Date : 2005-02-02

At BETT, Kathryn Macaulay from Bedford High School called for the UK 'national curriculum' to include more on how to create PDF files and to use the 'collaboration' features in Acrobat.

She pointed out that PDF was widely used as a format by the people exhibiting at Olympia for the UK's major educational technology show, but the knowledge of how to create PDF was fairly limited. Bedford High School is unusual in that they have been using Acrobat for about ten years and now have 50 copies of Creative Suite, the Adobe software that supports hard copy as well as web pages. The 'collaboration' features include the option to add notes and mark-up to a document. This is used for marking projects and for comments on what Kathryn Macaulay has said. For most pupils the approach is to see Microsoft Office skills as established in key stages 1 and 2. Key stage 3 has a focus on 'the document' and develops skills around InDesign and Acrobat. "We try to encourage workflow activity that is similar to industry."

Macromedia were also at BETT and demonstrating how software can be used for collaboration. Ian Usher from Buckinghamshire LEA showed a live conference using Breeze with a video link and material in Flash. This worked well but Breeze failed to win the secondary software prize it was nominated for. Maybe there are not yet enough examples of how Breeze can be used. Herts and Essex High School showed how Contribute has replaced Dreamweaver for the updating of their website. The design is still in Dreamweaver but the students now handle the pages as

part of their coursework. Contribute can also create PDF files as well as Flash Paper.

The BETT show is now the only computer event that fills the whole of Olympia. There is an atmosphere of enthusiasm, as if the personal computer had just been discovered. This is probably not because the teaching profession has been asleep for twenty years but because of the involvement of generations who find digital technology natural to work with. The strongest material seems to be for the youngest audience. Pearson Longman

won a BETT prize for Knowledgebox in the Primary Software, Content and Tools Category. Knowlegebox offers a mix of web and local content that is attractively designed and can be modified for each site.

By contrast, the adult part of Pearson Longman is still mostly concerned with books. At the Learning Technology show later in the month, the emphasis was still on the European Computer Driving Licence, developed in the late '90s and relating to Microsoft Office. Pearson Longman had only books about this, the advanced ones with CDs for examples. There were some stands showing how the web could be used for streaming media but the Pearson Longman case showed how the offers had slipped behind what is happening in schools.

Earlier reports have pointed out that the Financial Times has yet to fully make the transistion to a news organisation that publishes both through the web and paper. This is actually happening but seems not to be recognised. Reporting in the Guardian just mentions the recent redundancies and the loss of circulation and advertising for the print edition. Presumably there is income from the web activity but this is very hard to work out from published sources. As print circulation declines there will come a point where the ABC figures show how the web growth is contributing to viability.

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This wanders off the point towards the end.

Recently Adobe are advertising the educational versions of Acrobat Standard. These are quite cheap compared to other prices but assume that 200 copies may be needed on one site. The rate for ten copies may be suitable for some other sites. There could be more of a story if there was some reporting on actual schools where this is in use. The UK Adobe site now includes some material from Bedford High School. Quite a lot of Flash is included, it is not obvious that PDF is enough in itself. Also they seem to have several copies of InDesign. The budget could creep up if schools really got into this sort of thing.

A relevant comparison could be with 'collaboration' in organisations. There is a connection with learning theory. Very few organisations can afford the full price for 200 copies of Acrobat.

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