Inspiring digital literacy and creativity on World Teacher’s Day

Image source bongkarm

In celebration of World Teacher’s Day on October 5, we’re celebrating how teachers globally are creatively transforming education and making an impact in their students’ lives, not only today, but every day. We believe that all students should have the access and opportunity to develop essential creative and digital literacy skills. These skills will continue to create greater opportunities for students today and in the future. And now with Adobe Express, we’re able to provide access to thousands of templates customized for education, giving students and educators the ability to create anything from posters to social studies infographics, flashcards and so much more.

The new web and mobile-based app puts the capabilities of professional design tools directly into the hands of everyone — including in the classroom. Adobe Express is available for free for K-12 teachers globally. In addition to customized templates, Adobe Express also includes tutorials, courses, lesson plans and video guides for teachers and students to start their creative journey and cultivate skills for their future.

We’ve highlighted some of the incredible work to come out of the classroom(s) with Adobe Express and how the tool is giving both educators and students the chance to unleash their creativity — confidently and collaboratively.

To us, every day is World Teacher’s Day. We share a huge thanks to The Kelly Clarkson Show and First Lady, Dr. Jill Biden for allowing us to celebrate teachers in a special way.

The Bird's Nest is ready for business at the University of Louisville

The Bird’s Nest at the University of Louisville is a full-service student-run advertising and marketing agency. The agency was founded by Strategic Communications Professor Karen Freberg, Ph.D, a team of dedicated students, and supported by interim University of Louisville president Lori Gonzalez and interim dean for the College of Arts and Sciences, David Owen.

The intent is to empower students to gain and employ marketable skills within the industry through engaged learning. The students at the Adobe Creative Campus quickly jumped into Adobe Express at Freberg’s encouragement, using Adobe Express and Adobe Illustrator for the logo design along with Photoshop for the headshots.

“By providing a space for students to be creative and gain meaningful experience in our fields, this will help jumpstart our careers. I’m very grateful to Dr. Freberg, and the other directors and advisors for all their hard work in creating a solid foundation for The Bird’s Nest. I am so proud of what The Bird’s Nest represents and can’t wait to see what this program brings to our community,” added Zaire Robinson, marketing senior and director of Communication.

Creativity is paramount for students at the University of Louisville, and education leaders there recognize that the digital revolution has transformed the world and how important it is to nurture student creativity to help them stand out, look at the world differently and find solutions to issues that communities everywhere are facing.

For a public relations and crisis communication class, Freberg and her 16 students were given the opportunity to work with the Breeder’s Cup World Championships, a series of high-profile horse races. Students developed a social media strategy for the races which included them publishing professional-quality videos.

Freberg’s students captured races, crowds, and news as it happened, then quickly turned it into social-ready video on the go. The mobile-first editing platform balanced functionality with speed and ease of use, making it easy for all students to share their approach to storytelling, have their talent recognized and provide opportunities and job offers based on their work on the Breeder’s Cup at UoL.

Digital first starts with the faculty at Butler Community College

Butler supports its strong academics by starting with the faculty. The faculty development team works closely with faculty to help them become innovators and difference-makers for students. The team touches base with faculty regularly throughout the year and upon request to support professional development.

Mark Jarvis, director of Faculty Development, is intentional in using new apps and teaching methods in his communications and training, distributing a digital newsletter as Adobe Express pages and including video clips from Adobe Stock to add dynamic imagery.

Butler has an Adobe Advocate Group that includes nearly a dozen faculty who actively experiment with Adobe Creative Cloud apps. Their goal is to use peer-to-peer training to drive innovation in curriculum in the classroom to help in cultivating the importance of digital literacy and fluency for all students.

Butler always looks for new ways to embrace innovation and align education with the latest business and industry needs. And in today’s digital age, that means teaching all students essential digital skills employers value so that they’re prepared for how to thrive in a digital-first world.

“When you look at job postings, companies are looking for people in all positions who understand how to use digital tools for social media, marketing, and all sorts of communications,” says Dr. Tom Nevill, vice president of Academics at Butler. “It doesn’t just impact artists and designers, but also accountants, welders, and nurses. We want to encourage students to grow and become more innovative, and that means offering enhanced learning and skills development for students, faculty, and staff with Adobe Creative Cloud.”

Heather Rinkenbaugh oversees the high school programs, including students taking professional development courses. She uses Adobe Express assignments to help high school students learn early on to increase their digital literacy and to create presentations that are informative and engaging.

“We ask students to research a topic and teach the class about it,” explains Rinkenbaugh, dean of Online, High School & Community Learning at Butler. “Adobe Express gives them another option for how to share what they’ve learned. We want students in all disciplines to see that they can communicate quickly and creatively using the Adobe Creative Cloud tools at their disposal.”

Encouraging students of any age to express their creativity at Fulton County Schools

Educators in Fulton County Schools (FCS) reach over 90,000 students and know that the one of the most valuable lessons they can teach their students is how to become creative communicators and problem solvers. One of the most important roles of creativity in the classroom is how it helps all students find their voice.

FCS offers Adobe Creative Cloud and Adobe Express to all teachers and students across the district, so that students of any age can learn to express themselves through photographs, illustrations, text, music, narration, and animation.

Kelsey Ferguson, a K-5 STEM teacher at Seaborn Lee Elementary tapped into the monthly Adobe Express Education challenges, which provides teachers with classroom-ready lesson plans and templates for her third, fourth, and fifth-grade students.

As part of the “My Creative Identity” challenge, students remixed the template to create a poster about themselves, easily learning how to add photographs, change colors, and adjust text or icons. One student added color shuffle animation for eye-popping visuals. Other students layered icons and images to create “self-portraits” showing figures in football gear or stylish outfits.

When teachers at Johns Creek High School want to find new ways of engaging students, they reach out to media specialist Meggan Ford. Adobe Express has become one of her favorite apps to introduce to teachers and students. “I’m always surprised to see what students can accomplish with Adobe,” says Ford. “Adobe Express makes education and creativity much more accessible for our students, which makes all the difference.”