> [!summary]+ Summary > This page describes the background of a program I jointly created with a GWU faculty member to upskill faculty digital fluency by exploring ways to use Adobe Creative Cloud for STEM education. Examples of the program results can be seen on the [[2022-2023, SEI Program]] page. # GW-Adobe Science Education Initiative (SEI) This was an important program in my efforts to upskill faculty digital literacy at George Washington University (GWU). The SEI Program was conceived by myself and Sylvain Guiriec, a faculty member in the Physics department, and was funded by a $25,000 USD Adobe grant. (See [[CV#Funded grants]].) Our goal in this program was to teach faculty how to utilize Adobe Creative Cloud tools to support Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) education. in winter 2020 and spring 2021, I was actively looking for faculty partners to develop and launch programing to bolster faculty digital fluency. It was a difficult time because of COVID-19. The entire community was still 100% work-from-home (WFH) and many faculty were digitally tired. Still, as the central library leader for supporting the [Adobe Creative Campus](https://www.adobeforeducation.com/higher-ed/creative-campus) contract, I had the duty to find ways to get faculty, staff, and students using Adobe tools in all that they did. ## Creative applications in STEM In winter 2020, [Sylvain Guiriec](https://physics.columbian.gwu.edu/sylvain-guiriec), a GWU faculty member in Physics, approached me about work he had done with Adobe Premiere Pro during WFH to measure the speed of sound. It was a novel idea that would never have occurred to me. Not only had he demonstrated how this could be done, but created a lesson for his students who were all remote at the time. This idea immediately connected with my interests around helping faculty to learn more about the power of Adobe applications and how they could use them in their teaching, research, and work. It didn't take long for us to brainstorm pitching an idea to Adobe for some funding to support making a new digital fluency program. At its core, our idea was to provide support through staff and resources, along with some monetary incentive, to work with us in reimagining how 1 or 2 STEM lessons could be accomplished with Adobe Creative Cloud tools. For instance, we wanted to explore using Adobe Premiere Pro, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Audition, and using Adobe InDesign to communicate results of experiments. ## Making pitch for grant funding In March 2021 we made a pitch to our Adobe partners for a **$25,000 USD** grant. Our stated purpose was *to elevate scientific discovery and dissemination through developing faculty and empowering students with the technical know-how and the design thinking mindset to apply and take full advantage of the Adobe Creative Cloud.* In creating this new digital fluency initiative, we aimed to achieve the following objectives: 1. Promote science and new technologies with creative and engaging projects; 2. Teach professional presentation skills that are crucial for academic and professional projects; 3. Apply image and video editing skills that are required in modern projects, including in science and astronomy; and 4. Build capacity with faculty in mastering image and video processing for teaching, research and scientific dissemination. <div class="container"><iframe class="responsive-iframe-sd" src="https://1drv.ms/b/c/13829E5D2EB238DE/IQQZSpAxvdIBTKnaL7vkZl-9AcWDazpD471dNEvONCbZ9bQ" width="100%" height="400" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"></iframe></div> ### A plan for action We planned to run the initiative on 2 fronts. One would be out of the Physics department and the other out of the central library with my team. I would inform the community about the opportunity and recruit faculty to join. I would meet with them one-on-one to discuss their course, content, and idea; I would invite them to meet with Sylvain and myself as the program managers; I would identify staff who could help; and I would kick-off what was essentially a creative teaching project. Over the course of a 2-3 months, the team would guide the faculty member in how to use the Adobe apps, jointly brainstorm ways to leverage the apps to teach STEM, and would iterate on solutions, lesson activities, and lesson plans. At the end, the faculty would have developed new digital fluency, have a working product, and have an extra $500. ## 🎯 Results Fortunately for us, Adobe loved the idea and granted us the requested funds! Upon returning to campus in August 2021, this program produced 4 STEM lessons and learning activities infused with Adobe Creative Cloud apps and other creative tools. Four unique faculty were engaged with multiple staff contributing. (These can be seen on the [[2022-2023, SEI Program]] page.) Created lesson activities involved virtual reality, the use of Photoshop in chemistry, and the use of Adobe Animate to produce examples of neural activity. The faculty involved became solid partners and advocates, and the staff involved all enjoyed being able to do something different, that enabled them to practice new skills, consult one-on-one with faculty, and explore some creative avenues. Unfortunately in early 2022, a few things began to happen. The university began to pull-back from Adobe, many faculty pushed back hard on the use of technology in teaching, and university financial woes accumulated during the pandemic began to catch-up.