Technology department debates cutting Adobe software
Access to Adobe software increases students’ creativity.
December 4, 2017
One feature that the BSM community is proud of is the one-to-one laptop program that equips the students with many resources for the school year. The laptops are kept up to date and are installed with software including Microsoft Office, Adobe, and Chrome, in order for teachers and students to have many tools at their fingertips.
Recently, the Adobe software—which created new models, and therefore they are asking a higher price—is currently being sold for a price over BSM’s financial budget. “The full Adobe Creative Suite, which, if you were to go out and buy as an individual consumer, would be hundreds of dollars. We are able to give that to all the students for only a few dollars per students, probably like $5 or $6 per student, which is pretty amazing, but they are changing their model and their newest model is $25 per student which is five times what we are currently paying,” Director of Learning & Technology, Steve Pohlen said.
For the 2017- 2018 school year, negotiations were made with Adobe to extend the prior price for one more year. This means students will continue to be able to use all Adobe products, with no problems.
Within the next year, teachers and students will be assessed to determine how necessary each software tool is to the classes. “We don’t have to have it figured out until November of 2018, so we have got some time to figure it out. One of the things we will do is survey teachers and students and find out how prevalent the use of Photoshop, Illustrator, Indesign, and all the different Adobe products is, and we want to find out how important it is to the students and teachers,” Pohlen said.
Adobe offers specialized apps for students, especially in the art realm. Yearbook, Photography, and Knight Errant are a few classes that rely heavily on Adobe products for photoshopping, design programs, and layout organization. The programs allow students an opportunity to explore new aspects on their laptops.
While the programs are used in these classes, many students use these programs for their own projects and for exploring their creativity. “I think we have a lot of students who use it for their own stuff, which we want to encourage; we want to encourage students to become technologically savvy, so we like the fact that we can give students these really powerful products that they can then go into the world of work and say they’re proficient at them,” Pohlen said.
The big question floating around now is, “What will happen next year?” BSM has high hopes for making new negotiations in November 2018. “We can buy it anyway and take the hit financially, or we can find alternative applications to the Adobe Creative Suite, which is a little bit hard for what it is, because it is pretty powerful software,” Pohlen said.
