Initiatives+to+Address+Needs

The main initiative is to upgrade to our current Website and Desktop Publishing software to Adobe Design Premium software. This Adobe suite contains the following software and supporting software tools; InDesign, Dreamweaver, Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash and Fireworks. A little information on each software and component of the Adobe Design Premium Suite are as follows:
 * Initiatives to Address Needs **

o ** Designing and publishing documents ** o ** Interactive, animation, video and sound in page layouts ** || o ** Build standards-based websites ** o ** Content management systems ** || o ** Realistic painting tools ** o ** Intelligent retouching ** || o ** Used for web pages, design projects and video projects ** ||
 * ** InDesign ** ||  o ** Print and digital publishing **
 * ** Dreamweaver ** ||  o ** Web design and web interface design **
 * ** Photoshop ** ||  o ** Digital photography tools **
 * ** Illustrator ** ||  o ** Drawing tools, expressive natural brushes **
 * ** Flash ** ||  o ** Multi-media platform that is popular for adding animation and interactivity pages ** ||
 * ** Fireworks ** ||  o ** Supporting software that is a bitmap and graphics editor used for web design ** ||

This Adobe suite “is the industry-standard software for educators and students to deliver innovative ideas in print, web, and mobile design.” (cited from Adobe.com)

Currently our business program supports an older version of Adobe Dreamweaver for our website course and Microsoft Publisher for our Desktop Publishing course. By upgrading to the new software our students will be able to create and develop better, more innovative and technical projects. Not only will our students be able to create enhanced, higher level projects this will allow our department to change our curriculum with is the second initiative. The second initiative is creating a marketing communications pathway.

Under our current curriculum our Website and Desktop Publishing courses are half year courses in other words they are semester classes. By upgrading to the Adobe Design Premium Suite software we would be able to change these courses to full year courses. The software would allow us to change to full year courses because the Adobe suite offers more software options and tools for designing websites and creating publishing materials. With our limited software capabilities now; our students are very limited and by upgrading our software the skies the limit for our students. Also by changing the half year courses to full year courses it will allow us to add the Marketing Communications pathway that our students have been asking for. The software upgrade will support our technology needs for the added pathway. Our current Website and Desktop Publishing courses will become a part of the Marketing Communications curriculum.

Many hours of research have been done to access other products and compare them to this particular Adobe Suite and there really isn’t any comparison and this is the best software on the market today that can be used as an educational tool and it is what the industry is using. There may be some underlining questions such as do we really need all those software applications, how long will the software be good for, is it going to be cost effective, etc. And I am sure there are other lingering questions as well. Hopefully some of the following information will help answer those questions.

Let’s start off by saying that “Adobe Design Premium contains nearly every tool for editing digital layouts for print and the Web, as well as for crafting interactive animation and desktop apps.” (taken from reviews.cnet.com, reviewed by Lori Grunin and Elsa Wenzal). So as stated before the upgrade to Adobe Design Premium would benefit our Desktop Publishing and Website courses. After reviewing some more information and reading a few reviews here is a list of pros and cons that I compiled with the use and functionality of the software; in this case the pros out weigh the cons:  o ** Features have been improved; integration among similar interfaces **  o ** More software options and tools for Web design and print design **  o ** Easier third party access due to file structure, designer and developers can work together ** ||  o ** Maybe time consuming to install depending on computer set up **  o ** Memory space **  o ** Cost, but less expensive compared to buying each software component separately ** || Jennifer Kyrnin states in her review of the software “I haven’t felt this excited about a software release in many years. The changes to Dreamweaver and Flash are going to make them so much easier to use in design mode, but still as powerful as ever…looks like a great version for Web designers.” (taken from [|http://webdesign.about.com]) So there are a lot of people in the industry that without a doubt believe that is software is cutting edge. I feel that this software will empower our students to be creative and develop project of a higher caliber. Our students will be more competitive in the marketplace for jobs with having this technology knowledge. And just imagine what our teachers could do with this technology, the possibilities are endless.
 * ** Pros ** ||  o ** Great Flash update **
 * ** Cons ** ||  o ** No support for multi-media outside of Flash **