Adobe Re-Launches Online Community for Educators

  • By Tim Sohn
  • 02/21/13

Following a site analysis and evaluation of user feedback, Adobe has re-launched Education Exchange, its free online community for educators with new design, features, and social media capabilities.

Adobe Education Exchange, which was originally launched in 2010, currently has more than 75,000 members. The Exchange includes more than 4,000 online resources that can be browsed by subject, grade level (early childhood to post-secondary), and Adobe product. Members can also share resources.

The online community includes member spotlights, discussion forums, member profiles, and the ability to see recent member activity. In addition, the professional development segment allows members to participate in live webinars and to access toolkits in lessons such as Introduction to Data Visualizations, Digital Storytelling, and Creating Infographics.

Discussions focus on best practices and certification for career, technical, and vocational education; educational technology subjects such as digital citizenship and responsibility, technology trends, and best practices; competitions and conferences; and teaching and learning issues such as research, professional learning, teaching, assessment, e-learning, and collaboration.

New features in Adobe Education Exchange include:

  • Revamped workflow, design, and navigation for searching, sharing, and launching discussion forums;
  • Browsing of resources without logging in;
  • Social media functionality, including receiving notifications, sharing content on social networks, earning badges and points, and following of other members; and
  • Application programming interfaces that allow Exchange to integrate with other platforms.

Adobe is holding a scavenger hunt using hashtag #AdobeEDEX to kick off the launch. Clues can be found on Twitter @AdobeEDU, and four iPad Minis will be given away. Visit blogs.adobe.com to view the rules.

For more information about Adobe Education Exchange, go to edex.adobe.com.

About the Author

Tim Sohn is a 10-year veteran of the news business, having served in capacities from reporter to editor-in-chief of a variety of publications including Web sites, daily and weekly newspapers, consumer and trade magazines, and wire services. He can be reached at [email protected] and followed on Twitter @editortim.

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