Academic Licenses Blog

More Web 2.0 -- Acrobat Pro 9.0 Extended

I just saw a demo of the beta version of Acrobat Pro 9.0 Extended. And, as with any beta, it choked a few times . . . but hey! That's what beta is, you know? I'm confident it will be perfect when it starts shipping later this month. Anyway, the thing is, it was really awesome. Here are just a few tidbits:

• Collaborate Live with Screen Share function -- the dialog works like any chat but you both see the doc on the screen and can manipulate it!
• Form Fill on steroids. It is crazy easy to create a form with fill in the blanks with Acrobat 9.0 and you don't have to go to a 2 hour training session to do it! Prepare to be frightened . . . when people fill out the forms and send them back to you there is a function that captures and compiles the data for you! Scary, huh?
• Turn anything into a .pdf. Now you can have movies, sound, interactive buttons, even 3D models (with the Extended version) in your doc! Works with everything! Flash, Dreamweaver, Captivate, etc.

The demo was at 8 am this morning and i had a little bit of a headache but it was obvious that 9.0 is going to change how we work. Oh yeah, I am SO going to get it.

Reselling Used Software

I just ran across this as an issue (again!) and thought I might shed some light on it for anyone out there who is confused, has issues, or whatever.

When you purchase software you do not purchase the software. You purchase a "license to use" the software. Remember the End User License Agreement that you didnt read but did in fact agree to when you loaded the software in the first place? This is what it explained. Use it for a moment or use it forever -- this is what you bought. The right to the activity of using the software. Here is where folks seem to get tripped up. If you don't want to use it anymore why can't you sell it to someone else? You still have the CD in the handy little case. Why not sell it like a bike on eBay or like a sweater to your friend. Because you do not own the software -- you own a license to use it that is not transferable. The fact that you still have the CD that the software was delivered on is of no consequence. This problem will soon be a non issue as more and more publishers find ways to control their delivery. And happily we won't have to discuss it anymore and will talk about much more interesting things.

Web 2.0 in the Classroom

I am trying to review a new book for teachers called Weaving the Web 2.0 Tools into the Classroom by Patsy Lanclos. I say "trying" as the information is so incredible that i keep stopping to check everything out! I made it to page 17 before i really started freaking out.

So, i get to page 17 which begins the Google Productivity Tools chapter. I already have a Google Account of course. (Google Analytics is a fantastic tool for web business folks.) but i had never really looked at all the other apps.  I log into Google and go check it out. I have to look around a little to find the document apps but once there they have links to youtube videos that explain everything REALLY fast. The documents, spreadsheet, presentation tools are crazy cool with all their collaborative features that scream for use in the classroom. Basically the thing is that the document stays stationary -- just one document with saved changes attached. The collaborators go to IT. Not the other way around where you have lots of documents with new revisions being emailed as attachments -- with readers/teachers/collaborators trying to figure out which is the current version. Wow. yeah. And collaborators are named and color coded so you can see who said/added what.

Honestly it was kinda scary and made my head hurt a little. It reminded me of the first time we got online (at home, spare bedroom, 1994 i think?) we could see it was really cool but weren't really sure what to do with it, you know? That is where i am right now. The possibilities keep popping in my head but they are mostly a little cloudy. I do realize that without a doubt this is huge. And i'm just seeing the tip of the iceberg.

Adobe K-12 Sites and Training

First - I can't say enough about the CS3 Adobe K-12 Site Licenses. This is a great way to get all the products you need for your school without breaking your budget. Remember! Each site license covers you for up to 500 installations per site. Just this morning I was talking with a customer and we were discussing the needs for her creative design lab. Then it comes out that a different lab on campus does the web design classes. So now she is going to visit with the instructor for that lab and maybe they can put their budgets together and buy the CS3 Design Premium as that will give the web lab Dreamweaver and Flash! Now - back to training.

This is part of a note i received from one of our software distributors:

"Total Training is offering video based training for Adobe CS3 K-12 School Site Licenses delivered on DVD-ROM with installation rights for up to 100 school-owned or school-leased computers regardless of school enrollment size. One license per school and can not be transferred from school to school."

This is incredible. Regular licensing would only cover 7 computers (costwise) with training for the CS3 Design Premium that a K-12 school can get for 100 computers! Teachers could train, students could train; you could turn a lab into a District Training Center for Adobe! If they don't know how to use it they won't.

Academic Software Licensing 101

Just this week I had a customer who knew nothing about academic software licensing. We in the business are always surprised but of course "how to buy software" is not a course you take as part of your Bachelor's Degree in Education.

So, here is the deal.

Software publishers such as Microsoft, Adobe, Symantec, Corel, Quark, McAfee, etc. offer deep discounts on their products through licensing. This means you license your computers for the software and buy one media (DVD/CD) (or download it free if that is available) called a multi-install CD and you load it on your licensed computers. The media itself is not licensed -- for example:

Sally has 17 computers in her lab. She wants to put Office Pro 2007 on each of these computers. She must buy 17 Office Pro 2007 licenses. The media is downloaded for free from Microsoft after she gets her license.

A common misunderstanding about academic software is that it is a limited version. This is NOT the case. The software is the same as what you would buy in BEST BUY for example. Why you ask? I mean isn't this that "there is no free lunch" people are always talking about? Well, no. The software publishers do have a motive. If you teach their software in your schools then students will want it on their home computers and when they grow up (and they do!) they will want it in their offices.

It is very effective, this trickle-up method. Which is why they do it. This does not make it dark and evil -- I heard a few of you out there with your disdainful tsk tsk tsk. They have an agenda and you get the software you want at a great price. So enjoy! Stop with the worry wart!

Microsoft School Agreement: Is it for you?

There always seems to be a lot of confusion about the Microsoft School Agreement -- is it a good deal, will it save us money, etc. Let me clear this up if I can. The Microsoft School Agreement is not built to save you money. It is not the equivalent of a site license that brings the price per seat down the more computers you put it on.

Instead the Microsoft School Agreement makes your licenses extremely easy to manage and keeps all your licenses current --- so that you can roll out the newest versions as soon as they are released (if you want to). Price wise: it depends on your situation. If you update your software every three years then the price is a wash. What you would pay to buy the new versions of Office and Win/Vista OS every three years is pretty much broken down into a yearly installments and that is what you pay each year for three years. Another nice feature is that you if you add computers during the year you don't have to count them until the next year when you renew. Sweet. You don't have to concern yourself with being compliant because every computer is automatically covered.

If, on the other hand all together, you have your technology on a 5 year plan -- where you lock in your operating systems and application software for 5 years, then the Microsoft School agreement is not for you. It would be a huge waste of money.

Hope this helped. I think a lot of folks get discouraged when they first hear about it because they are told it is a "deal". It is a really good choice for a lot of school districts but it is never really a "deal".

Training: Deal or No Deal

Buying training software/videos for the application software you are purchasing: is it a good idea?

Well - if your instructor is well versed in the entire package then the answer is "no".

However, so often the case is more like this: your instructor is really knowledgeable about Dreamweaver (i mean a guru! could have written a book) and relatively competent with Flash (has used it and likes it) but not so much with Photoshop or InDesign. And you just bought the CS3 Design Premium licenses for the lab she is teaching. If your instructor does not get training on these products then you wasted your money. Because without the training the software doesn't get used (or taught) and you might as well have spent your money on something fun like Wacom Tablets. Or pie.

That said - there are a variety of products created just for training. AND there are many products that offer FREE training - you just have to look for them.

Tons of products: Total Training offers a complete line of titles for learning pretty much anything and everything Adobe, lots of things Microsoft, with a sprinkling of other publishers as well. They offer training CDs/DVDs on single titles, on suites (such as the CS3 Suites), 1-yr on-line subscriptions (minimum 5), and K-12 Site licenses on a few of the CS3 Suites.

Adobe products: Firefly Learning offers training videos on Photoshop and Indesign.

Quark offers free training downloads from their website.

Corel offers free training built into there software. For example: CorelDRAW Graphics Suite 4 has 2 hours of training.

Bottom line: Training software is cost effective. Training your instructors is the only way to really get your money out of your software investment.

Budget Blues? Think outside the box

When outfitting a classroom lab it is crucial to consider alternatives when the "dream" is simply not in your budget.

For example: I know you want Adobe CS3 Design Premium for all 14 of your student computers. I know you have big plans for a design class that will give your students marketable skills or even set them on the road to their dream career. But you just told me that your entire budget for this class is around $1,300. At roughly $93 per machine -- it is time to discuss another plan. Oh, you could buy 3 Design Premium licenses. And what? Let the kids work on those computers once a month with a rotation?

There are other less expensive, well known and respected products that are worth considering.

CorelDRAW Graphics Suite 4.0 - This is solid creative design software with all the tools you need to teach a design class. Never used it? Corel provides 2 hours of training with the product -- plus all kinds of training resources built into the product.

QuarkXpress 7.0 - For years Quark did not offer academic discounts. Because of this most high school tech people don't even consider it. Quark is, however, the industry standard in creative design and page layout. And the pricing now fantastic -- about $95 each for those 14 computers. It is reported to be really easy to use -- I saw a demo of QuarkXpress 7.0 at a trade show and it did look really intuitive. But no worries -- they offer free training videos on the Quark website.

Still too much money? Then Microsoft Publisher 2007 licenses are $23 each. Creative design for both print and web.

You can find something in your budget -- but you might have to rethink it a little.