A couple of weeks ago, the Adobe promo shown above appeared on my Twitter/X Feed. Apart from the Creative point-of-view-it is a classic example of amateurish design- I was appalled with the use of tropes to represent Educators. It is no secret that K-12 and post-secondary teachers are being denigrated worldwide, and this promo does not counter this movement. It should never have been allowed to be released, but it is a prime example of how Adobe Education has lost its way. It should never have been this way, but … here we are.
I have been intimately involved with the Adobe User community for over 20 years and was one of the Adobe Education Leaders programme’s original members since its inception in the early 2000s. As an author of several Adobe-centric books, LinkedIn Learning author, tutorialist and College professor of Interactive Multimedia, my identity has always been “I am a teacher.” Until my retirement six years ago, my focus was teaching my students how to use software as a tool and keep them current with emerging technologies and best practices. The Adobe Community gave me those insights, but the Adobe Education Leader programme showed me how other educators do it.
Teaching can be a lonely profession. Of course, journals, chat groups, tutorial sites and so on are available. Rarely, if ever, do we ever get the opportunity to mingle with our counterparts from around the globe and learn from each other. The Adobe Education Leaders programme did just that.
In the early 2000s, Macromedia developed a programme for K-12 teachers around the U.S. The original concept was to bring together a bunch of K12 teachers from around North America and allow them to learn from each other about using Macromedia products in the classroom. It was the nascent Education Leaders programme and ran during the summer.
Shortly after Adobe acquired Macromedia, Ellen Wagner, who headed up the K-12 initiative, wondered if the program should expand to include post-secondary educators. Helen’s primary concern, which was valid, was whether the Post Sec educators would see their K-12 counterparts as being somewhat “less equal.” I responded to that concern: “You are forgetting, Ellen, we are all teachers. That’s important and, from my perspective, is a non-issue.” As it turned out, several others Helen had consulted felt the same way.
With that feedback, the Adobe Education Leaders program expanded to recognize and support innovative educators who use Adobe tools to promote digital literacy and creativity in the classroom.
Over 100 K-12 and post-secondary educators would purchase their airfare and arrive in San Francisco or San Jose for what became known as “The Summer Institute.” This gathering gelled into a tight-knit cohort of some of the best teachers around. The structure was always the same. Four days would be devoted to members leading seminars and doing presentations around what they are doing. It was knowledge sharing at the highest level. Adobe product managers and execs would drop in to discuss what they were up to in a collegial environment. Evenings were devoted to networking, gaining perspectives around course delivery we hadn’t considered, and developing many deep friendships. As many of us told Ms. Wagner:
“You are forgetting, Helen, we are all teachers. “
Over time, it became rather apparent that Adobe would tell us how much they valued our input, but that input was generally ignored. We also suspected education was nothing more than a box to check for an Adobe PM on their way up the corporate ladder. None of this bothered us simply because Adobe had given us a unique opportunity to learn from fellow educators, take that right back into our classrooms, and share it with our fellow faculty members.
Still, Adobe used us in their booths at important education conferences, Adobe Max, and presentations worldwide. There was even, for a brief time, a pre-Max Education session. We clearly understood that we were demonstrating Adobe’s commitment to fostering digital literacy and creativity in the classroom. Who better to do that than the AEL crew?
When Covid arrived, the Institute and the AEL program died, never to be resurrected. The spirit didn’t. Many of us are still working, together or individually, to promote digital literacy and creativity in the classroom using the full suite of Adobe tools. Unfortunately, this is one-way communication.
For the past year or two, Adobe no longer communicates with the Adobe Education Leaders- despite many long-term AEL’s reaching out for clarity and with offers of assistance. We are disheartened that Adobe has replaced a programme focused on furthering excellence in creative education with a Product-centred one. This product centricity also includes the Adobe Creative Educator (ACE) Innovator programme restricted to K-12. This restriction runs counter to the original spirit of the AEL programme, which was a “Big Tent,” not a walled garden.
What has not gone unnoticed is that education at Adobe has become centred around one product- Adobe Express and Generative AI. It is a great tool, but that is all it is … a tool. Nothing else seems to matter. Don’t believe me? Head over to the Adobe Creative Educators Facebook Group (https://www.facebook.com/groups/adobecreativeeducators). It is all Express all the time. Explore the Adobe Creative Educator Innovator program (https://edex.adobe.com/adobe-creative-educator) and the only Adobe product mentioned is Express. In many respects, if you are an educator, you are subtly being told by Adobe you only need to teach Express and how to write a prompt.
This product centricity contradicts the spirit Adobe fostered by sponsoring the Summer Institute and Adobe Education Leaders program. There was never a focus on one product. There was a focus on how the products in the Creative Cloud integrate to realize the creative vision of thousands of our Kindergarten to post secondary students seeking graduate degrees from Bachelor to PhD worldwide.
That promo not only cheapens Adobe but is a slap in the face to the hundreds of educators who are still proud to call themselves Adobe Education Leaders … and mean it.
Adobe, if you believe in education, feel free to call on the AEL crew. The lines are open.
