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.

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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.

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.