Education Leaders Program / Nicole Dalesio

"My contention is that creativity is now as important in education as literacy, and we should treat it with the same status."
— Sir Ken Robinson

Adobe® Photoshop® software was what first got Nicole Dalesio interested in technology. Then she became completely hooked. She still uses Photoshop but has come to love all the Adobe Creative Suite® components. Dalesio is best known for her award-winning videos and screencast tutorial series called "Photoshop for Kids." She is motivated to make these videos simply because she loves creating them and gets much joy when other teachers use her videos in their classrooms. Online teacher friends and Adobe's T3 program have been invaluable to her training. Dalesio frequently hangs out at the Adobe Education Exchange, where she loves to learn and collaborate with other like-minded educators.

She teaches fifth grade in Pleasanton, California, and is constantly learning new things from her students. Her favorite time is in computer lab, where her class works on creative multimedia projects. Because Dalesio spends so much time with children, she offers a fresh perspective on how to integrate digital literacy skills into the curriculum and is a strong advocate of introducing them at a young age. She dreams of a day when teachers have technical skills that are comparable to those of their students, so she teaches technology workshops for educators both inside and outside of her district.