Today, the education sector is driven by the integration of advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence, augmented reality and virtual reality. These innovations are reshaping the way knowledge is consumed and created, offering students unprecedented opportunities to enhance their learning experiences. As AI tools become increasingly prevalent, they promise to boost productivity, streamline routine tasks and foster new levels of creativity and collaboration. The potential for these technologies to transform educational outcomes is immense, positioning them as crucial elements in preparing students for future careers and personal success.
In this context, a prominent figure in education technology, Brian Johnsrud, the Global Director of Education Thought Leadership and Student Success at Adobe, is committed to harnessing the power of technology for educational advancement by integrating creative and generative AI tools into educational settings. His perspective on the role of AI in enhancing both academic and personal development reflects a profound understanding of the intersection between technology and education.
Adobe, the company where Johnsrud applies his expertise, is recognized for its innovative approaches to educational technology. Adobe’s suite of creative and generative AI tools is designed to support student’s academic achievements and career readiness while also addressing their personal well-being and creative expression. Through its various educational programs and resources, Adobe is dedicated to equipping students and educators with the tools needed to thrive in an increasingly digital world.
From Rural Beginnings to Global Impact
Brian grew up in low income, rural Montana and was the first person in his family to attend college. Multigenerational stories from his father’s homestead roots on family farms and his mother’s family on the Blackfeet Reservation were daily reminders of how access to opportunity, equity and diversity had the power to be barriers or unlocks to healthy, sustainable and purpose-driven lives.
When Brian went to college at Montana State University – Bozeman, he saw his trajectory start to veer from his family’s in ways that were both hopeful and distancing. However, Brian was lucky to have mentors and opportunities as he continued at Oxford and then Stanford to help him authentically represent his background while also walking a new path. As Brian advanced his academic and professional career, in his colleagues he saw fewer and fewer people like him who had shared experiences and the same kind of empathy or understanding of the communities he came from.
Brian believes employee networks like Adobe’s Indigenous and First Nations network help to create a space to share stories, increase awareness and ensure the company is designing for the diversity of the world in the company programs and customer solutions. Working on the education team, Adobe is fortunate to have tools that empower this kind of storytelling, so it can tell students and teachers from all backgrounds and experiences: “You have an important story to tell. Let Adobe help you do that in creative, authentic and powerful ways.”
Bridging Research and Practice in Educational Technology
Brian describes himself as both an educator and a researcher. He completed his PhD at Stanford in digital media and learning, and then founded an educational technology research lab there. Brian has deep commitments to researching the efficacy of technology and ensuring it’s tied to the highest impact on student outcomes.
At Khan Academy, where the content is the product in many ways, Brian led their content and curricula team and found it exciting working with teams to really innovate how content, product, design, and user experience teams could collaborate to test pedagogically driven hypotheses, improve various aspects of the experience, and see which variables most increase student motivation, engagement and learning improvement.
Brian found that educational institutions and nonprofits necessarily move at a slower pace than traditional technology companies, but that pace is often more aligned with deep thinking, reflection and collaboration. Brian thinks, “The success of any edtech product or initiative relies on collaborations between industry, non-profits and educational institutions where each is given the space to bring their unique strengths to creating the best possible outcomes for students.”
Leveraging AI for Creativity, Purpose and Career Success
Brian’s work recognizes that from generative AI to augmented and virtual reality, every career – and indeed every aspect of the human experience – is being affected by these modern technologies. Today’s students are the first generation who can leverage AI tools to increase productivity, reduce routine tasks and reach new levels of creative thinking, innovation and collaboration as future employees or entrepreneurs.
K-12 schools and higher education institutions play key roles in preparing all students for life in the age of AI, including preparing the next generation for meaningful career success.
As an industry leader, Adobe’s creative and generative AI tools are designed to be safe, responsible and effective at helping students succeed in this new world. Success includes academic outcomes, college and career readiness, but also personal success. From mental well-being to having a sense of purpose, creativity and self-expression are core to human experience. Brian believes, “Generative AI if done right, has huge potential to help students learn more about themselves and the kind of meaningful activities they can pursue in their schoolwork, careers and personal lives.”
Transforming Education, Careers and Well-Being
Academically, research has shown that creativity and transformative uses of technology in the classroom increase students’ skills in problem-solving, critical thinking, knowledge retention, and deeper learning of subject matter. College students who use Adobe for creative projects in their courses across different disciplines have also been shown to have higher grades, course completion, retention, and other academic gains compared to those who do not.
Brian shares, “The creative thinking that Adobe technologies enable is the #1 skill rising in importance across industries by 2027, according to the World Economic Forum. And within just three years of the general release of generative AI tools, 66% of industry leaders say they would not hire someone without AI skills.” Brian sees creatives as the leading knowledge workers seizing the opportunity to up-skill with AI tools to land meaningful jobs and careers, which is one of the most important, long-term outcomes of a K-12 or higher education degree.
For personal well-being, creative expression has a profound impact on both teachers and students. The next generation craves this kind of meaningful creativity in school and in future careers. According to a recent Adobe study on the future of creativity, creating content daily is just as much of a driver for happiness as making money. He believes, “With the assistance of generative AI, people have more opportunities to be creative than ever before.”
In a recent study of K-12 educators, 95% of educators said that fostering creativity leads to better mental health and less stress for themselves and students alike. Educators who use creative activities with their students have seen positive impacts on student well-being and engagement, which was also found to increase teachers’ feelings of satisfaction and reduce burnout.
Empowering Educators Through Flexible Professional Development
As a former K-12 and college educator, Brian understands deeply the need to train, empower, and inspire educators to set them and their students up for success. Brian shares, “When you think about educators in K-12 through higher education globally, there’s not one ‘right way’ to provide them with training and professional development. From self-paced to live, in-person to online, short modules to full-week boot camps, if you’re serious about setting educators up for success, you have to provide a flexible combination of offerings to meet educators where they’re at and their preferred learning modality.”
Adobe offers all of those modalities, from free learning content and modules built into free products like Adobe Express for Education, to free self-paced courses on the Adobe Education Exchange, to in-person and virtual bootcamps and institutes offered by its team of Adobe Evangelists and global professional development partners.
Driving Solutions for AI Literacy and Creative Thinking
Among its global research and policy partners, Adobe has been working very closely with the World Economic Forum as part of its Education 4.0 advisory board and the TeachAI coalition, led by Code.org, Khan Academy, ISTE, and ETS, for the past few years. “Both organizations have this remarkable ability to think globally with big picture policies and frameworks,” Brian shares, “while also developing local and personalized case studies, guidance, and use cases with local partners and schools.”
When it comes to ensuring the next generation has the essential AI literacy and creative thinking skills needed in the world today, these are two of the top organizations Brian believes school leaders and educators should be looking to for thoughtful, pragmatic solutions that are co-developed with educators, non-profits, governments and industry partners.
Commitment to Education, Community and Future Leaders
For Brian, board service for educational nonprofits is also a way to learn from leaders in different fields and industries who are enthusiastic about education and bring their unique skills and expertise such that they see problems and solutions from unique perspectives. It also gives him the chance to work very closely with and hear the stories of the communities, including teachers and students, that these nonprofits serve.
For a decade, Brian has been part of the annual selection of 32 U.S. Rhodes Scholars. In that time, he has read thousands of pages of personal statements and conducted hundreds of interviews with college students who have an ambition to make the world a fundamentally better place, hearing the personal stories and academic journeys that have driven that commitment.
Brian believes, “It’s equally inspiring and gratifying to know the world is in good hands, and this is just one small sample of what this next generation is capable of. Now it’s our job to give them the right resources, tools and opportunities to get out there and impact change.”
Driving Educational Success at Adobe
When thinking of the strategy for education success with technology in the years ahead, Brian shares, “I emphasize three core values—Inspiration, Access and Empowerment.” Inspiration includes showing teachers and students globally what’s possible for them and what kinds of opportunities they can seize. Access is about making sure they have the right tools and resources, free or highly affordable, so there are no barriers to stall that inspiration, which includes a major commitment of Adobe’s corporate social responsibility team, the Adobe Foundation, and multiple government, NGO, and non-profit partners. Empowerment includes creating the right training, scaffolded learning experiences and a clear success journey so that as students grow, there’s no ceiling to what they can achieve.
“It’s incredibly exciting and inspiring working in the education space at a company like Adobe,” Brian shares. From “low floor” entry tools like Adobe Express for Education to “high ceiling” professional-level tools like Creative Cloud and more, creatives and knowledge workers know they can be lifelong learners and up-skill whenever needed with the continued innovation and support provided by a company like Adobe.
Commitment to Equitable and Innovative Learning
“As a former teacher and long-time student, education and its ability to change someone’s life trajectory, as well as their sense of self is obviously a core part of my being,” Brian shares. “If those outcomes and opportunities aren’t equitable, we’ve failed and have serious work left to do.”
When you get to collaborate with a team of former educators and spend time with teachers and students on a daily basis, it’s not hard to stay motivated. Brian states, “It’s a remarkable gift knowing there’s a shared mission and passion to make education better with new innovative approaches with everyone I interact with professionally.”
