On Thursday 22nd February I had the honour of being a guest presenter for a webinar targeting teachers in India. We used MS Teams and linked it to YouTube Live and when we got started, the numbers of participants max out on Teams at 1,183 before a notification said that the total participants is too high to measure. It turns out that nearly 5000 Indian teachers watched live and we are currently well over 3000 who have watched the recording so far. This is expected to get higher as over 30,000 registered for the event.
Here is the YouTube link to what was recorded starting with my session …
There is a lot of interest in Adobe Express in India and my colleagues in the Indian Adobe Edu team Garima Babbar, Jasmeet Kaur Kang and their team are doing an amazing job raising awareness.
If you are looking for quick Adobe Express tutorials for teachers and students, click here.
It was a pleasure to spend Monday 26th Feb, 2004 with a number of RMIT Adobe coaches at the start of their orientation week. The main mission was to share with new students that RMIT is an Adobe Creative Campus which provides all students & teachers full access to all the applications within the Adobe Creative Cloud.
The main activity we had for the new RMIT students was to use Adobe Express to create a sticker that featured their own image. The stickers were printed out and the students loved working with Adobe Express.
On Tuesday 20th Feb, 2024 I had the pleasure of guiding a class of Student Teachers from RMIT through the Adobe Creative Educator (ACE) Level 1 micro-credential course on the Adobe Education Exchange.
Thembi Mason, Lecturer at the RMIT School of Education did the course with me last year and organised for her students to get this qualification.
ACE Level 1 is all about the importance of creativity in education. It features content from leading international experts, as well as a practical component involving each participant creating an online journal and poster using Adobe Express.
Now that these budding teachers have gained this knowledge and developed some new Adobe Express skills, they will be able to apply & share them when they are in charge of their own classrooms.
If you are interested in doing this course, or if you have completed Level 1 and want to move up to Level 2, click here to see the next opportunity.
Check out this short Adobe Express tutorial on how to make video introductions with a digital puppet …
It was a joy to be at Ringwood Church of Christ today to be part of my uncle, Rev Harley Kitchen’s final service as a minister. Harley has dedicated over 50 years of his life to full-time Christian ministry in a number of churches and other ministries around Victoria, including as a CFA Chaplain.
I’m very proud of Harley and my aunt Ruth for all they have done to help 1000s of people over such a long period of time.
It was lovely spending time with family and friends following the service and especially catching up with my cousin Janelle who flew in from Perth for this special day.
On Monday 18th of December, I was invited to run the special ANZ version of the Adobe Creative Educator Level 1 Course with the all the teachers at Mitchell High School in Blacktown, NSW (Western Sydney).
It’s not often I get to work with an entire school staff and I was very pleased to successfully graduate 74 new Adobe Creative Educators by the end of the 2hr session.
A comment from teacher Paula about the event…
I think it was awesome. It was one of the most useful professional developments that we have done… It gave a tool that I can use in the classroom effectively and that I can allow my students to use and be creative and find alternative solutions to their problems.
I would like to thank Adobe Education Leader Michael Turner and the Mitchell High School Principal Elena Marinis for making this event happen.
Other feedback
A highlight was the clear step by step process used to teach us the program.
Yay for me we created a Web page!
Adobe Express was the highlight – generating images from text.
I got a great sense of achievement in producing the diary
A highlight was having time to put theory into practice.
About 300 teachers from across NSW attended the 2023 iTE (Institute of Technology Education) Conference from 29th Nov to 1st Dec and Adobe was very pleased to again be involved.
ITE is the professional association for NSW Technologies teachers. This includes subjects such as:
Science & Technology
Agriculture/Agricultural Technology
Food Technology
Engineering Studies
Design & Technology
Graphics Technology
Industrial Technology
Information & Software Technology
Information Processes & Technology
Marine & Aquaculture Technology
Software Design & Development
Technology Mandatory &
Textiles Technology & Design
On day 1 of the conference, Adobe opened up its Sydney office for an all-day set of workshops with over 20 teachers. Adobe Education Leader Jason Eddie and I rotated the teachers though a range of workshop experiences that features the following applications with a focus on how AI & Gen AI are helping to enhance creativity:
Adobe Express
Character Animator
Animate
Photoshop
After Effects
Photoshop
On Day 2 of the conference, I did the opening keynote address at the Sydney Masonic Centre and titled it Eight Big Ideas for any Classroom.
The eight ideas were based on Professor Seymour Papert’s Constructionist learning theory:
Idea 1 – Learning by doing
Idea 2 – Technology as building material
Idea 3 – Hard fun
Idea 4 – Learning to learn
Idea 5 – Taking time
Idea 6 – You can’t get it right without getting it wrong
Idea 7 – Do unto ourselves what we do unto our students
Adobe was invited to present at the NSW Government Rural Access Gap Digital Classroom Officer Forum on Wednesday 22nd November, 2023.
Since the initiation of the Rural Access Program, over a thousand teachers employed by the NSW government in rural and remote schools have assumed the responsibilities of Digital Classroom Officers. Their primary mission has been to bolster teacher proficiency and confidence in utilising technology and embracing digital learning, achieved through a variety of professional development initiatives and mentorship programs.
As the program nears its conclusion, the NSW Digital Support Team organised this culminating event. This occasion prvided a platform for 25 of the most accomplished Digital Classroom Officers, along with their school principals, to share and showcase their success stories.
Being invited to present and conduct a workshop on Adobe Express, with a specific emphasis on the proficient utilisation of Generation AI (Gen AI) in the classroom, was an honor for Adobe. Many of the educators had prior experience with Adobe Express, making it an opportune moment to introduce them to new features. Additionally, the session delved into the ethical considerations associated with training Gen AI on the K-12 friendly version of Adobe Stock. Stressing the importance of ensuring that students’ creations with Gen AI align with ethical standards and safety guidelines for their projects and publications was a key aspect of the discussion and workshop experience.
I would like to thank my colleague Helen Lacey (Adobe Manger, Customer Success) for supporting me at this event. We look forward to continuing our relationship with these rural and remote NSW schools to help enhance digital creativity throughout NSW.
Here is a clip from a visit I had to one of these schools earlier this year.
The Adobe Day at Tempe High School in Sydney on the 9th of November, 2023 began with all 400 Year 7s & 8s being introduced to Adobe Express and Character Animator.
During this 55min session, the students played with some of the Gen AI features within Express and explored the real-time animation potential within Character Animator.
The rest of the day was spent with Year 9 & 10 media students focusing on enhancing their digital creativity skills with Photoshop & Premiere Pro.
After school I ran an Adobe Creative Educator level 1 course for teachers from Tempe High as well as visiting teachers from Tempe Public school. I would like to thank Ben Jone (Head Teacher TAS) for organising this Adobe Day.
Dr Tim Kitchen 