We’ve been talking about Adobe Express A LOT over the last few months. It’s easy to understand why – it’s an amazing program that will help create graphics and images, making your yearbook truly one of a kind. It makes creativity fun and easy for your yearbook team and will help produce a book they’ll be proud to share!
You may already have Adobe Express or Adobe Creative Cloud at your school. Great! You don’t need to do anything to integrate it with DesignIt, and you may already be using it as we speak! This blog post is for schools who DON’T have an Adobe account (or unsure if you do).
Did you know that Adobe Express for Education is FREE for K-12? It’s true! And it’s not a more “basic” version, or an “Adobe Express Lite” situation. Adobe Express for Education offers the same creative tools found in the commercial version of Adobe Express, but it also includes features that are designed to support student learning and safety, like education-specific privacy controls and student-friendly Adobe Stock images along with safe search for image results that are age-appropriate for K-12 students.
We know you were probably sold at the word FREE and you’re chomping at the bit to get going. If you don’t have an Adobe account, or don’t know if your school has one, the first thing you’ll want to do is reach out to your school administrators or IT department. There may be an existing classroom or district account that they can share with you. If that’s the case, you just need to go to https://express.adobe.com/sp/, log in, and you can start creating!
If you go to your school administrators or IT department and they look at you with a blank stare, it’s likely that there isn’t an existing account. Don’t worry though, Adobe has made the process of getting started very simple! Because Adobe Express is a web-based program, you don’t have to worry about downloading and installing anything on your computers (which will make your IT department very happy)!
All you need to do is go here: https://www.adobe.com/education/express/ to the “For educators.” and sign up for Adobe Express with your school email address – Start for free. Another alternative Adobe has is to go to https://www.adobe.com/education/express/deployment to request an Admin Console. You’ll fill in a simple form, an Adobe rep will check your details and grant you access to an Adobe Admin Console. From there you’ll set your organization type as K-12, accept the free Adobe Express for K-12 offer and agree to the additional K-12 privacy terms. Once you’ve completed the sign-up process, you’ll be able to add users to the Adobe Admin Console and assign the application to them. For added peace of mind, you’ll have support from Adobe along the way if you get stuck.
And speaking of support, Adobe Express works with your lessons and curriculum to remove any roadblocks to classroom engagement! There are free lesson plans and professional development courses on the Adobe Education Exchange so you and your team can create and grow.
We may be biased, but having Adobe Express in your yearbook toolbox is a no brainer…and did we mention that it’s FREE? Talk to your school administrator or IT department today to get started.