and how to utilise them in multimodal assessment
• The workshops
• Pip Cleaves Keynote was extremely interesting and insightful
• Discussion about AI use in schools
• The keynote speaker Pip
• Learning about Adobe beyond a PDF reader
• Skills which were immediately actionable in the classroom
• Liked the content and activities on AI and Adobe Express.
• Pip Cleaves’ keynote and curly questions
• The event was great with the workshops and q and a.
• I gained a good overview of Adobe product and AI potential
• Curly questions
• The practical learning especially how to construct webpages
• The demos by Drew and Molly were great.
• A key highlight of the conference was its direct relevance to my professional development, particularly in keeping up with the latest AI technology trends. The sessions offered in-depth insights and practical knowledge that not only supported my upskilling but also provided actionable strategies to bring into the classroom, enhancing both personal growth and teaching practice. Similarly, Adobe Express shows great promise as a classroom tool, allowing students to easily create visually engaging projects such as presentations and social media content, fostering creativity, digital literacy, and multimedia storytelling.
• Fantastic that the conference is both free and during holidays so it’s accessible
• A good investment of my time
• The conference was thoroughly engaging, featuring an impressive lineup of speakers who were not only experts in their respective fields but also skilled at delivering complex topics in an accessible and inspiring way. What I appreciated most was the flexibility of the conference format. Whether attending face-to-face or online, the hybrid model ensured that I could fully participate according to my preferences and schedule. This adaptability enhanced my experience, allowing me to connect with thought leaders and peers while gaining the cutting-edge knowledge I sought.

Images from the amazing Ben Eyles