On the afternoon of Monday 10th February, I had the pleasure of working with a group of talented Year 5 & 6 students at Grand Avenue State School near Brisbane.
These students use iPads as their main digital device so this was a great opportunity to test the capacities of mobile version of Adobe Express.
The animated characters were very popular and well used by the students to create short animated stories on their iPads.
I would like to thank Student Engagement Coach Reece Neyland for organising this opportunity for his students as well as the after school professional learning session that was organised for teachers in the region.
Known for its innovative approach to education, especially with the integration of eSports into the curriculum, Forest Lake State High School near Brisbane hosted an Adobe Day on Monday 10th February focused on making video animations with Adobe Express.
Late in 2024, the Queensland Education Department endorsed Adobe Express by allowing access to all students and teachers via their school email and password. This has been a game changer for many, allowing very easy access to the amazing set of creativity tools found within the Adobe Express environment.
Each of the Year 7, 8, and 9 classes had one hour to team up with a partner and use the Adobe Express collaboration feature to create a video animation showcasing ways to make the world a better place. Considering, for most of them, it was their first time using the video & animation features of Adobe Express, their work was amazing.
A special thank you goes to MJ Raatz, Nikki Raatz, Nalin Naidoo and Steven Clark for organising and being involved in such a special experience for these talented students.
About 250 people attended Mark Christie’s funeral at the Thorak Cemetery near Darwin on Friday 31st January with many more watching live online.
Click here to see the live stream recording via Facebook.
Everyone was encourage to wear a colourful Hawaiian style shirt in honour of what Mark use to wear most days.
Mark’s son Joe wore one of Mark’s shirts and shared many wonderful memories of his Dad. They had such a wonderful bond. It was very clear that they were so proud of each other.
Mark’s wife Hellen was so brave as she also share her grief with us and described how proud she was of Mark as all that he achieved.
Mark’s three brothers (Sean, Grant & Lance) were represented so eloquently by Sean. He shared a number of stories about their life growing up in Darwin together. Each brother dispalyed a number of Mark’s mannerisms and his sense of humour, it was a pleasure to meet them.
Mark’s niece Cecilia Tsan flew in from Korea to help represent Hellen’s side of the family and did such a great job sharing her love for Mark and how she and many of the cousins saw Mark as a father figure.
It was my great pleasure to be asked by Mark’s family to represent his friends and wider education community who he served so well for many years. There were a number of educators and education administrators at the service including the current and past NT Ministers of Education, the CIO of the NT Department of Education and even the past Chief Minister of the Norther Territory Eva Lawler who also spoke and shared some very amusing stories about Mark and his influence.
I was able to share the reflections of a number of educators who knew and loved Mark from around Australia, including the following wonderful poem about Mark written by fellow Adobe Creative Educator Julliette Bentley.
Mark’s good friend, and fellow member of the Adobe Creative Educator community, Nalin Naidoo flew in from Brisbane to join me in supporting the Christie family. It was a great honour for both of us to be there at this difficult time.
Hellen Christie, Tim Kitchen, Joe Christie & Nalin Naidoo
During my trip to Darwin in January, they invited me to work with all of their Year 5 & 6 students and teachers where we went through a short design thinking challenge using Adobe Express.
I would like to thank Berry Springs Primary principal Mrs Carlie Mamo and her team for the kind invitation at very short notice.
Carlie Mamo, Tim Kitchen and Sai Putta
Video tutorials that cover much of what we covered with the students are available via here.
It was back in October 2015 when I first visited Nakara Primary School in Darwin. Lots of changes have happened since then, but the spirit for digital creativity is still strong.
This trip to the far north of Australia was at very short notice, prompted by the sudden death and funeral of well-known NT education consultant Mark Christie. When Taniel Mckellar (ICT Coordinator) heard that I was flying up, she grabbed the opportunity for me to work with a group of Year 5 & 6 students, even through it was the second day of their academic school year.
Mark Christie had been working with the school in 2024 so a number of the students had created posters and Gen AI images with Adobe Express. In this session, I introduced them to the video, animation & collaboration features and (in small groups), the students created short animations focused on tips to make the world a better place to live.
Video tutorials based on what I taught can be found here.
Click here to see my 2015 post about my first visit to Nakara.
About 140 kids aged 9 to 14 took part in the Adobe for Kids holiday program at the Adobe Sydney office on January 20 & 21.
The following design thinking approach from the NSW Department of Education was the scaffold for two days of digital creativity:
Stage 1 (Identifying and defining the problem)
Stage 2 (Researching and planning a solution)
Stage 3 (Producing and implementing a solution)
Stage 4 (Sharing, testing and evaluating the solution)
The big problem that we identified was that there is still a lack of knowledge and understanding of the 17 United Nations Sustainability Development Goals. The solution was for the students to work in small groups to promote one of the 17 goals by creating a 1 minute video story using Adobe Express.
After considerable research on a particular goal, each group worked on a script for their story before having an intense series of Adobe Express lessons to get to know how to use this amazing browser and mobile app-based application to animate characters for the video story.
I was so impress with what the students achieved and would like to thank the Adobe Education Team and all adult volunteers from the wider Adobe Team and the NSW Adobe Creative Educator community who helped supervise throughout both days, especially Krissa Diamante (from Canley Vale High School) and Martin Gray (from Singleton High School) who helped support both days.
Feedback from the kids about the highlights of the day:
I think that the main highlight was creating the video and adding more effects.
I loved the part where we actually made the video. I especially loved when we did the animations and when we did the recording. All my team members were very helpful.
I love the experience and I loved how we played a lot of fun games which was nice. Plus we got cupcakes YUM!!!I liked just being creative.
Working with others throughout the day.
I got to meet new people.
It was very easy to use and when I didn’t know how to do something the helpers were very helpful.
I love watching my animated character as well as recording for our video.
Learning and creating a video with Adobe, and the AI animated voice over was very interesting (as other apps I’ve used didn’t have this).
I loved doing the videos
I love the tour of the office the view was spectacular.
We made very funny video.
Making a knew friend.
Below are some samples of what the students created. Click the image to see each short video.
Adobe Express is available for free to all K-12 schools worldwide. It is rapidly becoming one of the most popular Adobe applications used in educational institutions globally. In Australia, government schools in New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, and Queensland have granted access to all their students and staff through their school email addresses and passwords (single sign-on). Many independent and Catholic schools have also followed suit. If your school is not yet aware of this free opportunity from Adobe, click here to learn how to get set up.
Here are some Adobe Express tutorials to help you get started that focus on how to animate characters and access Adobe Stock royalty-free assets via Adobe Express.
It received official endorsement from the Victorian Department of Education, making it accessible to all students and teachers via the EduPass single sign-on (SSO) system.
It became available to all students and staff in the Queensland Department of Education through their SSO system.
This is fantastic news, opening up a wealth of new creative opportunities for students and teachers across Australia in 2025.
Here are four standout features of Adobe Express that set it apart from similar applications:
The full-premium version is available for free to all K-12 schools globally (find out more).
The Animate characters tool enables students to share their voices through a variety of delightful animated characters.
All Adobe Express projects (posters, flyers, animations, videos, webpages, etc.) have direct access to a K-12 friendly version of Adobe Stock, which includes millions of royalty-free images and thousands of video and audio assets.
Adobe Express is registered with the ANZ Safer Technologies for Schools (ST4S) program.
To celebrate the 2025 Back to School period, I have created a set of short video tutorials aimed at helping students and teachers make the most of the Animate characters feature and access Adobe Stock.
It is with great sadness that I am sharing this reflection on my friend Mark Christie who lost his life yesterday morning in an ultralight plane crash south-east of Darwin.
I’ve known Mark since 2014 and have seen first-hand (on many occasions) the incredible work he has done with the Northern Territory Department of Education to help demystify education technologies and provide access to all parts of the NT.
Mark was one of the most passionate and creative men I have ever met and had the pleasure to work with. His passion for creativity in education had no bounds. His enthusiasm and love of life was so infectious.
Last July, along with three other educators from Australia, he joined me at the Adobe Head Office in San Jose California for a special education event that involved about 80 teachers from the USA, Australia & Japan. By the end of this three-day event, everyone knew and loved Mark. He was such a great ambassador for his country and his passion for creative EdTech.
I asked him to host this video from the event.
I am so pleased we was able to share his work on the main stage at the Adobe Educators Conference in Melbourne last September. His Creative Catalyst Talk remains a permanent tribute.
Mark leaves behind his wonderful wife Helen and his very talented son Joe. My thoughts and prayers go out to you both and the rest of your family.
Mark also leaves behind hundreds of colleagues and friends who loved him very much. And generations of students who have benefited from his expertise, patients and passion.
My final Adobe Day school visit for 2024 was at Nth Geelong Secondary College on Tuesday 10th December. With Adobe Express now available to all Victorian Department of Education students, the school was keen for some training and support with their staff and students.
Digital Technologies & eLearning specialist Sophia Harris initiated the incursion with an aim to introduce Adobe Express throughout the curriculum in 2025.
A number of the teachers also completes the Adobe Creative Educator Level 1 course during an special after school professional learning session.
On Thursday 28th November 2024, I was invited to work with the Year 4 to 6 students from Heathcote East Public School in NSW to help them make the most of their access to Adobe Express.
All NSW Department of Education Students get access to Adobe Express for Education through their school portal.
I challenged the students to work in small groups create a short animated video with Adobe Express about how to make the world a better place that featured the following:
at least 4 scenes
at least 3 animated characters
a voice over recording
at least one Gen AI image
at least one video background
at least one image from Adobe Stock
a sound track
lots of creativity
I was so impressed with what they came up with.
Special thank you to Teacher/Librarian Julie Gander for organising this event for her school
Dr Tim Kitchen 