On Wednesday 27th November, a group of educators from the ITE Conference spent the day with Jason Eddie and myself learning about a wide range of Adobe products and how they can be used in education.
Jason offered training in a number of Adobe’s Creative Cloud apps such as Photoshop, Illustrator and Animate. I ran the teachers through the Adobe Creative Educator Level 1 & 2 courses.
Feedback highlights
Depth of knowledge of presenters. New generative AI uses
Understand how easy adobe has become
Great presentations, content and assistance provided. Informative and engaging. Thanks!
Depth of knowledge of presenters. New generative AI uses
Learning that Adobe express is available to everyone for free… And then learning how to use is!
AI possibilities in Photoshop, Illustrator etc intro projects to get students started with animation.
On Tuesday 26th November, 2024 I had the pleasure to work with all the Year 5 & 6 students at Arden Anglican School. We started by chatting about three really important skills that help people to thrive:
Problem solving
Collaboration
Creativity
Then we applied these three skills by having the students work together in teams to create a short video animation with Adobe Express describing things that could make the world a better place.
The Melbourne Big Day In Junior event on Thursday 14th November 2024 was perfectly timed, taking place just a day after Adobe Express for Education became available to all Victorian Government School students.
The students and teachers from Hampton Primary and East Bentleigh Primary were very excited about the new way they could tell stories through animation, video and text as well as access millions of K-12 friendly Adobe Stock images and other multimedia assets. There were particularly exciting about the Animate characters feature.
They are looking forward to using Adobe Express throughout the curriculum for many years to come to enhance their digital literacy and creativity skills.
Kylie Pearson, the Teacher Librarian and High Ability Practice Leader at Box Hill High School in Melbourne organised an Adobe Day on Tuesday 12th November for me to work with 70 high-ability students from Year 7 to 9 with a focus on video story telling with Adobe Premiere Pro.
The day prior to my visit, the students collected a range of shots from around the school based on a story that they had pre-planned. Most of the student were new to Premiere Pro so I was able to introduced them to some basic editing techniques and open them up to the endless potential of this industry standard application.
It was wonderful to be able to spend a whole day with these talented student and see what they were able to achieve.
After school, I worked with a group of about 20 teachers and guided the through the Adobe Creative Educators Level 1 micro-credential.
Braybrook College in Melbourne’s west was invited by ABCN and Adobe to bring a group of students to the Adobe office in South Melbourne for a My Career Rules program.
Adobe Customer Success Manager Kim Flowers and I were interviewed by the students with an aim to find out more about what it is like to work in the It industry.
The students enjoyed an activity using Adobe Express to find out more about Adobe as a company and also a Character Animator demonstration.
On 24th October, a group of students from Mitchell High School in Sydney’s west visited the Adobe office in Darling Harbour as part of an ABCNMy Career Rulesprogram.
The Australian Business Community Network (ABCN) collaborates with Aussie businesses to break down barriers for students from low socio-economic schools by offering structured, workplace-based mentoring programs. These programs are designed to raise aspirations, build essential skills, and expand students’ horizons.
The aim of My Career Rules is to provide students the opportunity to meet and engage with professionals from various industries, expanding their awareness of careers that align with today’s workforce. By bridging classroom learning with real-world work experiences, the program reinforces the importance of the skills and mindsets essential for a successful future career.
Katrina Thornton interacting with students from Mitchell High School
It was delight to have Adobe Vice President and Managing Director, ANZ Katrina Troughton involved in this program. Katrina’s involvement provided the students a rare opportunity to engage with a a senior company executive and ask her questions about her career path.
It was lovely to catch up with Michael Turner, the careers advisor at Michell High. Michael has been part of the Adobe Education Leaders program for many years. Last year, he invited me to run the Adobe Creative Educators Level 1 micro-credential course for all the teaching staff at Michell High – click here to see more.
It was also a delight to provide the students with a demonstration about the value of Adobe Express for Education and how it can be used to enhance learning in a range of curriculum areas.
Special thank you to Olivia Yeates from Adobe for coordinating this event, all the Adobe mentors, the ABCN staff, Michael and (most importantly) the students for making this such a successful day.
Kingswood High School in Sydney’s west hosted an Adobe Day on 23rd October 2024. The focus of the day was using Adobe Express to enhance the teaching of English.
Drawing inspiration from the magical worlds of Harry Potter and The Princess Bride, students were tasked with using the Text to Image Generation AI tool in Adobe Express to create an image of an animal. They then featured this creation in a short animated video.
Adobe Days are all about helping students and teachers become more aware of the Adobe tools that they have to help enhance engagement and creativity within the teaching and learning process. Adobe Express for Education is a premium version of Adobe Express that all K-12 schools globally can access at no cost. It is browser based as well as mobile-app based, very simple to use and a wonderful introduction to world of digital creativity and productivity that Adobe does so well.
Click here if you you would like to inquire about a potential Adobe Day at your school.
The first day was exclusively for members of the Adobe Creative Educators Community and involved connecting with the global Adobe Education Team based in the US, Adobe product managers, creative catalyst talks by Brett Kent and Chris Betcher and well as a range of workshop opportunities.
Day 2 was the main day with lots more teachers attending and highlights including keynote presenter Dr Catherine Ball, creative catalyst talks by Michelle Dennis & Brett Salakas, Teacher Feature session, a curly questions panel session feature students from Abbostleigh, lots of workshop options and lots more.
The 2024 Adobe Educators’ Conference involved four days of amazing professional learning focused on the safe and ethical use of Gen AI in any K-12 subject area with Adobe Express.
About 1000 teachers registered for either the in-person or online experience hosted at RMIT in Melbourne on Sept 30 & Oct 1 and at Abbostleigh Senior School in Sydney on Oct 9 & 10.
4 days
2 cities
2 keynotes
8 creative catalyst talks
over 60 workshop options
over 50 individual presenters
over 20 support crew
Close to 2000 teachers have accessed the recordings within 2 weeks of them being available.
The four days of the conferencing involved two amazing keynote sessions, eight creative catalyst talks, some Teacher Feature demo sessions, direct online links with the global Adobe Education Team and over 60 workshop options, including the opportunity for teachers to earn the ACE level 1 & 2 badges.
This the 10th year Adobe has been running this event but it was the first time it has been designed as for a large in-person audience.
The Oct 1 & 9 events were exclusively for the Adobe Creative Educators (ACE) Community and were lead by a number of representatives from the ACE-Innovators community around Australia. The ACE community is thriving in ANZ with about 900 new member since the start of 2024.
The Sept 1 & Oct 10 events were the main days of the conference in both cities and open to any teacher and pre-service teacher. The highlights at each of these main events were the keynote presenters, and Dr Catherine Ball (Sydney) and Pip Cleaves (Melbourne). They were both incredibly inspiring, each with a different looks at the influence AI is having on education and the importance of fostering creativity.
Dr Catherine BallPip Cleaves
The Creative Catalyst Talks by representatives of the ACE – Innovator community were also a highlight at each of the four events.
The ANZ Adobe Education team (Helen Lacey, Tim Kitchen, Molly Turner, Eric Drew, Kim Flowers, Jerry Wong and Kaitlyn Hartley) along with Anna Nakao and Chloe Encarnacion were instrumental in helping to make these conference events a success.
Connecting with the following global Adobe Education team members during the ACE days was also a highlight – Ben Forta, Brian Johnsrud, Mary Cherng, Will Hsiao, Tanya Avrith, Gail Hammler, Ann Kozma, Rebecca Hare & Claudio Zavala Jr.
Dr Brian Johnsrud
Recordings of key sessions session are starting to become available via the following links
The keynote speaker and hearing from the year 10 Photography and Digital Media students I teach present in the Curly Questions segment.
Prizes and interactive activities for the bingo were fun to accomplish!
The presenters were so friendly
Dr Ball’s presentation
Keynote speakers
Learning about the features of Express
Learning firefly from Craig, Keynotes were so inspirational
Hands on approach!
Dr Catherine Ball’s keynote was outstanding
Presentations by Catherine Ball and Michelle Dennis
Dr. Catherine Ball
Express was impressive
Dr Catherine Ball – guest speaker
Networking with others and learning new Adobe programs- Firefly, ADOBE Express, Podcast
The mix of the keynote presentations and how little snippets of using Adobe Express were integrated into the talks.
What was presented today was relevant, meaningful and easily applicable to my teaching practice.
Podcast with Brett
Future of tech. Thanks for a productive day!
The learning in the breakout sessions and having time to practise
Hands on opportunities
The accessibility of Adobe Express and being hands on in diving into it further.
Learning Adobe Express
It’s always great to see what the wider creative community are up to.
Catherine Ball and the workshops with Eric
Becoming level 1 educator
Getting new ideas for how to use these products in the classroom
Really enjoyed the podcast session with Brett Salakas
Connecting with highly motivated educators from across multiple sectors to enhance digital pedagogy.
Each workshop was authentic and relevant to various current practices that effectively equip students.
Mixture of presentations and workshops
The workshops were excellent. Dr Christine Ball was awesome
Amazing to see Adobes amazing developments with Express and AI
Seeing the capability of the software and applications in the classroom
Bingo Challenge
The interactive workshops
ACE Level 1 course and Dr Catherine Ball.
AI talk!
Dr Catherine Ball’s presentation was particularly eye opening – thank you!
The break out sessions were outstanding and I have so many ideas how to integrate Adobe Express in the classroom. I will be sharing this with my team!
Thank you for hands on practical sessions and paddlet
Dr Catherine’s presentation was amazing!
The keynote speakers
Getting my level 1
Opportunity to complete the badge
Dr Catherine Ball was amazing.
Creativity in the Round: Collaborative Student/Teacher Group Projects in Adobe Express.
Adobe Express
How easy it will be to use the Generative A.I. content in Adobe Express with my classes in the future, especially for Video Editing.\
The supportive presenters Erin Raethke and Ben Eyles in the breakout sessions
Feedback highlights from the Melbourne events
Learning about Adobe products and how to utilise them in multimodal assessment
The workshops
Pip Cleaves Keynote was extremely interesting and insightful
Discussion about AI use in schools
The keynote speaker Pip
Learning about Adobe beyond a PDF reader
Skills which were immediately actionable in the classroom
Liked the content and activities on AI and Adobe Express.
Pip Cleaves’ keynote and curly questions
The event was great with the workshops and q and a.
I gained a good overview of Adobe product and AI potential
Curly questions
The practical learning especially how to construct webpages
The demos by Drew and Molly were great.
A key highlight of the conference was its direct relevance to my professional development, particularly in keeping up with the latest AI technology trends. The sessions offered in-depth insights and practical knowledge that not only supported my upskilling but also provided actionable strategies to bring into the classroom, enhancing both personal growth and teaching practice. Similarly, Adobe Express shows great promise as a classroom tool, allowing students to easily create visually engaging projects such as presentations and social media content, fostering creativity, digital literacy, and multimedia storytelling.
Fantastic that the conference is both free and during holidays so it’s accessible
A good investment of my time
The conference was thoroughly engaging, featuring an impressive lineup of speakers who were not only experts in their respective fields but also skilled at delivering complex topics in an accessible and inspiring way. What I appreciated most was the flexibility of the conference format. Whether attending face-to-face or online, the hybrid model ensured that I could fully participate according to my preferences and schedule. This adaptability enhanced my experience, allowing me to connect with thought leaders and peers while gaining the cutting-edge knowledge I sought.
Dr Tim Kitchen 