There are not many primary schools that have their own media centre, equipped with an infinity wall green screen for video production and a podcast studio. Silverton Primary, in Melbourne’s Noble Park, prides itself on providing its students with opportunities to develop modern media & communication skills to help enhance their students digital literacy and creativity skills.

On Tuesday 19th June, I had the pleasure to spending a day with all the Year 5/6 students, introducing them to Adobe Spark video as a tool to help them tell video stories.

The students were asked to work in a small group to create a short video about their passions. The challenge was to have the story completed in 15 minutes.

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The culture of the school is such that the students are comfortable working with new technologies. I was very impressed with what they were able to achieve in such a short space of time.

Later that afternoon, I worked with the Silverton Primary teaching staff and gave them the same challenge as I gave the students.

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It is always a delight to witness teachers discover a new technology that helps enable their creativity. It was great to hear the teachers chat about all the different ways they can use the Adobe Spark products in their classrooms to enhance the teaching & learning process.

About forty teachers from ten different schools/universities registered for a special after school Adobe professional learning event in Auckland on Wednesday 13th June hosted at Avondale College.

Special thank you to Jane Chen from Adobe, local Auckland Teacher Donna Golightly and Paul McClean from Avondale for offering a range of workshop options for the teachers.

The feedback from this event featured the following comments …

• My mind has exploded!
• Excellent session!!
• This has been an awesome session that I wish that I had more time learning about Adobe. Photoshop was just so amazing!! Kids would definitely love to learn more about it especially with animation!
• A highlight was understanding basic tools in Photoshop to create cool effects
• Dr Tim Kitchen was a great presenter! Straight forward, engaging and enthusiastic.
• Fantastic work! please do more workshops in Auckland!
• I enjoyed just immersing myself in the Adobe products – as I have always felt a little alienated from them.
• A highlight was the welcome & Tim was a very engaging presenter. Realizing there’s a lot more Adobe software I need to get my head around than I thought!

During my Photoshop workshop, the Principal of Avondale College Brent Lewis popped in to greet everyone.

Thank you to Paul McClean (Director of Innovation- Avondale College) and Brent Lewis (Principal – Avondale College) for their support and encouragement with this event. We are looking forward to many more similar events in the future.

On Wednesday 13th June, Adobe Solution Consultant Jane Chen and I spent the morning at the amazing Avondale College in Auckland, New Zealand.

Avondale College is a large public co-educational secondary school with close to 3000 students. About fifty Year 11 & 12 students, who are part of the school’s Innovation Program led by Mr Paul McClean (above centre), worked with Jane and myself on a mini Adobe Have a Voice project.

The aim of the project was to have the students work with a small group to build a 2 min video promoting a concept/idea/issue that is important to them and enhance their 21st century communication and creative problem solving skills.

None of the students had experienced the Adobe Spark tools before but most of them were familiar with a range of other Adobe apps. So, with a few instructions the students were off and running. I was so impressed with the seamless way they cooperated together, creatively solved problems and built their digital stories with a mix of teh following Adobe apps:

• Spark Video
• Spark Post
• Premiere Pro
• Photoshop
• Illustrator

Avondale College prides itself on offering a student focused curriculum involving students achieving a wide range of industry certifications (including Adobe Certificated Associate qualifications).

Avondale Principle Brent Lewis says the Innovation Program and ICT courses at his school are leading New Zealand in information technology education, with students gaining real world project experience as well as industry certifications. He says the success of these programs can be seen by our students’ astonishing results in national and international competitions.

Here examples of some of the videos that were made by the students …

Jane and I enjoyed working with these students and were very impressed with what they were able to achieve in such a short space of time. Most importantly, it was great to see these student display strong skills in cooperation, creative problem solving and creativity.

Stay tuned for a video about this day coming soon to CreateEdu TV.

It’s is nice to be featured in the 2018 The Big Day In highlight video.

Check the following Big Day In events directly involving Adobe in 2018 …

Wagga Wagga

Sydney

Melbourne

Newcastle

Brisbane

Click here to see other Big Day In events held in 2018

A stunning traditional Maori welcome commenced a professional learning hosted by Auckland University of Technology on Tuesday 12th June, 2018.

Just under 100 teachers registered for this event from 17 different (K12 & Higher Ed) schools around Auckland, New Zealand; mostly from Auckland University of Technology and the University of Auckland.

Following the introductions and Adobe Quiz we broke into a range of workshop options

Adobe Solution Consultant, Jane Chen ran a session on Adobe’s mobile apps. Click here to see more information on the wide range of free Adobe apps available on iOS & Android.

Hohepa Spooner, AUT lecturer and his team ran a workshop/presentation about the way AUT are working with Adobe Experience Manager and InDesign to build a series of culturally significant apps for AUT and the wider NZ community.

Donna Golightly, is an Auckland based teacher and local Adobe Spark user. She is an Apple Teacher, Google Certified Educator and a Microsoft Innovative Educator – soon to hopefuylly be an Adobe Campus Leader. Donna ran a wonderful Adobe Spark workshop.

I ran a workshop on Adobe Photoshop.

During our wrap up session we shared a number of resources including the amazing Adobe Make It Now channel on YouTube.

The resources I shared for this event can all be found on the Adobe Education Exchange via – http://bit.ly/adobe13June18

Special thank you to Auckland University of Technology for hosting this event, we are looking forward to with you again in the future.

Over 500 Queensland secondary students visited the University of Queensland on 7th June for the final Big Day In event for 2018.

Senator the Hon James McGrath, Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, opened the event with a clear message about how important it is for for young people to develop skills in Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics.

The opening keynote session was from Steve Baxter, Queensland’s Chief Entrepreneur, very well known as one of the ‘Sharks’ of the Channel 10 show Shark Tank Australia. Steve is the founder of the River City Labs, an incubator for start up companies focusing on mobile, Internet, telecoms, and the technology field.

Steve encouraged the students to start early on their entrepreneurial endeavours. He said, the more experience you can get in turning your passions into a job as a young person the better. He encouraged the students not to be scared to take risks with their ideas, especially while they are young and have less financial commitments.

Rob the Robot and I had the pleasure to share with the students some of the research around what skills are required to thrive in the future workplace.

I asked the students to identify if they currently have passions for coding, design or video production. I encouraged them to start turning those passions into a job now while they are at school by asking their parents/relatives if they need help with a website, a mobile app or a video for their businesses. I challenged them to not wait till they have finished school or university to develop these skills.

We looked at the future workplace and the threat of automation/computerisation taking over many of today’s jobs and how to best prepare for that future. I shared with them some of the findings from the recent Innovation Science Australia study that recommended that today’s students should be developing interpersonal skills as well as skills in entrepreneurialism and creative problem. These are skills that computers don’t have (yet) so they are skills that will be required most in the future workplace.

It has been a real pleasure and a privilege to be invited to present at the Big Day In events around Australia this year. I would like to thank John Ridge and Kerrie Bisaro from the Australian Computer Society Foundation for all the work they do to make sure, these events are successful.

I’m looking forward to being involved in some of the Junior Big Day In events later this year and hopefully continuing Adobe’s support in the future.

The Adobe Education Exchange has just welcomed its 500,000 member!

Growth in membership since 2010

The Adobe in Education team would like to thank everyone who has shared the value of this amazing resource to their education colleagues and wider networks. Not a week goes by where I don’t hear a teacher reflect how this portal has made a positive impact to their professional growth and provided inspirational ideas to enhance creativity in their classrooms.

Special thank you to Matt Niemitz @mattniemitz (Head of Adobe Education Exchange) and his team for the work they do to make the Adobe Education Exchange such a valuable resources.