Adobe’s mission is to inspire and empower the next generation to be lifelong creators. They support educators in every subject and discipline as they transform teaching and learning to help students think, collaborate, create, and communicate in new ways. In our Adobe Certified Professional Academy webinar earlier this month, the Adobe Education team shared free resources to help educators and students foster creative skills and digital literacy.
Find out what you’re missing!
Professional Development
Adobe has launched over 30 free, self-paced courses for educators, administrators, and school leaders. These courses help educators use Adobe tools in any class or course for any discipline. Upon completion, participants receive a badge, professional learning credit, and certificates for completing optional assignments. Courses vary in length from 2-20 hours of combined content and assignment time, making them suitable for both beginners and advanced users of Adobe’s creative tools.
Adobe has also created Professional Learning Kits for educators looking to facilitate professional learning sessions for their colleagues about teaching digital literacy and essential skills with Adobe Creative Cloud. Each toolkit has all the materials needed to plan an awesome session, including invitations, session agendas, slide decks, facilitator guides, educator resources, and follow-up email templates. Educators can adapt the materials as needed for sessions on Spark, Rush, Illustrator, InDesign, XD, Photoshop, and Acrobat. For those teaching the Adobe Certified Professional exams, there are two Professional Learning Kits: Creating Digital Images with Adobe Photoshop and Graphic Design with Adobe Illustrator.
Curriculum
If you’re looking for curriculum and teaching materials, look no further than the Adobe Education Exchange. There you’ll find lesson plans, projects, and activities to enhance any digital media or general education course. You can find resources that work for you, plus, share your expertise with the global educator community by providing feedback or uploading your own materials.
Adobe has thousands teaching resources from the Adobe Education team and fellow educators like you. You’ll find everything from assignment and project ideas, lesson plans, and student work. You can find all the resources here.
If you’re looking for curriculum that will help prepare students for the Adobe Certified Professional certification, then the Adobe Digital Careers Teaching Resources section of the Education Exchange is a great place to start. These resources include dozens of modular activities and four project-based curriculums for teaching design, research, communication, project management, and technical skills with the Adobe Creative Cloud™ tools.
Instructional Content
New to Adobe applications, or looking to bolster your skillset? Adobe produces fun, helpful, and inspirational content to help users at all levels, from beginners to design experts. Adobe tutorials and live streams are fantastic resources for digital media educators. On the Adobe for Education YouTube channel, you’ll find instructional videos, tutorials, talks and webinars from expert teachers and thought leaders, as well as instructional content great for sharing with students directly.
You can also bring other creative professionals into your classroom through Adobe Live on Behance. Tune into Adobe Live every day to hear from artists and designers as they show off their workflows and techniques, share career advice, and answer questions from viewers around the world.
If you’re looking for content you can enjoy on the go, give the Adobe Education Podcast a listen. Join host Tacy Trowbridge and expert guests as they discuss the power of creativity in education from the practical to the abstract, inside and outside of the classroom. If you’re looking for a great story connected to certification, jump into episode four.
Community
Whether it’s a digital or in-person connection, meeting with other creative educators is a great way to refresh your curriculum and breathe new life into your classroom. Luckily, Adobe has created multiple outlets to connect to your fellow teachers.
- Adobe Education Exchange: We’ve said it before, but we’ll say it again. You don’t want to miss out on this community. Use the community tab to share your questions, ideas, and expertise with 700,000 members.
- Adobe Creative Educator: This program welcomes educators from every subject area and grade level who inspire creativity for the next generation. Member benefits include a global community, classroom resources, live events, and opportunities to be featured on Adobe Education social channels. To start your journey as an Adobe Creative Educator, complete the Level 1 course and assignment.
- Livestreams and Events: Follow Adobe for Education on Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter to stay up-to-date virtual and in-person events for educators. Adobe’s biggest event is right around the corner: Adobe MAX! This year's creativity conference is virtual, free, and jam-packed with hours of non-stop inspiration and learning, starting on October 26th. With over 400 sessions, there’s something at Adobe MAX for everyone. However, Adobe has conveniently set up an Education track, with 28 sessions. Trust us, this is an immersive experience you don't want to miss. Register today to start building your MAX 2021 schedule.
Student Resources
While the resources for educators are plentiful, we know that as educators, you’re always looking for ways to empower your students. Luckily, Adobe’s resources extend to students as well. Students can benefit from their scholarships, grants, and career development opportunities. And with all the options available, there’s something for everyone.
- Adobe Creative Residency and Community Fund: Adobe Creative Residency provides direct funding to creators so they can share their creative process with the community while pursuing their artistic passions.
- Adobe Stock Artist Development Fund: The Artist Development Fund is a new $500,000 creative commission program from Adobe Stock and is an expression of their commitment to inclusion. Artists who self-identify with and expertly depict diverse communities within their work are a great fit here.
- The Design Circle Scholarship Initiative: To help reach untapped youth communities and foster more diversity in the design industry, the Design Circle scholarship will do just that by awarding 10 annual college scholarships -- up to $25,000 per year, for each year of the recipient’s undergraduate education (up to four years or $100,000).
- Adobe Women-in-Technology Scholarships: The Adobe Research Women-in-Technology Scholarship recognizes outstanding female undergraduate and master’s students studying artificial intelligence/machine learning, data science, computer science or mobile/web development at North American universities (including Canada and Mexico).
- Adobe Digital Academy: The Adobe Digital Academy offers career switchers the education and experience they need to launch successful careers in user experience (UX) design, data science, software engineering and digital marketing.
- Sundance Ignite Fellowships: Sundance Ignite identifies and supports new voices and talent from the next generation of filmmakers and fosters fresh audiences for independent storytelling.
- Women at Sundance Fellowship: At a time when women make up 50.8 percent of the U.S. population, just 4.2 percent of the 100 top-grossing American films are made by female directors. Women at Sundance works to discover, spotlight, and forge ways for women to succeed as storytellers who shape our cultural landscape.
- GEM Fellowships: Adobe is a corporate member of the National GEM Consortium, a network of corporations, government laboratories, and universities that supports and enables students from underrepresented communities to pursue graduate education in STEM fields. GEM members provide the financial support needed for students accepted into the GEM Fellowship Program to earn their master’s or PhD degrees.
Students don’t need to wait until they’re applying for college or a job to utilize Adobe resources. Between October 18th and November 5th, students can hop into the Photoshop Creative Challenge. Each day participants receive a challenge. Students can join the community chat to stay informed and connect with other challenge members. Participants can also watch the live daily show to get started and ask questions. At the end of the challenge, participants can share their work to get feedback from mentors and other participants.
Long term, students can participate in other Adobe sponsored competitions and challenges. For the Adobe Creativity Tour, Adobe is partnering with the biggest names in music to give your students their chance to shine. Help them find a challenge, submit their unique design, and they could be the winner. Students can also get inspired in an Adobe Creative Jam. Creative Jams are a two-part event series combining a design competition with inspiring creative talks. And of course, your Adobe Certified Professional students won’t want to miss out on the Adobe Certified Professional World Championship.
The possibilities to use Adobe’s educator resources are endless. Share this article, tagging @Certiport, and tell us how you plan to use these resources with your students!