On Tuesday 11th June, 2024 my colleague Eric Drew and I spent most of the day with the delightful Year 4 to 6 students from Seaton Park Primary School in Adelaide. Deputy Principal Esther Williams heard that I was visiting South Australia that week as asked if I was available to visit her school to help introduce Adobe Express to her students and staff.

I gave the students a challenge to work in a small group to help promote one of the 17 United Nations Sustainability Development Goals in a short video using a variety if Adobe Express tools.

The students worked really well, especially considering the software was new to them. It was great seeing their collaboration, problem solving & creativity skills in action throughout the day. Here are some of the stories they came up with using their Chromebooks & Adobe Express …

On Friday 7th June, 13 Year 10 design students and 2 teachers from Braybrook College visited the Adobe Melbourne office as part of an ABCN My Career Rules program.

Adobe has been partnering with ABCN for about three years to help them with their vision for all young Australians to reach their potential in the future world of work, regardless of socio-economic background.

Jon Barrie, David Huynh and I were the industry mentors and we were asked a number of great questions from the students about how we got into working for Adobe and what other jobs have we done in the past.

The My Career Rules program gives students the opportunity to prepare questions and interact with a professionals from specific jobs and industries, opening their minds to careers that reflect the current workplace. Providing a link between classroom learning and the real world of work, it aims to reinforce messages about the skills and mindsets needed to make a successful career in the future workplace. 

The students also enjoyed working with a few of the Adobe Creative Cloud applications that they have access to thanks to an enterprise agreement between Adobe and the Victorian Department of Education.

I would like to thank Catherine Morris from ABCN as well as Braybrook College teachers Loc Nguten and Rolando Garay-Matziaris for organising this event.

In its first year of existence, Brinbeal Secondary College is one of the newest schools run by the Victorian Department of Education. Being its inaugural year, it just has Year 7 students this year with lots of enrollments booked in for 2025 and beyond.

I had the pleasure of meeting all the Year 7s throughout the day and most of the teachers after school. The focus for the students was Adobe Character Animator as a creative way to enhance presentations and Photoshop to help develop their digital literacy and communication skills.

After school, I worked with most of the school staff and introduce them to Adobe Express which we are hoping will soon be back available for all Victorian Department of Education students.

I would like to thank Assistant Principal Angela Roberts for organising this day of digital creativity.

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.