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18 November
Can Expression Studio 3 Assist Student Learning in Ireland?
Appetite For Creation.
by
SoftwareGuru
Software4Students will soon have a new addition
to its discount software catalogue: Expression Studio 3.
Two key questions that arise with this product:
1. Will students perceive Microsoft Expression Studio as being a
worthy alternative to Adobe CS4 software?
2. Will cash-strapped students in Ireland respect the knowledge economy
enough and actually buy a discount academic license so as to
legally use the software?
Before we can answer these properly, let's take a look at what
the tech industry thought.
When .NET
magazine recently described Microsoft Expression Studio
3 as jaw-dropping, my own interest changed from
casually curious to
download-the-60day-trial-demo-right-now-and-see-it-for-myself.
As a daily user of both Microsoft Expression and Adobe CS4
design products for Software4Students Ireland, I initially wondered what the latest
incarnation of Expression could offer to make it a worthwhile
purchase.
Within ten minutes it became clear that once again Microsoft have delivered a set of design tools which
are user-friendly and the best value for money around.
The value aspect of this home software range must not be
underestimated, especially at a time when schools in Ireland
have limited ICT resources.
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All For One & One For All
For example, Expression Studio 3 can do the job
of Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Dreamweaver for
LESS than the cost of Dreamweaver alone.
That doesn't even take
into account the additional software tools it provides such as
Blend and Encoder.
At around €104 for the academic license for students and family, you
simply can't argue with that kind of value!
Students and the average home user would be hard pressed to make
use of all of the innovative tools available in this new
package, such is the depth on offer.
All of the Expression Studio 3 applications are designed to work
seamlessly with each other.
For example, you might create graphics in Design, use them in
Blend to build an online application in Silverlight and then
import it into a bigger site that you've built in Expression
Web.
For budding graphic, multimedia and web designers the Expression
Studio 3 toolkit provides everything you need to get started on
any web project you can imagine.
All you need is an idea and then it's time to get creative.
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Downloading Demo
Software.
From Microsoft Office to Expression Studio, most of us have
tried a software trial or demo.
Demos are fine but it can be incredibly annoying when your
software trial runs out and you're then having to wait on your
software order.
It happens every day and still people keep making the same
mistake over, and over... and over.
My advice is to place
your software order the same day as you try out the demo version
- otherwise it's too easy to put it off and you end up
without access to the software just when you're in the middle of
a project.
Expired software trials is possibly the #1 reason why customers
become extremely impatient with software orders.
Waiting on a product you really need to use is likely to have
you tearing your hair out!
Overall, it doesn't take long for the benefits of Expression
Studio 3 to make themselves known.
Students can create fantastic web-ready content using Expression
Studio 3 and at a price point which is not much more expensive
than a newly released console game like Modern Warfare 2.
No prizes for guessing which of them you'll get more use out of
over a three year course.
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Posted by
admin
at
17:19
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Can Expression Studio 3 Assist Student Learning in Ireland?