Since ancient times, finding a way to keep and share knowledge has been a goal of mankind. From the wet clay cuneiform of the Sumerians, to sheets of papyrus of the Egyptians, to the parchment scrolls of the Hebrews, to moveable type of Gutenberg’s printing press…these methods gave mankind the ability to share ideas with people of their day, and with generations to come. They weren’t, however, tools for the masses. Only the intellectual elite and wealthy had the opportunity to participate in this extended conversation.
The technology explosion of the past 20+ years has opened the sharing of ideas and production of professional quality printing to anyone with a Web-connected device. We teach our students to read and write. In this era, they should also know how to take their ideas and put them into an interesting and compelling format.
This course from Adobe Education Exchange gave me the opportunity to explore some more advanced features of Adobe InDesign. I’ve known this software since it was called PageMaker. It is a truly powerful and flexible tool for creating media not only for print, but also for the Web. I was particularly surprised by the ability to create PDF documents with animation and interactivity. Check out my learning journal from the class to see more.