I was in Miami last week for an Adobe conference. This is my “take-away,” as they say in the conference biz.
I’m not prone to idle praise or superlatives, but even I have to say that this conference was fantastic. It confirmed a trajectory that I’ve already been on for years: You shouldn’t have to give up a traditionalist’s commitment to scholarship to achieve digital fluency. In the past, this wasn’t easily achievable: the tools and technologies were so cumbersome that you had to take time out of your commitment to scholarship to get good enough to do anything anyone might care about. Not so today.
Adobe’s new suite of apps — called Spark — has made the learning curve so flat that, well, it sparks joy. For those of you who might need an infusion of pop culture, that’s a reference to Marie Kondo’s notion of ときめく (tokimeku), translated, to good effect, as “spark joy.” Search on her and you’ll learn that she was named one of the 100 most influential people in the world a few years back: She’s an organizing consultant.
And the reference to Kondo is pretty revealing: Take Spark Page, for instance. I made this webpage during our workshop:
This isn’t particularly impressive (and please ignore the content!), until I tell you that this was the first time I opened the app, I was intermittently deaning by email, took a call from Mike, texted Gaye Lynn several times, carried on a robust conversation with Tom Nevill (of ADM fame—thanks, Tom!), and coordinated with Katie in my office. Somehow, I pushed this out — in just a few minutes.
And here’s the crazy part: the presenter for this workshop started the session by identifying participants who had never used the app before, and he picked two of them to lead us. That’s how intuitive the interface is. (And if any of you know Gutenberg, the new editor in the latest major upgrade to WordPress, then you’ve got a leg up on the interface style.
One aspect of this conference really impressed me. Adobe‘s approach is not to promote the app. You will all have heard a sales pitch like, “Just look at what this app can do!” Rather, the emphasis was on the user experience. Several of our speakers, for instance were actual students who created actual assignments with these apps (and others). They just talked about what they wanted to express, their creative process. That’s as it should be: When is the last time someone spoke at length on what pencils can do?
As I said, this is the first time I’ve let myself believe we could promote digital fluency without making a dent in the rigor of scholarship, all because this technology is so sophisticated that it’s not in the way of expression or creativity. Perhaps my perception has been shaped by the technology I already use. Perhaps it’s not so obvious to people who are less digitally fluent. We could make the same observations about any other technology, like indoor toilets.
Even so, if talk like this makes you want to grab your index cards and run for the library, feel free! Remember the Parable of the Roaches from Convocation. If you’re the type to run for the library, we need you; you are the soul of the liberal arts. But if you’re ready to stare down whoever just turned on the light, I have a couple of assignments for you.
- Go to Adobe Spark and click “Get Started Now.” Think of something you want to make (like an invitation to a party), and download Spark Page — or try it out in a browser. Fire it up and spend half an hour playing around. Make something, save it and send me a link: I’ll post some good ones on my blog.
- Give your students the option to make something with Spark Page for one of your classes. I’m doing this with my Logic Project this semester. Here’s what I’m telling them: “Instead of handing in the logic project in the format I just described, you have the option to make a webpage using Spark Page. Just follow the same instructions for the assignment, but present your findings as a news article created with Spark Page.” That’s it; let’s see what they make. I’ll post some of them on my blog too (with permission, obviously).
Now some of you may be saying, “That’s a recipe for disaster.” You’re 100% right. Things could go terribly wrong. But as wrong as things may go, I’ll bet there are no fatalities. As I’ve said elsewhere, lower the cost of failure. It could be a mess, but it could free you to teach.
Oh, yeah — one last thing. I’m changing my name.
I’m the one they call Adobe-wan Kenobi.
