Students of the digital age reflect on the new creative wave

As the school year comes to a close, Adobe hosted a Digital Literacy Café webinar on the importance of building digital literacy and its role in post-graduate success. In an hour-long discussion led by host Todd Taylor, Adobe pedagogical evangelist and English professor at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, featuring recent graduates Vincent Fu, University of Colorado School of Medicine, and Valentina Arismendi, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, they discussed:

• How access to Adobe Creative Cloud enabled them to hone essential creative and digital literacy skills.
• Why digital literacy is a way of thinking.
• How faculty members and students can integrate digital literacy across curricula.

How Adobe Creative Campuses nurture digital literacy

Institutions across the country, including those participating in the Adobe Creative Campus program, are transforming teaching and learning to help students build the skills they need to compete in this digital age. Arismendi and Fu explored the digital literacy initiatives that colleges can make to improve student outcomes and set them up for success.

Arismendi recalled how she learned to tell stories through different modalities as part of an undergraduate English class project focused on digital storytelling. Rather than traditional, written methods, she learned to expand her story about a local historic theater using five unique modalities. This enabled Arismendi to make the topic more palatable and compelling for different audiences as she could focus on different angles in each format. For example, magazines require more words and fewer pictures, while film requires more visual imagery and out of the box thinking that requires the creator to rethink how to tell their story. Applying creative storytelling approaches to a podcast, website, or social channels allowed her to give more historic background about the theater as they are more expansive than some of the more visual storytelling formats. This malleable learning method and new digital skills gave Arismendi confidence that she applied to her other classes across disciplines, as well as a future fellowship.

“All of these are different topics, but I’m trying to present them all visually,” she said. “I’m trying to excite my audience and I’m trying to get them to really understand what I’m talking about — getting them from point A to point B — and the way I was doing that was with visuals.”

For Fu, while medical school is not traditionally considered a hub for creativity, he found ways to leverage digital tools to communicate ideas and applying learnings from his time as an Adobe Student Ambassador at the University of Utah. At the University of Colorado School of Medicine, Fu developed informative, visually compelling resources to help his peers contextualize course curricula, and brochures to recruit prospective students. He even created class videos in partnership with the school Deans — most recently he had the opportunity to create a video to commemorate one of the most exciting days for medical students: match day! The video was one of the many tributes to students that celebrated their hard work and future career success.

Digital Literacy is a way of thinking

Fu underscored how “digital literacy is a way of thinking,” that essentially transforms how students can solve problems and demonstrate knowledge. As students hone their creativity and digital literacy skills, this becomes their primary way of thinking and preferred means of expression, which is paramount in an increasingly digital world.

He credits early exposure and complete access to digital tools, such as Adobe Creative Cloud, that enabled him to engage more deeply with coursework as well as apply creativity. Fu’s personal brand as a creative in the STEM field not only set him apart from his peers in medical school, but ultimately helped to secure his dream residency at Loyola University Medical Center in the Chicago area.

When there weren’t opportunities in the classroom, Fu found other ways to design and stay creative — he established his own startup company, Arctcfx Media. When asked how digital design intersects with his career goals, Fu stated that “the key lies not in what specifically he has been creating, but in the way of thinking that he has developed through digital creativity.”

Advice for higher ed faculty and incoming students

While faculty don’t need to overhaul their teaching practices entirely, to prepare the workforce of tomorrow it’s increasingly important for institutions to embed digital tools into students’ academic life and across curricula. Bringing real-world skills into the classroom enriches the learning experience and improves future career prospects.

Fu and Arismendi encouraged faculty to adapt instruction by asking students to create a two-minute video or an infographic, instead of the traditional research paper. Assigning different creative, digital projects gets them more excited about what they’re learning, which effectively fosters retention and comprehension of coursework, while improving overall engagement.

For students, Arismendi offered advice of constant reflection to consider what inspires them and how they can in turn impact or motivate others. She described how a wall of projects displayed in one of the academic buildings on UNC’s campus served as a source of inspiration and encouraged her to unlock her own creativity. The following school year, her art was showcased on that wall, which likely spurred creative thinking and collaboration among her peers.

“Find out what makes you stop and go ‘wow, I want to do that and do it,’” she said.

Fu added that keeping an open mind and trying new things is the best way to refining digital literacy skills. He also encouraged students to create with intention and in a way that demonstrates their expertise to an audience and inspires others to take similar creative risks and motivates them to build digital literacy skills.

Last year, Adobe released a study in partnership with Civitas Learning and LinkedIn which measures the effects of integrating creative and digital literacy skills across general higher education courses, and the impact of these skills on career trajectory. The study found that greater access to digital tools leads to greater student outcomes and prepares them for an increasingly digital workplace. Employing innovative teaching methods and promoting digital literacy in higher education ensures institutions can future-proof tomorrow’s workforce — making graduates more employable and adaptable throughout their professional journey.

• Visit previous blogs from Vincent Fu and Valentina Arismendi to read more about their academic experiences.
• Learn more information on the importance of digital literacy from Adobe’s Digital Literacy resource page.
• To access to free courses, workshops, teaching materials and a creative education community, visit Adobe’s Education Exchange.