Unable to acquire Adobe Aero (beta) for desktop

[Sue25525847j74c]

Good morning, I teach IT at Long Road Sixth Form College in Cambridge, and I want our students to use the Aero Desktop app (Beta) to enable them to create augmented reality resources as part of their mandatory coursework. In previous years we have used the Adobe Aero app for mobile phones and have been very pleased with the results. However, not all students have iPhones – and we cannot provide them – and this has caused many problems as there is no comparable software available for Android devices.

The Aero Desktop app (Beta) has been recommended by OCR, our exam board, who have tested it and provided some training for it and it will provide much needed equity for our students who will have the same opportunities for success. However, my college’s IT team are having trouble acquiring the software from our Adobe supplier Academia who “report that we are the first organisation so far to mention to them about Aero being in the September ICT spec, but they will take this up with Adobe on our behalf.”  That was back in June. Since then, I have been in touch with both our IT team and OCR to find out what progress has been made and it seems none has.

OCR say that "It is a free downloadable software that can be installed on a desktop/laptop with or without the use of Adobe Creative Cloud from Adobe website (link provided below)

https://helpx.adobe.com/uk/aero/get-started.html

To be able to install and work with Adobe Aero SDK, the PC/Laptop used must meet the minimum technical specifications

https://helpx.adobe.com/uk/aero/system-requirements-macos-windows.html

For centre (installation within an education establishment), it requires the network manager’s (admin) permission to install the software as we had to do for our work laptops."

However, the IT team say that OCR are wrong as the software  “does in fact use the Creative Cloud app in order to install. As we use the Enterprise version of Creative Cloud, our Creative Cloud apps are not delivered in the same way through the Creative Cloud app as they are for end users, instead they are packaged using the Adobe Admin Console to allow us to deploy them in bulk. Therefore, in order for us to be able to provide the Aero app to you, we need Adobe to add it to the Adobe Admin Console so we can include it in our Adobe package.”

So, it would seem that the lead needs to come from you – Adobe – to expedite this situation. As the new term is fast approaching and we need to prepare resources and get to know the software ourselves, time is running out for a smooth start to the year. Can you please help with this asap?

Regards

Sue Walker-Mitchell

IT Teacher Long Road Sixth Form College, email swalker-mitchell@longroad.ac.uk

[Test Screen Name]

This is not a way to contact Adobe. As it is a beta, there will be no team, no marketing, and no support. Furthermore it can be removed at any time, so consider carefully whether you want to build education on this flimsy base.

[Alasdair239068651kn2]

Hi 

I would also like to echo this issue as we seemingly may have a similar issue, I work at the School of Digital Arts here in Manchester UK, our students have successfully used Aero on their own devices with great success but not all students have access to relevant devices for Aero. We would like to deploy across all our desktop devices to ensure accessibility for all students and deliver Aero as part of our curriculum. Our IT department are unable to install due to the ongoing "beta" status of Aero and it not being packaged or deployable like its sibling software. Any advice would also be appreciated at this end. Kind regards, Alasdair