Adobe Education Technologies

MAX 2011 and pre-MAX sessions such as the full-day Education Summit gave educators many opportunities to learn from the industry, from Adobe and from each other.

The room fills up quickly as doors open for the first keynote

Having been a teacher in Higher Ed for 20+ years, it’s natural for me to look at events like MAX with an educator’s eye. This is a perspective I hope I never lose, to be honest.

While MAX is a great networking occasion for professional designers and developers, it also gives teachers a chance to some important networking as well. They have the opportunity not only to learn new tips and techniques, but to talk to the people working in the industry, learning what skills are used, and what ones may be lacking. I think this is invaluable information; gaining this knowledge can help immensely when planning new courses, or updating existing ones to be more relevant.

The keynotes and sessions revolved around a major theme of Change, in my opinion. In the keynotes, Adobe continued to remind the industry that they are aware of – and actively involved in  - changes in the marketplace and user trends. Continue reading…

IU Digital Imprint

Using the Digital Publishing Suite, Indiana University has created an iPad app - IU Libris – with three publications available for download.
Take a look on iTunes

Adobe is celebrating the first anniversary of WIRED magazine’s digital edition on the iPad by sponsoring the May 2011 issue.  For the next 30 days, your can go grab a copy for FREE!

WIRED magazine is published using Adobe’s Digital Publishing Suite which helps the publisher bring cool stuff like, video, animated infographics, and social sharing to the iPad.

So, what are you waiting for?  Go download the WIRED app from the App Store at no cost!

Valhalla High School teacher Mike Skocko keeps learning exciting and in balance in his Mac Lab.

 When it comes to learning Adobe software and technologies there is a fantastic cornucopia of terrific choices out there: great books, in-person seminars, online webinars, weekend hands on intensives and much, much more. I’m a visual learner so when it comes to my own way of learning Adobe tools I tend to gravitate towards one of the super online video offerings from companies like: KelbyTraining.com, VTC.com, TotalTraining.com, AtomicLearning.com, Lynda.com or our very own Adobe TV.

With the exception of Adobe TV mentioned above all of these training companies offer deep discounted education pricing to educators who subscribe to their offerings and in my humble opinion they are a super value. But what if I told you there is another source of terrific online video training available on Adobe tools and to access the videos it won’t cost you a dime?

Enter amazing prolific powerhouse Mike Skocko (pronounced skotch-ko) of Valhalla High School in El Cajon California who has produced and posted over 3,000 online video tutorials (no that’s not a typo – 3,000 and counting!) covering a wide range of Adobe tools and technologies. Best part, they’re totally FREE to watch and learn from. In fact Mike already has close to 300 videos on many of the current Adobe CS5 tools posted online and adds new ones daily.

Mike stated to me recently (and in the most humble way) he would have had near five hundred videos posted on the Adobe CS5 tools by now but since he was recently derailed by being accepted into Adobe’s Education Leaders (AEL) program and simultaneously started work on a Masters Program along with his fulltime teaching duties at Valhalla High, he’s only been able to add one video tutorial post per day. One per day!?  Five per week!?  Twenty per month!? Are you kidding me Mike!? I’m lucky if I can find the time to write three blog posts here on the Adobe Education Technologies Blog per month! So now dear blog readers you know why Mike has been picked by me as a Prolific Powerhouse Person here on our blog.

I encourage you to check out Mike’s excellent videos on Adobe’s software tools and share this great and free learning resource with your students and education associates far and wide.

The Mac Lab’s Online Adobe Software Tutorials can be found HERE.

Check out a cool interview Mike conducted with one of his former Students HERE.

In recent years, the Education community has focusing increasingly on making all web content accessible to individual individuals with disabilities. Adobe® is an industry leader in accessibility and supports the creation of outstanding web experiences by encouraging web developers to produce rich, engaging content that is accessible to all. Adobe has also been focusing on this important task by improving and facilitating accessible content creation and consumption with its powerful design applications and productivity tools.

The information below references resources on our website that can help educators and authors understand the need for creating accessible content for an increasing diversity of users and screens. Not only will content creators learn more about how to optimize their workflows and effectively design a document that not only looks good, but they can also improve the experience as all users on a variety of screens and devices.

What is Accessibility?

Accessibility involves two key issues: first, how users with disabilities access electronic information, and second, how web content designers and developers enable web pages to function with assistive devices used by individuals with disabilities.

For the user with a disability, the challenge is to identify tools that provide the most convenient access to web-based and other electronic information. For the web content designer/developer, the challenge is to remove the obstacles that prevent accessibility tools from functioning effectively. In many cases, these challenges are relatively simple to overcome, but sometimes the solutions require some additional thought and effort.

For more information on Accessibility visit: http://www.adobe.com/accessibility/gettingstarted/accessibility.html

I have heard of Section 508 and the 508 standards. What are they?

Accessibility policies vary from country to country, but most countries, including those in the European Union, have adopted standards based on the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). In the United States, Section 508 of the U.S. Rehabilitation Act mandates that web content maintained by the federal government be made accessible to people with disabilities. This law is based on W3C Priority One checkpoints. Find more information at: http://www.adobe.com/accessibility/508standards.html

Where can I find the latest information about Adobe products and accessibility?

A great start to find out the latest information on Accessibility at Adobe is http://www.adobe.com/accessibility/. There you will find links and resources to examples compliance news, blogs, case studies, tips and tricks and more.

I have heard that Adobe Acrobat and Adobe Reader are very useful for working with and reading accessible content. Is that true?

Yes, unlike other PDF tools, Adobe® Acrobat® 9 and Reader® 9 software continue the tradition of providing strong accessibility support for Adobe PDF documents and forms. Acrobat 9 features a number of built-in accommodations for people with disabilities as well as support for users of assistive technologies.

Where can I find more detailed information about Adobe Acrobat and Reader’s roles in facilitating the creation and displaying of Accessible documents?

• The Adobe site for Acrobat and accessibility lists many examples, tutorials, guides, and resources at: http://www.adobe.com/accessibility/products/acrobat/
• The accessibility link on AcrobatUsers.com is a good resource in addition to all things Acrobat related. http://acrobatusers.com/topics/accessibility

Are there any Adobe blogs that focus on Accessibility news and events?

Yes, visit the Adobe accessibility blog and join the discussion at: http://blogs.adobe.com/accessibility/

Which Adobe products support and encourage authors and developers in the production of accessible content?

Adobe seeks to provide products that support and encourage authors and developers in the production of accessible content. The latest information on these products can be found by clicking on these links.

• Acrobat®
• Flash®
• Adobe Connect™
• Adobe Creative Suite®
• Adobe Flex®
• Adobe LiveCycle® ES

Where can I find information on other Adobe applications and accessibility?

For information on additional applications please visit the Adobe Accessibility website at: http://www.adobe.com/accessibility/

Use InDesign CS5 and Acrobat Professional to create accessible content for persons with disabilities such as blindness, low vision, or limited mobility.  Michael Murphy, Adobe Certified Expert, shows how InDesign can add structure, logical read order, and alternate text to graphics in documents that will be exported to PDF.  With some added touch up using Acrobat Professional, these documents can be read using assistive technology such as screen readers and screen magnifiers.

Approximately 38 minutes.

http://tv.adobe.com/watch/accessibility-adobe/preparing-indesign-files-for-accessibility/

InDesign CS5 supports multiple page sizes within a single document! This new option allows your students to create various projects within one InDesign document by simply using the new “Page Tool”.
I’ve spoken to a number of DTP teachers who have their students design a corporate identity package as part of their curriculum.
An example assignment would look something like this:

• design an envelope,
• design matching letterhead
• design matching business cards

Prior to InDesign CS5 the students would have had to create an InDesign document for each project. Students can now simply create a single InDesign CS5 document containing three (or more) different page sizes!

This is the first post of a new series of profiles of Prolific Powerhouse People who use Adobe tools and technologies in a creative way. Feel free to inform me if you know of someone who is doing amazing things with Adobe technologies within HiEd or K12 education or beyond.
Photo by Joe McNally
If you’re like me trying to stay on top of all the amazing Adobe tools and technologies can be frankly a daunting task! Case in point Adobe just announced our CS5 suite of tools that will be available soon. As an Adobe employee my main focus right now is to quickly get up to speed on as many of them and their amazing features as I can before we actually start shipping the products; issue is I still have more to learn about our current CS4 tools. Thank goodness for Terry White!

Continue reading…

InDesign CS4 provides a pretty cool way to quickly scroll through your document pages. Using the grabber hand, you can zoom in or out and scroll through your entire document. This feature is especially useful for long documents.

Continue reading…

Guest post by Jim Hoerricks, Forensic Image/Video Analyst.
(Jim Hoerricks is a Photoshop Instructor, an Author, and a court qualified expert witness in Forensic Video Analysis who also happens to work for a law enforcement agency in one of the US’ major metropolitan areas)
I’ll start off today’s post by first thanking Rick Miller for inviting me to be today’s guest blogger, and by introducing myself. I’m Jim Hoerricks, Forensic Image / Video Analyst and best selling author of Forensic Photoshop – a comprehensive imaging workflow for forensic professionals (www.forensicphotoshopbook.com). I also blog at forensicphotoshop.blogspot.com. For more of my bio, check out the book’s link.
I’ve used Adobe products since the early/mid 1990’s. Some Adobe Products, like Pagemaker, I used before Adobe bought them from their respective owners.
Rick asked me to write a post about the Creative Suite and how it might benefit Criminal Justice students and practitioners. As always, I am happy to help.
So often, we think of Criminal Justice as laws, procedures, court cases, and lots of PT. (If you don’t know what PT stands for, get down and give me 20) I’m here to tell you that the state of modern policing is that … and much more. To illustrate my point, I’ll go down the list of Creative Suite products and show you how each piece fits perfectly within the Criminal Justice curriculum. By the time we’re done, I think that you’ll agree with me that owning the Creative Suite 4 Master Collection is the way to go.

Continue reading…