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.
I was delighted to be invited by VINE (Victorian ICT Network for Education) to speak about Adobe’s AI capabilities with the Creative Cloud apps that students and teachers are using around the globe. This seminar was held at the amazing Camberwell Grammar School in Melbourne.
I shared the plethora of Adobe Sensei and Firefly tools now available within a range of Adobe tools. This video provides a snapshot of many of them …
It was great to get some of the audience involved helping me demonstrate Character Animator & Adobe Express. The full set of slides & resources I shared can be found here.
I introduced many of them to the Content Authenticity Initiative and there was a lot of positive feedback about how Adobe’s Gen AI is based on Adobe Stock and when students access via Express, they get a K-12 friendly version. The ethical and safe use of AI is an important topic of conversation in schools these days.
The annual NSW Department of Education Game Changer Challenge is a design thinking challenge that involves over 3000 students and 400 teachers throughout the state. The Grand Final was held at the NSW DoE headquarters in Parramatta and involved 17 primary schools and 7 secondary schools, some of whom flew into Sydney from various regional parts of NSW.
The Game Changer Challenge uses the design thinking process to help students solve a real world, wicked problem. This year’s challenge was to …
“Invent or innovate something that will change our world and leave a lasting impact.”
Inspired by the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal 9
More than 40% of students participating represent regional and rural areas of NSW.
Adobe was invited to help mentor the students and help them with their designs and their solutions. A number of the groups chose to use Adobe XD to create mobile app prototypes and Adobe Express to generate video, audio and other multimedia content.
On Monday 6th November I had the pleasure of being invited to run an Adobe at Chatswood High School in Sydney. With close to 2000 students, it is one of the largest state schools in New South Wales.
Briona Gill, Soundhouse Manager at Chatswood High organsied a full program of activities for a range of Year 7 & 8 classes. The school is very lucky to have a Soundhouse to help enhance their music program. I was in ore looking around the room and reminisced about my early teaching years as music educator.
The Adobe Day sessions involved using the Gen AI Text to Image feature within Adobe Express to create an image and turn it into a short video production. We also looked at how to use Adobe Character Animator for some simple 2D animations that can help enhance any production.
The following day a number of Chatswood teachers from a range of curriculum areas joined me for the Adobe Creative Educator Level 1 micro-credential course.
I would like to thank Briona for organising this special day for her school.
On Thursday 26th October Hampton Primary School in Melbourne hosted an Big Day In Junior.
The Adobe Computer Society, Latrobe University, RMIT, MindFlight, National Australian Bank, Solar Buddies, The Australia Signals Directorate and Adobe were all involved running sessions for Year 5 & 6 students at Hampton and Elsternwick Primary Schools.
The Adobe sessions involved working with Adobe Premiere Rush on the students iPads to film, edit and share a story about what the they love the most in the whole wide world.
We focused on the key skills of Problem Solving, Collaboration and Creativity.
The students worked in pairs to film themselves with the Premiere Rush camera sharing what they love most.
Following some instructions, the students put together their stories with titles and audio assets.
For most of the students, this was an introduction to Premiere Rush and for many of the an introduction to Adobe. Many of the Year 6 students were very excited to hear that they would be getting access to the full Adobe Creative Cloud if they attend a government school in Year 7.
The annual Adobe Max conference is world’s largest digital creativity event. This year it involved about ten thousand creatives (in-person) in Los Angeles and hundreds and thousands watching the live and on-demand stream around the planet.
Keynote & demo highlights
Shantanu Narayen
In his opening keynote address, Adobe’s CEO, Chairman and Present Shantanu Narayen spoke about how creativity fuels the digital economy. He said,
Our lives are becoming increasingly digital and we are turning to creative differentiation to help us stand out as well as make choices. People are creating more than ever before, flooding every surface, every channel and every medium with their creativity … Digital is transforming every aspect of our lives and how we engage with the world’s information. Artificial Intelligence is accelerating this shift and offers the promise and potential to make us even more creative, even more productive and more successful.
Artificial intelligence, with a focus on Adobe Firefly, was a key theme of Max 2023. Narayen announced that since Firefly was launched 6 months ago, users have generated over 3 billion images. The new Adobe Express was also spotlighted among a record number of new products that have been launched this year by Adobe.
Narayen shared Adobe’s mission, to change the world through personalised digital experiences. He said,
We want to empower everyone anywhere to imagine, create and deliver the best digital experiences … Whether you are a creative pro or a beginner, we’re focused on giving you new playgrounds for exploration as well as ideation. We want to help you harness Adobe magic as this creative co-pilot to unlock new forms of artistry.
In relation to AI, Narayen said that he firmly believes that it will never replace human ingenuity.
Watch the full address here …
Shantanu Narayen’s opening keynote
Following Narayen’s address, there was a video that showed Photoshop artists from around the world (including Australia) discover Firefly’s new generative fill tool in Photoshop for the first time. Check it out …
David Wadhwani
David Wadhwani
David Wadhwani, Adobe’s President of the Digital Media business emphasied four key aspects of Adobe Firefly:
Deeply integrated into our tools
Designed to be commercially safe
Transparent with training data
Support for Content Credentials
He highlighted the importance of the Content Authenticity Initiative which now has almost 2000 members and he said that Firefly, thanks to its seamless integration with Photoshop, Illustrator, and Adobe Express, stands as the most rapidly embraced innovation Adobe has introduced to its suite of tools.
Watch David Wadhwani’s full address here …
Ashley Still
Ashley Still took to the stage and said that Adobe believes that creativity is a uniquely human trait and that AI is a tool for creatives to use to help enhance their work. She said that;
With Firefly at the core of Creative Cloud, you can streamline tasks and break the boundaries of your imagination across every creative medium.
Digital artist Anna McNaught did an amazing demo on Firefly integration with Photoshop. Watch it here …
Ashley Still highlighted the many new features to Photoshop that were added in 2023.
She also highlighted the recent launch of Photoshop on the Web (which also features Firefly tools such as generative fill and generative expand) and she shared a clip that outlines what is new in Lightroom.
Danielle Morimoto provided a demo on the latest features that are coming to Adobe Illustrator. Have a look at her demo …
Dacia Saenz shared some of the latest features of Premiere Pro such as enhanced speech and text based editing. Check them out …
Scott Belsky (Adobe’s EVP for Design & Emerging Products) then hosted a segment on the new re-imagined Adobe Express.
Paul Trani demonstrated the new integration features between Adobe Express, Photoshop & Illustrator. Here is that demo …
Katrina Torrijos (Adobe Express Evangelist) demonstrated the social media sharing side of Adobe Express …
Katrina also demonstrated the new Text to Template feature …
Adobe Sneaks
Danielle Morimoto with celebrity guest Adam Devine hosted this year’s Adobe Sneaks which is all about showcase new technologies that Adobe engineers are working on that may or may not end up as a future product or product feature.
Project Fast Fill
Gabriel Huang
Project Draw and Delight
Souymodip Chakraborty
Project Neo Sneak
Inigo Quilez Les
Project Scene Change
Zhan Xu
Project Primrose
Christine Dierk
Project Glyph Ease
Difan Liu
Project Poseable
Yi Zhou
Project Res Up
Yang Zhou
Project Dub Dub Dub
Zeyu Jin
Project See Though
Eric Kee
Project Stardust
Aya Philémon
Here are some of my favourite non-keynote Max Sessions so far …
Rebecca Hare – Three Simple Teaching Shifts That Unlock Student Creativity – VS202
With the avalanche of new challenges, new technologies, and new ways of communicating, we all need creative skills to thrive amid change. How can we best prepare our students for their future? Join Rebecca Hare, education community manager at Adobe, as she addresses the changing landscape and offers three techniques to unlock student creativity.
In this session, you’ll:
Reframe what matters when creating
Support your students’ unique vision and voice
Help them reflect on their journey of growth
Creating the Future, Drawing from the Past – VS818
This session features two artists who draw from a deep well of cultural heritage to celebrate the adaptability and resilience of the human spirit in creating art that bridges the digital divide.
Sougwen Chung, Canadian-born, Chinese-raised artist known for innovative and interdisciplinary work that explores the interaction between humans, technology, and art. Sougwen developed the use of robots as nonhuman collaborators to create mesmerizing and intricate visual compositions.
Dylan Mooney is a proud Yuwi, Torres Strait, and South Sea Islander artist from North Queensland. Working across painting, printmaking, digital illustration, and drawing, he vividly brings to life the rich cultural tapestry of his heritage, deeply influenced by history, culture, and family. Despite being legally blind, Dylan’s mastery of digital media allows him to create high-impact illustrations teeming with bright, saturated colors that express his political energy and keen insights.
On Wednesday 11th October I had the pleasure to be invited to Fitzroy High Schoolin Melbourne for an Adobe Day. Throughout the day I worked with all the Year 7 & 8 students and introduced them to Adobe Character Animator and Premiere Rush.
The Victorian Department of Education and Training (Vic DET) provides Adobe Creative Cloud applications to all of their secondary students and teachers. This means that individual schools don’t have to worry about finding the budget to provide this vital creativity software. The same centeralised distribution management is found in the New South Wales Department of Education (NSW DoE). Both Vic DET & NSW DoE are listed in the worlds largest K-12 education systems so having this sort of access to the world’s best digital creativity software is a wonderful benefit for all their students and teachers.
In a video interview with Allan Barnes from Fitzroy High School he said,
It’s great that the Department of Education have partnered with Adobe to make these product free for students. They just use their school email address and they can download all the apps and learn to use them while they are at school and then use them at TAFE or university or when they get a job.
I would like to thank Allan for organising this event.
Broadcasting live from the Haileybury City Campus in Melbourne, approximately 500 educators devoted a portion of their school vacation to gain inspiration from a lineup of 20 dedicated online presenters from around Australia & beyond during the 2023 ANZ Adobe Education Summit.
Summit highlights
Summit welcome & introductions
With Dr Tim Kitchen & Abby Nelson from Adobe
__________
Interview with Craig Nicholls (Melbourne Girls Grammar) & Martin Gray (NSW DoE)
Interview with Joel Aarons (Vic DET) and Drew Mayhills (WA)
__________
Adobe Express – Gen AI (FireFly), Animate from Audio & Multimedia Editor demo
__________
Interview with Greg Stewart (NSW DoE) and case study from Buronga Public School
__________
Interview with MJ & Nikki Raatz (Education QLD) – (this chapter starts with a case study from Chaffey SC in Mildura, Vic and Canley Vale High, NSW) jump to the 6:27 min mark for the interview.
__________
Making newsletters, portfolios and other digital resources with Adobe Express by Mark Christie (NT DoE).
__________
Interview with Nalin Naidoo (QLD DoE) and Eric Drew (Adobe)
__________
AI in Education with Michelle Dennis (Haileybury)
__________
Documenting Art and Culture: Mobile Storytelling in Malaysia with Associate Professor Max Schleser
__________
Interview with Giovanna Iannicelli (SA) & Eden Carey (WA)
__________
Pre-Summit sessions
Welcome & introduction
__________
Interview with Rebecca Hare – Adobe Global Edu Community Manager
__________
Interview with Diana Peterson – Head of the Adobe Education Exchange
__________
Interview with Emily Chesbrough from the Adobe Express K-12 Product Team
__________
Interview with Ben Forta – Adobe Senior Director Education Initiatives
__________
Interview with MJ Raatz (Commonwealth Bank Teacher Award)
__________
Classroom Success Story – Brett Kent
__________
Classroom Success Story – Ben Eyles (Wodonga TAFE)
Scrub to 2:54 to avoid some of connection issues we had when introducing Ben
__________
Interview with Michelle Dennis
__________
Classroom Success Story with Michael West (NSW DoE)
__________
Classroom Success Story – Jason Lane(Villanona College, QLD)
Dr Tim Kitchen 