2013 Adobe Education Leader Summer Institute

1. IMPACT OF ADOBE EDGE
TOOLS AND SERVICES
IN HIGHER EDUCATION
Joseph Labrecque
2013 Adobe Education Leader Summer Institute

2. JOSEPH LABRECQUE
Senior Interactive Software Engineer | Adjunct Faculty
University of Denver
Proprietor | Owner
Fractured Vision Media, LLC
Adobe Community Professional
Adobe Education Leader
Adobe Certified Expert
Adobe Certified Educator
Adobe Influencer
Author
Lynda.com | Peachpit Press | Adobe Press | Packt Publishing | O’Reilly Media | video2brain
Artist
An Early Morning Letter, Displaced | Shivervein

3. ADOBE EDGE TOOLS AND SERVICES
What is this all about?

4. CREATE THE WEB
• Late September 2012
• San Francisco
• WebKit
• W3C
• jQuery Mobile
• Adobe Edge Tools & Services

5. CREATE THE WEB: TAKEAWAYS
• Create the Web was not a Flash event. (yes, I got a ton of questions around this)
• Adobe has been investing in HTML for years before this. (over a decade)
• Adobe has been involved in many open source and open spec projects in the past.
(Flex SDK, OSMF, PDF, SWF, RTMP, et cetera)
• Stop assuming anyone involved in web standards is “moving on” from Flash or anything
else. (this attitude is dismissive and diminishes the great work that many have done and
continue to do with the platform)
• A better enabled, more expressive web is good for everyone. (duh)

6. ADOBE EDGE TOOLS AND SERVICES
What are they?

7. EDGE ANIMATE
Animate gives web designers the tools they
need to add motion to web graphics and
create interactive content on their sites,
while assuring that their designs display
consistently across mobile devices, tablets,
and modern browsers.

8. EDGE CODE
Edge Code is a lightweight code editor for
web developers and designers working with
HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Edge is built to
work with browsers, speeding up
development time by displaying changes to
the code directly on the screen.

9. EDGE REFLOW
Edge Reflow enables designers to build
beautiful responsive web designs. Create on
a native web surface with CSS design and
layout features in a familiar and intuitive
way.

10. EDGE INSPECT
Inspect is an essential application for web
developers and designers who need to
preview their content across multiple mobile
devices. Wirelessly pair multiple iOS and
Android devices to your computer, grab
screenshots from any connected device, and
see real-time results from changes.

11. EDGE WEB FONTS
With contributions from Adobe, Google, and
designers around the world, Edge Web Fonts
provides a vast library of free web fonts for
use on your websites.
Integrated with other products.

12. PHONEGAP BUILD
PhoneGap Build allows you to create mobile
apps using the web tools you love - HTML,
CSS, and JavaScript - and then easily
compile them for multiple platforms in the
cloud.
Huge time-saver!

13. WHAT DO I THINK ABOUT ALL THIS?
Joseph’s Perspective :)

14. I THINK THIS IS ALL WONDERFUL
• Technology which drives the Web has been
stagnant for years.
• The amount of stuff we can do with native
web technologies is really great.
• If you know when to use this stuff- and
know when to fall back (or forward) to
something like Flash Player – you are in an
ideal position.

15. BUT… SOME PEOPLE STILL DON’T GET IT
• I try to take a balanced perspective.
• Keep my hands in many technologies.
• Keeps me informed, balanced, and honest.
• Some people would rather cling to their
own narrow perspective. It’s easier.
• These are the people you want to stay
away from. They will suffocate you.

16. IMPACT ON COURSE CURRICULUM
Web stack scramble…

17. WHITHER FLASH?
Courses taught:
• Animation/Interactive [Flash Professional]
• Programming [Flash Builder]
• Mobile [AIR for Android]

18. ANIMATION WITH ANIMATE
Animation/Interactive course to use
Edge Animate:
• Easier to pick up
• Made for the native web
• Directed workflow

19. MOBILE AIR TO PHONEGAP
Mobile course to use PhoneGap and
PhoneGap Build:
• Mobile AIR covered in another course
• Focus on web technologies
• Part of new mobile track

20. FLASH CONDENSATION
Two Flash courses merged into one Flash
Platform overview course:
• Basics of motion
• Interactivity
• Gaming
• Programming
• Mobile

21. SECOND THOUGHTS… MAYBE.
• Flash Professional CC turns out to be really
awesome – increased focus in web targets.
• The Flash Platform is expanding into all
sorts of areas – mostly thanks to Stage3D
and 3rd party frameworks and tools.
• PhoneGap is much more difficult to learn
and use than mobile AIR.
• Animate is dependent upon knowing other
tools to do anything advanced.

22. TRAINING STAFF AND TECHNICAL
FACULTY
Spreading awareness.

23. PERSONNEL
• Personnel are always a bit of an issue :)
• 3rd party systems often prevent any
innovative customization.
• The need for cutting edge tooling
oftentimes is simply not there.
• One step at a time…

24. UNIVERSITY DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS
• Using web tools as much as possible
• Responsive frameworks are helpful
• Some things can only be done with Flash
• Nothing much has really changed!

25. DU PORTFOLIO
• Total rewrite from a decade-old codebase.
• Wanted to make it responsive across all
targets.
• Used Edge Reflow in the design of many
responsive elements.
• Uses Flash Player for video and audio
playback when needed.

26. VIDEOMANAGER
• Allows video upload, transcode, and
management within a controlled
environment.
• Dealing with video – retains the need for
Flash Player in video editing and playback.
• Using RTMP and HLS for streaming to both
Desktop and Mobile targets.

27. CRUNCHBUDDY
• Transcode “brain” which monitors servers,
gathers data, transcodes and manages
video files across servers.
• Built with Adobe AIR as a headless app.
• HandBrake and MediaInfo via
NativeProcess API.
• Installed as a Windows service.

28. LEGACY SYSTEMS
Can we convert?

29. COURSEMEDIA
• Heavy Flash Player dependencies
• Creating content such as text slides
• Editing video online – clipping
• Full media gallery playback
• COPYRIGHT streaming audio and video

30. COURSEMEDIA MOBILE? SYSTEM REWRITE?
• Attempt to bring viewing to mobile via AIR
for Android and eventually iOS
• Hasn’t seen so many downloads
• Faculty surveyed do not see it as a priority
• If playback fails – they move to desktop

31. WHAT OF THE FUTURE?
The only sure thing is change.

32. THANK YOU
Twitter: @JosephLabrecque
Email: Joseph.Labrecque@du.edu
Web: http://JosephLabrecque.com/