On Tue 1st July I visited Roxburgh College in Melbourne’s north for an Adobe Day with four classes of Year 7 students. None of the 100 students had ever used Adobe Express before, nor did they know it was available for them. So, it was a great opportunity to share the value of Adobe Express to the school.

It was late in 2024 when the Victorian Department of Education opened up Adobe Express via their single sign-on system (Edupass) to all of their students and teachers.

Established in 2003 through the merger of Upfield Secondary College and Roxburgh Park Secondary College, Roxburgh College offers a diverse range of educational pathways, including the Victorian Certificate of Education (VCE), Vocational Education and Training (VET), and the Victorian Certificate of Applied Learning (VCAL), catering to various student interests and career aspirations.

I was given a tour of their engineering classrooms including an area to learn about motor mechanics.

I would like to thank Allan Barnes (Learning Specialist – VET & RTO) for organising this event for his school.

On Wednesday 25th June 2025 I was invited by AISSA (Association of Independent Schools of South Australia) & Data#3 to share the value of Adobe in Education to a group of school ICT Managers and leaders in-person and online.

Ben Beaton from Data#3 hosted this event which included a warm welcome from Glen Shipley the CFO of AISSA.

The first speaker was Amir Bukan from Snapdragon who shared the value of their new laptop technologies.

I was the second speaker covering the following topics:

• Overview of the Adobe Creative Cloud
• AI at Adobe
• Why Adobe is safe
• Recent study “Creativity with AI in Education”
• Adobe Express
• AI Assistant in Acrobat
• Helping Teachers & Students

Click here to access my slides

One of the highlights was a demonstration of some of capabilities of Adobe Express for Education which involved a participant (Darren) who has never used the tool before but was guided by me through the process of making a video/animation.

Eastern Fleurieu R-12 School is a multi-campus government school located in the Fleurieu Peninsula region of South Australia, approximately 50 km southeast of Adelaide. On Tuesday 24th June, I was invited to run an Adobe Express workshop with their Year 7 English classes.

During the night prior to this event, Adobe Express for Education changed the look and feel of it’s homepage dashboard.

Together, we explored this new exciting layout and the students all made short video animations both individually and in small groups with the collaboration feature.

I would like to thank Adobe Creation Educator David Fawcett for inviting me to be part of his school community.

On Monday 23rd June, I had the pleasure of running an Adobe Express workshop with all about 150 Year 7 & Year 9 students from St Mary’s College in Adelaide.

It was lovely to be back at this very special school since my last visit in 2017. Adobe Creative Educator – Leader Giovanna Iannicelli organised this opportunity to work with these students while I was visiting Adelaide for a number of events. Most of the students were new to Adobe Express so this was an introduction as I encouraged them all to create an animated video.

I was so impressed with how quickly they took to the software. Many of them shared how excited they are to explore Adobe Express further and use it in a range of subject areas.

On Thursday 19th June, over 25 lecturers from TAFE SA in Adelaide took part in the Adobe Creative Educators (ACE) level 1 micro-credential.

The ACE course offers a balanced blend of theory and practice. The theoretical part includes insights from various experts on the significance of fostering creativity across all aspects and levels of education. The practical component involves using Adobe Express to create a digital portfolio and a poster.

Click here to find out more about the Adobe Creative Educator program which now involves well over 2000 ANZ teachers.

These lecturers come from a diverse range of faculties within TAFE SA. Each of them left with practical examples of how to integrate Adobe Express into teaching and learning across all areas of TAFE.

I would like to thank Viviana Nunez (Principal Consultant – People and Culture – TAFE SA) for organising this event for her colleagues.

The Big Day In – Adelaide was held on Thursday 19th June at the University of Adelaide with about 400 students in Years 9 to 12 from around South Australia.

I was the opening keynote presenter speaking on the topic – Skills required to thrive in an AI wold.

Professor Abelardo PardoProfessor Abelardo Pardo, Head of School of Computer Science at the University of Adelaide opened the event my encouraging the students to consider IT as future career. Other presenters were from:

• Wisetech Global
• Tata Consultancy Services
• Westpac Group
• Australian Defence Force
• The Australian Signals Directorate
• Catalyst Games

On Wednesday 18th June 2025, I was invited to run an Adobe Day at the new Findon Technical College in Adelaide.

Opened in January 2024 and co-located with Findon High School, Findon Technical College is South Australia’s first purpose-built government technical college. Offering a unique blend of SACE completion and vocational education, it serves students in Years 10 to 12 who are looking for a fast track to industry or university within modern, industry-style facilities. This is the first of five similar colleges across the state and part of a $208.8 million investment aimed at bridging education and workforce needs.

This Adobe Day began with many of the teachers completing the Adobe Creative Educator Level 1 micro-credential. The plan was then to work with groups of students on podcasting with Adobe Podcast, introducing Adobe Express and then running a video editing masterclass on Premiere Pro. However, once the teachers saw the value of Adobe Express, that then became the focus for most of the other sessions with a number of classes taking coming in at the last minute to take advantage of my visit.

I would like to thank Eric Drew (former colleague of mine who now workers with the SA Department for Education) as well as Luke Northcote (Head of Findon Technical College) for organnising this day.

On Tuesday 17th June 2025, I was invited to run the Adobe Creative Educator Level 1 micro-credential course to a group of teachers at the exclusive St Peter’s College boys school in Adelaide.

One of the oldest establishments in Adelaide, St Peter’s was founded in 1847 only 11 years after the establishment of South Australia. Situated on a 90-acre campus just 2 km from Adelaide’s city centre, the school features historic and modern buildings, extensive sports fields, and boarding facilities for around 100 students.

I would like to thank John Papazoglou (Head of Technology) for the opportunity to work with his colleagues.

Yakandandah Primary School, located in Victoria’s magnificent north-east, hosted an Adobe Day on Monday 16th June involving all of their students from Years 3 to 6. The students were introduced to the power and simplicity of Adobe Express with the Year 5 & 6s creating animated videos and the young students creating posters.

The Victorian Department of Education have centrally provided access to Adobe Express to all of their students and teachers.

Click here to access a wide range of Adobe Express tutorials and resources.

After school, most of the teaching staff undertook the Adobe Creative Educator level 1 micro-credential course.

I would like to thank Year 5 & 6 teacher Earle Mason for organising this event for his school.

Gallery

EduTECH 2025 was back at the Sydney Convention & Exhibition Centre on June 11 & 12 involving about 10,000 delegates and 280 vendors.

Following a wonderful opening keynote presentation at EduTECH 2024, Sal Khan (the founder and CEO of the Khan Academy) returned as the opening keynote again this year.

Another highlight was hearing former AFL star Adam Goodes sharing his story as he developed his leadership skills while being interviewed by the wonderful Annabel Astbury (Head of Education at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation).

Adobe’s main involvement this year was to partner with Lenovo to do a presentation at their stand titled Making the most of Adobe with Lenovo.

It was great seeing a number of members of the Adobe Creative Educator (ACE) – Leaders and Innovators community involved running presentations. One of the highlights was watching Krissa Diamate share about her recent trip after winning a NSW Premier’s award.

ACE-Innovators Matt Esterman, Brett Salakas and Michelle Dennis were involved in a number of session throughout the conference.