San Francisco, CA—October 20, 2003—Macromedia, Inc. (Nasdaq: MACR) today announced the availability of new education solutions to assist educators in teaching digital skills through project-based curriculum, teaching roadmaps, professional development resources, and a developer teaching solution. The Macromedia curriculum and training materials for K-12 and higher education support a variety of courses, from teaching digital skills and the web design and development process, to integrating technology into curriculum. Macromedia teaching solutions are available at http://www.macromedia.com/education/.

As part of a new web design career curriculum, the second edition of the popular Macromedia Digital Design curriculum for high school and community college students helps develop foundation IT skills in web design using Macromedia MX 2004 software. A new Staff Development Guide and companion student textbook complete the Digital Design instructional solution.

Digital Design Curriculum Guide is a year-long course focusing on design, communication, project management, and web technology. Digital Design was developed and extensively classroom-tested with the Washington State Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction as part of the U.S. Department of Education-sponsored IT Career Cluster Initiative. The Staff Development Guide makes it easy to prepare educators to teach Digital Design and Macromedia tools. The Digital Design Concepts and Technical Guide student textbook supplies concept explanations and technical instructions for curriculum projects. The second edition of the Digital Design curriculum is expected to be available in early December. For more information on Digital Design, visit www.macromedia.com/resources/education/curriculum/digitaldesign/

To support instructors teaching digital skills in their web and multimedia courses, Macromedia has also announced free teaching roadmaps with new online guides for curriculum, web tool introductions, interactive training, and relevant articles. The roadmaps are a time-saving method for higher education faculty to prepare for courses they plan to teach, and can be found at www.macromedia.com/resources/education/roadmap/.

Two new multimedia projects enable K-12 teachers to integrate technology across the curriculum. Digital Narrative Project for Macromedia Flash MX 2004 provides templates for students to communicate their knowledge of science and other subjects through an easy-to-build, narrated web presentation. Town Website Project for Dreamweaver MX 2004 enables students to build a basic informational website about their town or city neighborhood. Both projects support the ISTE National Educational Standards for Students and Key Stage national strategy for information and communication technology (ICT) in the United Kingdom . Digital Narrative Project for Macromedia Flash MX 2004 and Town Website Project for Dreamweaver MX 2004 are available now. For more information, visit www.macromedia.com/resources/education/curriculum/k12/.

Macromedia is also introducing the new Macromedia Developer Teaching Solution for higher education faculty in computer science, engineering, and information systems departments to teach application development using the market-leading tools and servers from Macromedia. Available in late October, the Developer Teaching Solution provides ColdFusion MX, Dreamweaver MX 2004, and Flash MX Professional 2004 plus reproducible teaching materials and reference manuals.

To enable colleges, universities, and K-12 schools and districts to deliver their own professional development workshops, Macromedia also offers three new guidebooks: Macromedia Higher Education Faculty Development Guide (in U.S. English and British English versions), a revised version of Macromedia K-12 Staff Development Guide (U.S. English), and Macromedia School Staff Development Guide (British English). These binders provide materials for trainers and participants for one-day workshops on Flash MX 2004, Dreamweaver MX 2004, Fireworks MX 2004, and Contribute 2 – all within a relevant academic context. Macromedia Higher Education Faculty Development Guide and Macromedia K-12 Staff Development Guide are available now. For more information on the guides, visit www.macromedia.com/education/.


Click for Full News