A unique part of the EduTECH conference for 2025 in Sydney was the NSW EduTECH Summit, an education technology festival, showcasing NSW capabilities as a leading Asia Pacific destination for EdTech.

Western Sydney University (WSU) partnered with Adobe to offer it’s pre-service teachers, education faculty staff as well as teachers from Western Sydney an opportunity to do the Adobe Creative Educator Level 1 micro-credential course.

This was held at the WSU Kingswood campus on Tuesday 10th June and involved about 20 participants.

A special thank you to Jo Dunbar and her team at WSU as well as Kaitlin Hartley from the Adobe Edu team for organising this opportunity.

The 2025 Big Day In in Brisbane was held on Tuesday 3rd June involving about 500 Queensland High School.

This year’s event was opened by Jonty Bush the QLD State Member for Cooper who encouraged the students to take onboard the industry representatives and think about how important it is to understand a range of Information Technology areas.

The following industries and organisations presented to the students in Brisbane this year:

• Adobe
• Canstar
• Technology 1
• Westpac
• Wisetech Global
• Deloitte
• Australian Defense Force
• Woolworths Group

When I asked how many of the students were using Adobe Express, I was please to see about 30% of the hands go up. This is largely due to the Queensland Education Department approving Adobe Express as part of their single-sign-on system for all students and teachers late in 2024.

It was a pleasure to introduce the value of Adobe Express to many of the students and teachers who were yet to experience it. About 350 students came past the Adobe stand in the expo area to scan the following QR code that linked to our localised Adobe Express tutorials.

https://adobe.ly/new-express-apac

The 2025 AISNSW ICT Management and Leadership Conference – Digital Directions was held at the Sydney International Convention Centre on 28th – 30th May with over 1000 Independent School Leaders, ICT Managers and IT Vendors.

Being held so close to the Adobe Sydney office, we were invited to host tours as part of the conference program. About 60 delegates took advantage of this opportunity which included a tour of the the amazing workplaces overlooking some of Sydney’s best views of Darling Harbour.

These lucky delegates also had the opportunity to create a short animated video with Adobe Express and achieve the Adobe Creative Educator Level 1 micro-credential.

I would like to thank our sales partner Data#3 for inviting the Adobe Edu team to be part of their expo booth.

It’s always nice to catch up with some of my favourite people in the EdTech work at these types of event.

On Friday 23rd of May, I had the pleasure to beaming into all three Year 6 classes at Kardina International College near Geelong in Victoria for a lesson on podcasting with Adobe Podcast.

Adobe Podcast is a web-based tool designed to help create high-quality podcasts and voiceovers using AI-powered features. With Adobe Podcast, students can enhance speech, remove background noise and echo, edit audio, transcribe text, and access royalty-free music to help them create amazing sounding podcast to help explain a topic or do an assessment task.

Adobe Podcast is designed to make voice recordings sound as if they were recorded in a professional studio, even if you don’t have professional equipment. You can start recording and editing your podcast right in your browser without downloading any software.

This was an example of a virtual short Adobe Day where I taught all three classes at the same time to get them started. I am looking forward to hearing what the students now produce.

In March last year, I visited this school and introduced them to Adobe Express. Click here to see what happened then. It has been great to following this up with this virtual Adobe Podcast session.

If you are interested in a virtual or in-person Adobe Day at your school, click here or contact the ANZ Adobe Education Team via – educationanz@adobe.com

Kardinia International College is a private K-12 school that operates on three campuses: the main campus in Bell Post Hill, another in Lovely Banks, Geelong, and a third in Chiang Mai, Thailand 1 2. It offers a diverse curriculum, including the International Baccalaureate program at both the primary and diploma levels. The school emphasises student wellbeing, individual learning, and developing globally minded students.

I would like to thank Aisha Kristiansen, the Kardinia Director of Innovation & Technology K-12 for organising this session.

The 2025 Big Day In – Melbourne event was held at RMIT’s beautiful Capital Theatre on Thursday 22nd May with just under 500 school students from throughout Victoria.

This event was officially opened by Hon Danny Pearson MP (Minister for Economic Growth & Jobs & Minister for Finance) and Professor Karin Verspoor, Executive Dean, School of Computing Technologies, STEM College, RMIT. I was the opening keynote, with the topic What is Your Dream Job. Here is the blurb …

Chances are, you’ll experience a variety of jobs throughout your life & ideally, some of them will be
your dream jobs at different points. Regardless of the shape your future career takes, there are
essential skills crucial for achieving success. Dr. Tim Kitchen, who has held various dream jobs such
as being a teacher, school administrator, university lecturer, author & consultant, currently serves as
Adobe’s Education Specialist for the Asia Pacific region. In this session, he will delve into research
on the most critical skills for thriving & guide you on developing these skills using the free Adobe
applications accessible to all K-12 schools worldwide.

Other speakers included representatives from the following organisations:

• Wisetech Global
• Australian Signals Directorate.
• Westpac Group
• Australian Defence Force
• TIC Group
• Tata Consultancy Services
• Canstar

The primary goal of the Big Day In events across Australia is to inspire high school students to explore IT as a potential career path. In my presentation, I highlighted research from the World Economic Forum and the Future of Jobs Report, which identified key jobs expected to be prevalent in 2030 and the essential skills required for success in the future.

The Big Day In events are managed by the Australian Computer Society Foundation. Find out more here.

On Tuesday, 20th May, I had the pleasure of spending a day at the Carrum Downs and Tyabb campuses Flinders Christian Community College in regional Victoria. At Carrum Downs, I worked with all the Year 6 students, introducing them to Adobe Express as a tool for creating creative videos and animations.

Later, I traveled to the Tyabb campus, where I engaged with a Year 9 science class before joining all the Year 5 students. It was delightful to see the growth of this school since the last time I visited in the early 1990s when my wife was teaching there.

After school, over 50 teachers from multiple campuses participated in the Adobe Creative Educator Level 1 course. It was wonderful to see a mix of primary and secondary teachers focusing on the importance of creativity across all curriculum areas and levels.

A personal highlight for me was catching up with Mark Hamilton (Head of Secondary), a former colleague of mine from Strathcona, and also spending the day with Adobe Creative Educator Matt Smith. Matt was instrumental in organising this event and is currently the acting principal of the primary school at the Tyabb campus.

On Monday 12th May 2025, I visited all the Yr 6 classes at Benton Junior College on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsular for an Adobe Day.

Adobe Days are opportunities for schools to have a member of the Adobe Education team visit and run class activities based around the use of Adobe Express to enhance digital literacy and creativity skills within a range of curriculum areas. Find out more via here.

Benton Junior College is named in honour of the Benton family, early settlers who arrived in the Mornington area in the mid-19th century and contributed significantly to the local community.

A special thank you to Year 6 teacher Jodie Brasher for organising this day.

On Thursday 8th May, I had the pleasure of visiting Morisset High School in NSW to run an Adobe Day with their Year 7 & 8 English classes where the students were introduced to some of the things that can be created with Adobe Express.

Morisset High is a public secondary school located in the southwestern shores of Lake Macquarie, New South Wales near the Hunter Valley. Approximately 22% of its students identify as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, and the school supports these students through the Itji-Marru Aboriginal Education Resource Centre, which is where we ran the Adobe Day.

The students created some wonderful video animations and were encouraged to keep using Adobe Express as a tool for a wide range of future publications.

A very special thank you to Rhianna Long for organising this day of digital creativity.

The University of Newcastle proudly hosted the 2025 Big Day In event for secondary school students across the Hunter Valley and regional New South Wales. More than 350 students attended to hear from leading IT professionals representing organisations such as Adobe, the Australian Defence Force, Microsoft, the Australian Signals Directorate, and Westpac.

The event was opened by Professor Craig Simmons, Pro Vice-Chancellor of the College of Engineering, Science and Environment and Sharon Claydon MP, Federal member for Newcastle and deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives.

I had the privilege of presenting insights from Adobe and the World Economic Forum on generative AI in education, along with the skills students will need to thrive in the future workplace. I also conducted a live Adobe Express demonstration, showcasing video and animation tools. Around 250 students accessed a curated set of my Adobe Express tutorial resources, bringing the total number of educators and students who have engaged with these materials to over 3,400.

Singleton High School is located about an hour’s drive northwest of Newcastle in the Hunter Valley, regional NSW. On Monday, 5th May, I visited the school to conduct an Adobe Day with their Year 7 & 8 students and teachers.

During the visit, I introduced Adobe Express to the students and guided them in creating short video animations. The students quickly grasped the app and produced impressive results. The teachers were very impressed with the potential of Adobe Express as a tool they could utilize in various curriculum areas.

After school, I worked with a number of the teaching staff to graduate them through the Adobe Creative Educator (ACE) Level 1 course. These teachers joined the 1,956 ANZ teachers who are currently part of the ACE community.

I would like to thank Adobe Creative Educator – Leader Martin Gray (former teacher at Singleton High) and Dayna Cowmeadow (Deputy Principal) for organising this event and inviting me.