Adobe is one of my favorite brands hands down. No question at all about this – it’s not just the great resources and software programs they offer, but it’s the people.
I was greeted in Lehi for the Creative Campus event with hugs because of the professional relationships I have been able to make over the past few years. In many ways, I felt I was coming to my creativity home!
What is Creative Campus? It is an event that Adobe hosts a few times a year (they had one in Arizona and one at Clemson this year), but they always have held one in Lehi. I had the chance to attend a few years ago in 2016 (Adobe Creative Campus 2016 Recap), and I was able to attend the event again this year.
This year’s event was truly amazing! I’ve always had a great time at Adobe events, but this event really stood out for me in many ways, which I will discuss here in this post.
What were some of the lessons I learned during Creative Campus? Here are some points I wanted to share with you.
Investing in face-to-face interactions is so important to get exclusives. I love going to industry events to learn about what is happening in the world that is unique and coming up. In just the past few days, I was able to walk away with some insights that really are making me excited to share w/ my students and fellow #SMprofs. New updates, programs, and initiatives are coming from Adobe. I wouldn’t have had learned about these until perhaps October without coming to this event. Information – and the exclusivity of it – is the most powerful currency here today.
The power of the blog continues. This was really cool for me to experience here at Creative Campus.I was able to meet a lot of great professionals who work for Adobe. I had a chance to meet some new friends who work at Adobe, and I remember they would look at my nametag, and they said “You are the blogger!”
I wrote a blog recap of my time not just at my last Creative Campus, but also EduMax and Adobe Max. Here are my blog recaps from 2016 and 2017 from Adobe Max and EDUMax (if you have not had a chance to go, please do!! It’s a must attend event!)
I was told this post was shared across the board and everyone was very appreciative of the kind words I said about the company and event. I was like – WOW! This is so cool! Again, another example I can bring forth to my class that shows them the power of blogging.
English is the “new communication” discipline. This is what I have reported on over the past few years amongst my fellow PR colleagues. I have mentioned how English departments are reinventing themselves to be more than just classes teaching composition. They are branching out to doing videos, campaigns, social media assignments that are very alike to ones you see in Communication classes.
I understand each department – in light with what we are seeing coming across in the news about higher education – about evolving to stay relevant in this ever changing market and technology based landscape. I think it’s important for all of us to enhance our skills and understanding.
However, I was wondering how others may respond to this. If English is evolving to become more like Communication classes, how are Communication and PR departments reacting to this trend? Or are they even aware this is happening at their own schools?
I heard this a few times when talking to attendees of Creative Campus and how this was also the case at their universities, and I thought – this is something my fellow friends in Communication need to know about.
We got to think more of “multimodal approaches” for assignments. I have done this for my social media class, but let me explain what this means. Imagine you are going to be assigning a traditional research assignment or paper for your class. What if – besides the paper – you have the students create a video of the topic to share w/ the class?
This approach looks at transforming traditional assignments, and expanding them into different pieces of content. This allows students to think creativity and strategically about how they would present these insights in a different format. We had a chance to do a workshop on this, and I was already jumping around with different ideas of what I can do for #FrebergPR this fall (stay tuned!).
In fact, to show you what I was able to learn and do in one workshop, I have decided to create a video showcasing my experience. Full disclosure – I’m not going to be submitting this to Cannes Film Festival any time soon! But hey – you got to start somewhere and I have a whole new respect for filmmakers and videographers. You all deserve extra coffee for the hard work you all are doing!
This is a first for me with Adobe Premiere (I’ve used other tools to create videos, but this is my first one I spent time focused primarily on Premiere). While this is my first try here (only can get better from here on out, right?!!), I think adding a video component for an assignment is going to be a key option to consider for your classes.
You may be asking yourself – okay, Karen. How could I integrate something like this in my classes?
Simple. Have a research paper? Have the students also make an educational video on the subject. Working in a group campaign project for a client? Work on producing a summary video of your work. What does this do? It adds an additional element of the story and content you have created, making it multimodal in nature.
Create a classroom experience that is “Ungoogleable.” LOVE THIS perspective from Marcio during his talk! One of the presentations focused on how if you have content or questions that students are able to get from Google, you are not creating a unique experience in your class. With the power of information at our fingertips, we are able to get access to so much information and knowledge, which is great.
However, in our classes – it’s the INDIVIDUAL ideas, experiences, and stories that come together that makes it truly unique. It made me think about my classes and how I have helped build the community around #FrebergSM and this fall w/ #FrebergPR. Yes, there is a lot of information that students can get of course from PR and social media, but can they get the real time discussions and insights shared from individuals coming in from different backgrounds and perspectives? No. Professors and students need to recognize that’s what makes higher education powerful.
Summary
Creative Campus can be captured in so many ways. Epic. Captivating. Inspiring. But – most of all – motivating. I’m motivated to help spark creativity and passion more in not just the work my students are able to do for class and their future careers, but also what I can do to really amplify this in new ways.
I would like to take the time to give a big special shout out to the great professionals at Adobe who really made this event all happen.
Seb – you are the absolute best. Truly a visionary and leader for our group. You made all of us feel welcome and part of the Adobe community. Your contribution has truly made educators like me feel part of the Adobe family. This means the world to me. I would also like to thank Lisa – you did a truly amazing job organizing everything for this Creative Campus! Thank you much!
I also had a chance to chat with Jason, Karen and Jim as well during the course of the session – thank you all for such great chats! Special thanks to Jim for his help during our workshop session and being the inspiration for me to create a video about my experience at Creative Campus!
If you have any questions about the Creative Campus event, please let me know! More than happy to share my experience and chat more about this with you. I highly recommend adding this to your calendar and making sure to attend 1) EDUMax and Adobe Max (they will be in LA this year!) and 2) see if you can get to a Creative Campus event next year in 2019. Hope you all have a great day!
Best Wishes,
