Adobe Launches Spark with Premium Features for Every Student, Free of Charge

Adobe Spark empowers creativity and enhances digital literacy for teacher and students in classrooms and at home

Adobe announced today that Spark for Education with premium features and additional functionality is now available to primary, secondary, and higher education students free of charge. This follows an announcement  during BETT 2018 and successful trials with primary and secondary institutes in various school districts across North America. Normally priced at £101.15 per year, Adobe Spark for Education is a fun and frictionless storytelling Creative Cloud application that runs in any web or mobile browser, enabling students to quickly and easily express themselves via graphics, web stories and video to complete their school assignments and showcase digital creativity.

Adobe’s research  has shown that jobs of the future will demand both creativity and creative problem solving skills – two different capabilities that 97% of educators recognise as being essential for students to learn in school. However, the research also shows that the biggest barriers educators currently face to teach these skills are the lack of access to necessary tools and technologies and the time required to teach students how to use creative tools. Adobe Spark for Education was built to solve both of these issues. In addition to making the application free to schools, Adobe has also introduced named user licensing, enabling students to log into their account and work on creative projects from any location on any device, even from their homes. These licenses can be deployed by primary and secondary schools in a way that is consistent with data privacy laws including COPPA—the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act.

“I have seen first-hand the importance of fun, easy-to-use creativity tools in the classroom, and believe that Adobe Spark will enhance how educators teach digital and creative-problem solving skills to open up a range of new possibilities for students who want to express themselves,” said Mala Sharma, VP and GM of Creative Cloud product marketing & engagement at Adobe. “Access to tools and resources is a key factor in education, and by providing Spark with premium features to K-12 (primary and secondary) schools and colleges for free and by offering single sign-on, Adobe is empowering educators to teach the critical skills their students need both in the classroom and when they enter the workforce.”

Details on how educators can get Spark for Education with premium features for free for their school and universities, along with Spark training and professional development complete with a guide to using Spark in the classroom, can be found on the Spark for Education  website. Additionally, Adobe offers a free platform, the Education Exchange , where educators can access free courses taught by their peers and share teaching materials and curriculum.