Adobe Systems to Enter More Classrooms Across the US

Kids in schools across the country may soon be expanding their knowledge and skills in graphic design and multimedia, with a new – and pretty generous -- offering by Adobe Systems.

The San Jose software maker said it will begin selling a bundle of its multimedia programs to K-12 schools for a rather low price of $149. The graphic design and Internet software software is usually on the expensive side, with packages costing professionals and companies hundreds to thousands of dollars.

The company said its Adobe Digital Schools Collection bundle will be compatible with Windows and Mac computers and includes Adobe’s Photoshop Elements photo-editing, Premiere Elements video editing and Acrobat document software.

"When teachers incorporate images, sound and video into their lessons, students get more engaged," Bob Regan, Adobe's director of K-12 education, said in a news release. "The Digital School Collection helps them create a project-based learning environment so students can deepen their understanding of the subject matter."

Starting Dec. 1, companies that resell Adobe software will begin handing over the programs to schools around the U.S. It will also be sold with Hewlett-Packard (News - Alert), Dell and Lenovo computers.

This week, Adobe Systems released Acrobat X Pro, the latest addition to its family of PDF creation and reading tools. Acrobat X Pro improves business collaboration and productivity by featuring automate routine, multi-step tasks, new layouts and visual themes, Microsoft (News - Alert) SharePoint integration, and an updated user interface, as reported by TMCnet.

Back in September, Adobe Systems (News - Alert) was among six technology companies that reached a settlement preventing it from entering into no solicitation agreements for employees, as reported by TMCnet. “The U.S. Department of Justice said at the time the agreements eliminated a significant form of competition to attract highly skilled employees, and overall diminished competition to the detriment of affected employees who were likely deprived of competitively important information and access to better jobs.”

At 10:01 a.m. PDT, Adobe stock was at $27.87, down 19 cents, or 0.7 percent, from Monday's closing price.

Tammy Wolf is a TMCnet copy editor. Previously she was assistant to the editor at The Darien Times, a weekly newspaper in Darien, Conn., where she edited submissions, did page layout and design and helped manage the newspaper�s website. To read more of her articles, please visit her columnist page.

Edited by Tammy Wolf