Adobe wins $20m NSW education software deal

Over 1.8 million school and TAFE students and teachers in NSW will receive Adobe software in a $20 million deal announced today.

Part of the Federal Government's digital education revolution initiative, the contract will see the NSW Department of Education and Training provide Adobe design, development, photo-editing, video and collaboration software to students and faculty in its kindergarten through 12th grade schools and TAFE institutes.

Approximately 741,000 NSW government K-12 students, 50,000 K-12 teachers, 500,000 TAFE students and 10,000 TAFE teachers stand to benefit.

Students in years nine through 12 that are in line to receive netbooks under the digital education revolution initiative will receive them preloaded with various Adobe software combinations, including Adobe Photoshop Elements, Premiere Elements, Captivate, Contribute, and Acrobat Pro.

Additionally, classroom and lab machines across K-12 schools and TAFE campuses will be equipped with Adobe Creative Suite 4 Design Premium, Adobe Creative Suite Web Standard or Adobe Creative Suite 4 Master Collection.

The Department of Education and Training has also licensed Adobe Acrobat Connect Pro software for Web conferencing and teacher training, and Adobe Flash Media Server software to provide streaming video and real-time communication.

The Government is also said to be investing in teacher training, teaching resources, technical and curriculum support to ensure the software gets used.

New South Wales "will incorporate the standards-aligned resources from Adobe into its modern approach to teaching and learning", according to Julian Quinn, vice president, Asia Pacific at Adobe.

"Adobe has participated in several efforts around the globe to integrate technology in large education systems," Quinn said.

"This effort in NSW represents a bold step forward by simultaneously addressing career and technical education, cross-curricular use of technology and teacher professional development."