Clare Dyson
Activating belonging: creating and reflecting with GenAI
Use Adobe tools to developing digital capabilities and an emergent sense of belonging within the class cohort
How to create a series of small digital artefacts using GenAI tools to introduce yourself and your discipline, and combine them into a short video flier
https://new.express.adobe.com/webpage/NxZ3Dpae2FQj6
This activity uses a series of scaffolded, low-stakes GenAI tasks to build digital fluency and a sense of community. It's designed as an icebreaker for students from diverse disciplines, encouraging them to play with new tools, take creative risks, and practice giving feedback from the first week of a course. By creating a set of personal digital artefacts (text, animation, and image), participants reflect on their relationship with AI and their discipline, culminating in a short, shareable multimedia flier.
07:52Write a reflection on GenAI. On a piece of paper or in a new text document, write brief responses to the following prompts:What are your current thoughts on GenAI?How does this intersect with your approach to technology?How might GenAI connect into your discipline?How might GenAI be part of your future work?12:28Compose a short paragraph based on your reflection. Using your reflections, write a short paragraph (80-100 words) that focuses on how you think GenAI connects to you or your discipline. Save this text in a document on your computer.16:36Save your reflection document. Create a new folder on your computer named 'digital fluency'. Save your reflection text inside this folder, naming the file correctly so you can find it later (e.g., 'GenAI_Reflection.docx').18:36Write a short introduction script. In a new document, write down the points for a brief personal introduction:Your nameYour discipline or roleWhat excites you about GenAIWhat you are hoping to get out of this session22:18Create an animation from your audio. Go to Adobe's 'Animate from audio' tool. Choose a character, a background, and set the size to 9:16. Click the 'Enhance speech' toggle, then press 'Record' to record yourself reading your introduction script. Leave a brief pause at the start and end of your recording. When finished, press 'Done'.30:05Download your animation. Once the animation has processed, click the 'Download' button and save the MP4 file to your 'digital fluency' folder.31:31Create a prompt for a GenAI image. Based on your initial reflection, develop a short, specific prompt for an image that represents your relationship to GenAI. Structure your prompt using elements like:Subject: Who/what is the main focus?Setting & Background: Where does the scene take place?Lighting: What is the time of day or source of light?Composition/Camera: How is the shot framed?Medium & Style: What is the artistic format (e.g., cinematic photography, oil painting)?37:35Generate and save your image. Open a GenAI image tool like Adobe Firefly or the tool inside Adobe Express. Paste your prompt and generate the image. Iterate on the prompt if needed. Once you are happy with the result, download the image and save it to your 'digital fluency' folder.41:22Open the flier template in Adobe Express. Navigate to the provided template link (https://bit.ly/GenAI-FLIER) and click 'Use template' to open it in Adobe Express.43:44Replace the template content with your artefacts. Click on each element in the template to replace it. Add your name, discipline, and course. Paste your disciplinary connection text. Paste your GenAI image prompt. Click on the placeholder image and select 'Replace' to upload your generated image. Click on the placeholder animation and select 'Replace' to upload your animation video.46:33Download the final flier as a video. Click the 'Download' button. In the 'File format' dropdown, select 'MP4' to ensure the animation is included. Click 'Download' and save the final video file to your 'digital fluency' folder.
Animation Tool | The animation is created using Adobe Express 'Animate from audio', available at new.express.adobe.com/home/tools/animate-from-audio. |
|---|---|
Image Tool | The image can be created using Adobe Firefly (firefly.adobe.com/generate/image) or the integrated text-to-image tool in Adobe Express. |
Template Link | The flier is created from a template available at https://bit.ly/GenAI-FLIER. |
Example Prompt (Image) | An example prompt shown is: 'Photograph of a female dancer jumping in the air wearing sweatpants in a sunlit studio. There is a phone in the foreground with a cartoon dancer doing same movement. The phone dancer is on a black background.' |
Prompting Tip | When creating an image prompt, separate distinct concepts or descriptors with commas and include as much detail as possible for a better result. |
Export Format | The final flier must be downloaded as an MP4 file for the animation to play; downloading as a PDF will result in a static document. |
Generate Images – Adobe Express Link |
Related skills
- Create multimodal outputs — This activity guides participants through creating and combining text, an animated video with audio, and a static image into a single multimedia artefact.
- Use simple prompts — The activity provides a structured, step-by-step introduction to writing descriptive prompts for both text-to-image and text-to-animation AI tools.
- Brainstorm ideas and generate drafts — Participants use GenAI as a creative partner to quickly generate ideas and digital artefacts for a low-stakes icebreaker activity, focusing on exploration rather than a polished final product.
- Refine and iterate prompts — The process for creating the GenAI image explicitly encourages iterating on the initial prompt if the first results are not satisfactory, teaching a core skill in AI interaction.