I had the pleasure of spending some time at Swinburne University and RMIT in Melbourne during Orientation Week. Both of these amazing education institutions are an Adobe Creative Campus which means every student and teacher gets access to the about 50 apps and resources that make up the Adobe Creative Cloud.
It was great to hear a number of students say they chose the university because they get Adobe software for free. It was also wonderful to see the joy on the faces of the students who were told that they now had access to about $1000 worth of software just by being enrolled.
Congratulations to Abigail Nelson for all the work she did on this her first week at Adobe to make these events such a success.
Short for “video podcast,” a vodcast is a type of digital media that combines the elements of a podcast with video.
Each Adobe in 15 minute vodcast is also linked to a live Adobe in 30 min webcast where teachers are welcome to join in a hands on workshop experience, interact with the presenter and ask questions.
The first episode was based on the making of infographics with Adobe Express. An infographic is a visual representation of information or data, usually in the form of a chart, graph, or other visual elements, that is designed to communicate complex information in a simple and easily understandable way. They typically include a combination of text and images which is why the graphic design side of Adobe Express is such a great tool to use to help create infographics.
Here is the first episode of Adobe in 15 min that was dropped on YouTube on Tuesday 7th Feb, 2023 …
Here is a recording of the first of the Adobe in 30 min live webinars based on making infographics …
The next episode of Adobe in 15 min with be focused on making digital portfolios with Adobe Express and will be dropped on the Adobe for Education YouTube channel on Tuesday 14th February at 8 am (AEDT).
Mt Beauty Secondary Collegeis located at the base of the stunning Victoria’s Alps and it was the location of an Adobe Day on Wed 14th December, 2022.
The main focus of this day was getting to know the value of Adobe Express in the teaching and learning process.
Being the last week of school for 2022, there was considerable flexibility in the timetable. Some staff and students spent most of the day with me, others came in for an hour or so.
We made, posters, video stories and web pages all based around what we are passionate about. I was also able to introduce Character Animator and Adobe Premiere Rush to a number of students and teachers.
I would like to thank Hannah Little, Mt Beauty’s Visual Communication Design, Digital Tech and Technologies teacher for organising this event.
Click here to get to know more about Adobe Express
Yarra Valley Grammar is one of Melbourne’s most successful independent schools and I was invited to work with their Year 5 & 6 teaching team on Monday 12th December.
We started with a session titled The importance of creativity in teaching and learning. During this session, we touched on research from the World Economic Forum, Dr Ellis Paul Torrance, Professor Ellen Jane Langer, Dr Tim Patston, Professor Seymour Papert & Sir Ken Robinson.
I encouraged the teachers to look at the interviews we did with Sir Ken about 10 years ago, now available on a dedicated playlist within the Adobe for Education YouTube Channel.
The rest of the time together was based in learning how to use Adobe Express to build animated posters, short videos and webpages.
All the teachers were quick to learn and came up with lots of ideas related to the way they will be using Adobe Express throughout 2023 with their students.
A special thanks goes to Phil Callil, the Yarra Valley Grammar Director of IT and Digital Learning, for organising this event.
On Thursday 24th November, Adobe Senior Solution Consultant Brian Chau and I had the pleasure of working with 12 staff members from one of Victoria’s largest government schools McKinnon Secondary College.
We went through a range of Adobe applications and how they can be used in any classroom such as
Character Animator
Photoshop on the Web
Photoshop
InDesign
Aero &
Adobe Express
We also had the opportunity to share the Adobe section on Arc to a large number of other staff members. Arc is the Victorian Department of Education and Training’s main communication portal for their teachers that relates to a vast array of software that is provided to their schools.
I’d like to thank Peter Eglezos from McKinnon for all his support in organisin this opportunity for his colleagues.
Click here to discover more opportunities to skill up with Adobe.
On Friday 11th November my beautiful daughter Talana married the love of her life Campbell Bonello at Albert Park Baptist Church. It was perfect day and a wonderful celebration of love, commitment and creativity.
Warrnambool College, in the stunning south-west of Victoria, hosted an Adobe Day on Tuesday 1st November for students in a range of year levels and subject areas.
Part of the day was focused on working with Adobe Express on a mix of iPads and laptops to produce creative infographics and short video stories.
The Year 10 & 11 Visual Communication & Design students also spent some time getting to know Adobe Photoshop better and further developing their image composition skills.
A number of Warrnambool College teachers and teachers from surroundings schools took part in an after school professional learning event where the use of Character Animator, Adobe Express and Premiere Rush was introduced and connected to a number of curriculum areas.
I’d like to thank Anthea Rafferty (Head of Art) and Amos Mills (I.T. Manager) for helping to organise this event.
Upper Yarra Secondary College in Yarra Junction, Victoria hosted an Adobe Day for all of their Year 7 students on Monday 24th October.
Adobe Days are a creativity program to support teachers in the mission to transform teaching and learning and to promote student success with an aim to inspire teachers to foster engaging student experiences that develop digital literacies, creative problem-solving, life-long learning and build their confidence to innovate and connect the curriculum with career and community.
This event was focused on encouraging each Year 7 students to use Adobe Express to build a poster/infographic about a cause or topic they are passionate about.
Staff from a range of faculty areas within the school as well as some visiting teachers joined in on an after school Adobe in Education professional learning event that looked at the educational benefits of Adobe Express, Character Animators and Premier Rush.
Special thank you to Marcus Cook (STEM Teacher) for organising this Adobe Day for his students and colleagues.
Click here to find out more about coming Adobe in Education events.
The Adobe Max conference is Adobe’s largest annual event and, for the first time since 2019, it was back face to face in Los Angeles and broadcast live across the planet.
This year, Adobe celebrated it’s 40th anniversary. CEO Shantanu Narayen reflected back on his 25 years with the company and the way Adobe has helped lead digital transformations in so many ares of work and play over the years. In his keynote address, Shantanu said …
Our vast portfolio of industrial leading products are empowering billions of people to tell their stories in richer and more varied ways than ever before.
Shantanu announced that Adobe Express is now available for free to over 10 million global not-for-profits organisations to help them engage donor and generate increased impact was met with strong applause by the 6,000 in attendance. Shantanu also formally announced the recent acquisition of Figma, a leading web first collaborative design platform to re-image the future of digital creativity and productivity.
Shantanu mentioned that there are now 30 millions Behance members globally and 300 million images on Adobe Stock. And he concluded his keynote by thanking Adobe users who continue to inspire his over 27,000 employees to create products and experiences that change the world.
Shantanu Narayen – Adobe CEO
Scott Belsky, Adobe’s Chief Product Officer and Executive Vice President, Creative Cloud led a session of demos and announcement of new features for a range of Adobe applications based on three themes:
A highlight of Adobe Max each year is Sneaks where new technologies, that may or may not end up as future Adobe apps or features of current apps, are demos by Adobe engineers. This years Sneaks features US Celerity and comedian Kevin Hart.
Have a look at the main Day 2 keynote event in full.
Creating Digital Portfolios with Adobe Express was the main theme of the Adobe Day at Somerville Secondary College on the Mornington Peninsula in Victoria on Thursday 13th October. What I really enjoy about Adobe Days is spending a whole day face to face with 100s of students from a range of years levels as well as lots of teachers, sharing with them what they can create with Adobe tools.
Digital Portfolios are one of the many publications that are simple to create with Adobe Express. I worked with four different groups of students from Years 7 to 11 sharing the value of digital portfolios and getting them all to create their own with the access to Adobe Express that has been provided to all Victorian government school secondary students by the Victorian Department of Education & Training.
We discussed the following points about Digital Portfolios:
Portfolios are designed to demonstrate what students know and how they got there.
They can be website, video, podcasts or other types of media
Portfolios help students to reflect on their learning, show evidence of learning, make connections between topics and develop presentation skills
Portfolios can be created for classmates, teachers, parents, future course admissions officers future employers
I created this portfolio site to help the students further understand and develop their own digital portfolios in the future.
At lunchtime, I ran a competition involving using Adobe Express to create an infograhic based on the theme of skills to thrive in the future and a set criteria. The winners won chocolate.
After school, about 50 of the teaching staff and some local visiting teachers took part in a professional learning session focused on engaging students in any curriculum area and level with Adobe Express, Character Animator and Premiere Rush.
Key resources I shared with the teachers included:
Dr Tim Kitchen's Journal - Creativity in Education 