About 60 educators from a range of NSW schools, TAFE NSW & the University of Technology Sydney registered for a series of two professional learning events at the Adobe Sydney office.

The focus was a look at Artificial Intelligence and how it currently (and will in the future) affect education and creativity. We explored the new and powerful Adobe Firefly beta and where this technology could be integrated into various Adobe applications in the future.

Each participant was encouraged to use Adobe Express to build their own resource based on this site that was provided for them.

It was a delight to have Adobe Education Leader Brett Kent help support me for these events. His insights as a classroom teacher and Adobe expert were highly valued by everyone.

Some of the feedback from the events included:

Highlights:

• Participants voices
• Getting more resources. Firefly – amazing
• Great links to share with my students and colleagues.
• Looking at Express
• The changes coming for video editing
• Tim’s presentation style
• Collaborating with others
• Discussing ai in the context of the Adobe products
• Seeing what’s coming next with AI, hearing and discussing ramifications of AI
• Character animator and firefly
• Very excited about implementing what I have seen and learnt in the classroom.

Other comments

• So much to learn. Great TPL, Tim
• Would love to attend a more detailed course on adobe express and firefly
• Superb event.
• Great help thanks ! Would love to come to more to these sessions. I would like to learn more about how students can use Ai for creativity.
• Really interesting session

Check out this video ..

It was my delight to present a keynote as well as a workshop at the 2023 Visual Arts and Design Educators Association (VADEA) of NSW Conference.

The VADEA seeks to promote the study of Visual Arts and Design education and to inspire and support Visual Art and Design teachers. During my keynote address titled “Creativity for All – Preparing for Student Success,” I emphasised the importance of creativity in achieving success based on research conducted by the World Economic Forum over the years. According to their findings, creativity has consistently ranked among the top 5 skills necessary to thrive in the future, since 2016.

I also ran a workshop titled – Art Technology Workshop and went through various tips and tricks with Photoshop as well as how to create a digital portfolio with Adobe Express.

Workshop resources

I would like to thank the VADEA Conference Committee for inviting me to their conference this year. It was a pleasure to spend time with some very creative educators.

On Wednedsay10th May, I had the pleasure of visiting Gleneagles Secondary College in outer eastern Melbourne for an Adobe Day.

Adobe Days are an interactive digital creativity program aimed to inspire engaging learning experiences that develop digital literacy skills, creative problem-solving, life-long learning and build confidence to innovate and connect the curriculum with career and community

I worked with a Year 7 Humanities class and a Year 8 English class with a focusing on creative presentations with Adobe Character Animator & Premiere Rush. I also worked with a number of VCE Media classes throughout the day helping them to develop their skills with Adobe Premiere Pro.

After school, I had the pleasure of working with about 25 teachers form a range of curriculum areas with a focus on enhancing digital literacy and creativity in the teaching & learning process.

I would like to thank Assistant Principal Robert Young, Head of Technology Geoff Forster as well as Humanities teacher Natalie Napolitano and English Teacher Lewin Cool for helping to make the day a success and contributing to the folloiwng video.

Abby Nelson (Adobe Customer Success Manager) coordinated Adobe Solution Consultants and me to work with the 2023 RMIT Adobe Coaches at the Adobe Melbourne office this morning.

RMIT is an Adobe Creative Campus which means every student and teacher has free access to the amazing set of Adobe Creative Cloud applications.

As an Adobe Coach, these students are tasked with supporting students and teachers who visit the RMIT Adobe Hub (on site) for support.

It was great to see such enthusiasm from these talented student who are passionate about Adobe tools and how they can be used across the university.

Kirrawee High School in Sydney hosted an Adobe Day on Thursday 16th March. The first Adobe Day for NSW in 2023.

The day started with a delightful group of about 40 SRC (School Representative Council) students from all years levels. I showed them how they could use Adobe Express to make posters, video stories and web pages to help promote the various actives they will be running throughout the year. For most of them, it was an introduction to Adobe Express and they loved the ease and usefulness of the application.

The rest of the day was spent with a range of media and art classes with a focus on Photoshop, Premiere Pro and InDesign.

After school, I had the privilege of presenting to the whole staff and sharing with them the value of Adobe Express for any curriculum area. They loved the ease of the tools and how students & teachers can create great looking content so quickly.

Many of the teachers and students wished they had known about Adobe Express earlier. Here are some quotes from the students …

• Within the timeframe of 1 hour, I have learnt more about photoshopping than YouTube has taught me my whole life – thank you Dr Kitchen. – Norah
• The workshop was very educational as it taught us crucial skills in technology and online resources that I will not only be able to use in all aspects of school, but in my later life. – Tiana
• The session provoked creativity and taught us how to communicate our ideas effectively and in an engaging manner. – William  
• This course has enabled us to create our own projects and taught us a variety of things which encourage creative thinking not only in a school environment, but also throughout our lives. – Lola

On Wednesday 15th March, it was delightful to have a number of NSW teachers visit the Adobe Sydney for a professional learning session focused on Adobe Express for all curriculum areas.

For a number of the teachers, it was their first experience with Adobe Express.

Feedback comments:

• A highlight was learning the quick actions in Adobe Express
• I enjoyed working on skills specifically relevant to being a Dept. of Education Adobe Champion
• A highlight was seeing how quickly you could create a video
• I can apply this at work!

The resources I shared for this event can be found via this link.

Stay tuned for a similar event to this that we are planning in mid May.

About 1,400 secondary students from schools round Sydney attended Day 1 and 2 of the Big Day In at UTS (University Technology Sydney) on 14th & 15th March.

Big Day In events are run by the Australian Computer Society Foundation around Australia to help engage student with IT professionals and encourge them to consider a career in a STEM related area.

I was asked to be the first keynote for each day of the Sydney event and my presentation was based on the most important skills to thrive in the future.

Day one was opened by The Hon.Victor Dominello, MP, Minster for Customer Service & Digital Government, Minister for Fair Trading & Minister for Small Business in the NSW Government.

Day 2 was opened by The Hon Ms Zali Steggall OAM, MP, Federal Independent Member for Warringah in NSW.

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.

For the beginning of the 2023 school year, the ANZ Adobe Education Team introduced a new series of Adobe in 15 min vodcasts on the Adobe for Education YouTube channel based on getting to know how to use Adobe Express and other popular Adobe applications in the classroom.

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 College is 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