Adobe has just announced the release of the Adobe Digital School Collection (ADSC). This collection is a bundle of software for K-12 students and educators and is available for Windows and Mac OS.
Included in the bundle is Adobe Photoshop Elements 10, Adobe Premiere Elements 10 and Adobe Acrobat X Pro. The “Elements” versions of the software are easier to use than the “Pro” versions. They have less features than the Pro versions but most of the missing features are very advanced and rarely used in the K-12 arena. The new version of Acrobat can include audio and video in a PDF file making PDF Porftolios easy to create. It can also be used to create web site.
With this software, students can create projects and presentations that combine photos, movies with effects, and multi-media documents. They can also use the ADSC for media rich ePortfolios.
Adobe is also providing resources for educators to help them use the ADSC in their classrooms. The Adobe Education Exchange is a great resource for educators and has curriculum and lesson plans for using the ADSC in class along with teacher resources and a community of users. There are 23 lesson plans, tech guides, user guides, teacher guides, and completed examples to view. There are over 36,000 members in the community and that number continues to grow.
The ADSC is available as 50 or 100 pack K-12 site licenses and teacher home license is included.
The ADSC is a great resource for educators to use to engage students and let them be creative and use technology in their class projects. These tools are used throughout the business world also and will help prepare students. Using the ADSC can help address technology literacy, creativity, and the use of digital media tools.
Over the next couple of months, I’ll be using and reviewing the ADSC and sharing my experiences.