For this first Blog assignment we were asked to investigate a software application and explain why or why not we can use it in our classrooms. This discussion has perfect timing because my district has been battling with these issues for the past two years. I want to bring in some of my personal experiences with the licensing and distribution of Adobe software products, and also Adobe Certified testing.
In my classroom my students use the Adobe Creative Cloud Suite. (I teach Digital Media Arts) This is the first year we are using CC (Creative Cloud) and there have been a lot of discussions and confusion regarding our licensing to use this product between 3 satellite locations. In the past my district has had to purchase the software and the software was only able to be used on the machines in my lab by students that were registered in my class. When Adobe came out with "the cloud" I was really excited! Does this mean my students will have access to Photoshop at home? All you need is a computer and the password right? We were told this would be possible... but it is not.
When my district purchased the CC Suite Adobe put restrictions on the machines and the amount of students that were able to access the software. Because of the package that was purchased my students are still not able to access these programs at home. I find it really frustrating that these software applications are becoming more reasonable ($30 a month for the entire suite!) and my students are still not getting the benefits of the switch. Other teachers and myself included were given this false hope that if we started using CC that our students would be able to access this from home and when it came down to it, they are not. This was something that was purchased out of my control and of course I wish there was more discussion with the teachers before this package was purchased.
Another form of licensing that I am dealing with this year is having my students sit for an Adobe Certification Test. My district is pushing for all of our students to be certified before graduation in one application from their program. We spoke to Certiport Testing and asked that our classrooms be considered testing sites... Again with the package that was purchased for our district there is much confusion on what we can and can not do. One school can have unlimited testing of practice tests and real tests, while another school only has so many pre-purchased tickets and when they use them up, they're gone. Again this was done out of my control, but the content of the class this week really has me thinking about this more and I want to do some investigation of my own...
A final comment on the copy-write laws is that this comes up in my class with using other artists work as your own. My students must take all original photographs and images because of these restrictions we learned about this week. I am sure that there are ways we could use images offline but I feel like that would not be teaching my students the valuable lesson of making your own work. This topic this week was really interesting to me and I'm glad I got to learn more about the details of what is appropriate and what is not appropriate.
Adobe Creative Cloud
Certiport Testing
Sounds like a typical experience with Adobe CC licensing. Unfortunately, Adobe has always been trick to deal with from an IT management perspective, and it sounds like you're stuck in the middle of it! Having students create their own original work is good, but as part of digital media literacy it is imperative that we also teach them how to properly use others' work, and how to locate items they can use as well.
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