I was recently afforded the opportunity to participate in the Adobe Education Institute. This experience has provided me with a myriad of resources including: product knowledge, resources, and implementation suggestions. As I've already been working on my personal portfolio, I've added my experiences/artifacts here. The institute included the following sessions:
Welcome Kickoff + Intro to Academic Essentials
Create Academic Portfolios with InDesign, Adobe Portfolio, and Adobe Express
Data Visualization with Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Express
Digital Storytelling with Video in Adobe Express and Adobe Premiere Pro
Acrobat and Adobe Express Essentials for Academics
Session 1: Data Visualization with Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Express
I am a huge supporter of data visualization. I was hooked when infographics became "a thing." With today's learners - less is sometimes more. If they can't find the information they are looking for quickly, they are moving on to the next best thing. Data visualization allows you to showcase a lot of data in a quick and digestible manner. This session showcased new ways that I could effectively communicate data and information in the classroom! Additionally, I would REALLY love to see Project Lincoln come to life!
In my class, I would love to replace a low-stakes assessment with a project based learning assignment focused on data visualization. In my current course, students are required to complete a time tracking assignment. Instead of submitting a table - they could use data visualization to illustrate how their time was spent.
As an example - I utilized Adobe Illustrator to create a simple infographic that outlines the ADDIE Instructional Design model.
Adobe Illustrator Artifact
Session 2: Digital Storytelling with Video in Adobe Express and Adobe Premiere Pro
This session gave me my first real look at Adobe Premiere Pro. As a religious Mac user - I've been using Final Cut Pro since I can remember. Recently, I've also been using TechSmith's Camtasia for job aid related screen caps as well. After seeing this presentation, I now see the benefit of both Adobe Express and Adobe Premiere Pro. As a regular InDesign user, many of the shortcuts were the same, and I found getting the hang of Adobe Premiere Pro to be relatively simple.
While my current class likely would not dabble in Adobe Premiere Pro, I can absolutely see incorporating Adobe Express videos into the curriculum. With the user-friendly interface, students could easily create a video to promote an idea, to teach a lesson, or to even create an invitation. I love how easy to use Adobe Express video is and how it walks you through every step of the process. I can see this easing the anxiety that some students may have about a new tool or video production.
As an example - I utilized the assets provided in the session to create a Route 66 video utilized Adobe Premiere Pro. I was able to put together a video using voice over, music, images, and video and export directly to a YouTube channel with no difficulty.
Session 3: Acrobat and Adobe Express Essentials for Academics
As an accessibility champion - I really enjoyed this session as it touched on the use of both Adobe Express and Adobe Acrobat. I use Acrobat heavily to ensure our PDF documents are accessible to all students at the institution and have been providing training as necessary. I have become very familiar with the accessibility checker and utilized the wizard/tags/and more.
After this presentation - I would love to encourage my students to utilize Adobe Express when collaborating with their peers in discussion boards. Instead of utilizing plain text - they can easily create interactive mini-presentations to share their opinions and their answers. Such use cases include an Adobe Express page, audio slideshow, videos, and more.
As an example - I utilized Adobe Express to create an introduction post for a professional development course that I am currently taking. As a side note - I did attempt to use the embed code from my Express page, but Portfolio did not recognize it as a valid embed.