I teach English as a Foreign Language at a small arts university in Nagoya, Japan. My tasks and activities for Adobe Creative Educator Level 1 and 2 are based on Visual Thinking Strategies in which students answer three questions about images, “What’s going on in this picture?”, “What do you see that makes you say that?”, and “What more can you find?”

Even in Japan, with its focus on the group, it is a challenge to create safe spaces where students take risks to create and share their work with others. These past two years my language courses have all been “on demand” which has made encouraging engagement and interactivity an even greater challenge.

Adobe applications together with Visual Thinking Strategies-based tasks offer me ways to increase students’ English learning both individually and through interaction with others through engaging tasks that encourage communication, cooperation, critical thinking, and creativity.

A 30-second minimum/2-minute maximum embedded video that answers the prompt, “How have you integrated creativity into your instruction?” Please provide specific examples.

A reflection on the top 3 takeaways you took from this course (numbered list), with a reflection of how you will use each takeaway in your teaching/role in education

1. Takeaway #1: Formative peer feedback. Having students create and share posters and videos based on what they learned is a great way for them to learn from each other. I have long taught using cooperative learning which emphasizes that students learn best when they teach and learn from each other.
2. Takeaway #2: Sharing student creativity. Visual Thinking Strategies, the approach I have adapted for language learning in itself encourages students to explore their own ideas critically, and each student uses unique language to explore his or her unique ideas (and they are always unique!). Using the simplified Adobe tools enables all of them to focus on the content I want them to learn and share. They can create very powerful presentations while focusing on the content itself rather than the means of expressing it. The use of video, photos sourced from Adobe and elsewhere gives them a rich variety of ways to express their ideas. They learn language by interacting with each other's projects.
3. Takeaway #3: Choosing the right creative tool. Adobe tools offer a very simple but powerful means for students to learn to use computer-based tools. Even though many of my students will go on to use more powerful versions of Adobe tools, the skills they learn will easily transfer. For students in the arts and music (as compared to design students), this may be their one and only exposure to these powerful tools. In other words, learning about the tool is a useful goal in itself.

I am a professor of English at a small arts and teacher education college in Nagoya, Japan. My research in language acquisition aligns closely with the teaching approach in the Adobe education videos. Students learn best when they interact cooperatively with others in interesting, communicative, creative tasks that encourage critical thinking. Visual Thinking Strategies, the art-based language learning approach I have developed and Adobe tools enable students to explore their own ideas through their own introspection and through sharing their Adobe projects with their peers.

My Twitter handle is spmcg77.