You can now download a completely new software from Promethean called ActivInspire. The new software represents the culmination of almost three years of effort by a dedicated team within Promethean – and it would not have happened without an immense amount of help from you.

As well as a major functionality update, it is also available as a FREE Personal edition for ANYONE. If you have a SMARTboard™ or other make of Interactive Whiteboard or simply a projector – then all the thousands of lessons and resources shared on Promethean Planet are yours to access and can now be used to engage and excite learners everywhere!

If you simply can’t wait to find out more and try it out, then head over to: Introducing ActivInspire!

And for some great insights into the many possibilities of the new software, the developers have created a fantastic set of flipcharts. Get the Developers Flipcharts

We could not have done it without you….

Now that Promethean operates in over 90 countries we must all find new ways to connect to build the products you want and need. User’s blogs and the Promethean Planet Forum – are some of the tools that have come into play to help build a new “customer connection” that Promethean hopes will continue to form the foundation of an ongoing dialogue with teachers and educators around the world.

Andrew Edwardson, who heads up Software Engineering, had this to say about the experience:

“Getting ActivInspire 1.0 out of the door has been a remarkable journey. I don’t think I have ever worked on a project that had so many passionate people attached to it!

To be honest we didn’t know what to expect once we hit Beta. I remember the day we went live and I nervously Googled “ActivInspire reviews”. Bloggers where telling us about issues but they where also telling us how much they liked the new version. So that really motivated us.

One blog in particular was quite revealing. This teacher from Australia did a marvellous screen cast about Inspire. He did not hold any punches! Anyway it was mainly about video handling within Inspire. I took it into the software department and we all sat and watched it. As a result, I hope you will find that video/Flash handling is a lot smoother experience now!

We would really like to a continue to thank all the teachers out there who use our products and give us such great feedback.”

Promethean was amazed by the response to a trial of the new ActivInspire software. The forum has been buzzing with hundreds of your questions and ideas relating to the BETA version and the final release now benefits from dozens and dozens of key changes made directly in response to YOUR FEEDBACK!

Teacher blogs have proven to be a fabulous way of sharing ideas and best practices within the Educator community and in this case, helping in the development of ActivInspire.

www.activblogs.com was a blogging activity for teachers. Teachers were encouraged to using the emerging Social Web Technology to share their views, ideas and observations about the BETA version of the ActivInspire software- and wow – did they deliver!

Even more exciting was learning about the number of teachers who got equally excited about “blogging” through doing this. It is great to think that one technology can be a catalyst to stimulate a teacher to investigate using other technologies with students.

Over 200 blog submission were made to Activblogs and blog articles were submitted from users all over the world! It would be impossible to pick any fair shortlist from the great array of blogs out there so you will have to search them out and view them all, but some of the highlights for me include:

Teacher Sol: http://teachersol.blogspot.com – A special needs teacher in Washington DC and Winner of the Activblogs contest

Jill Mendell: http://jmendel.blogspot.com – A teacher from St Louis.

OllieBray: http://olliebray.typepad.com – A Depute Head Teacher from Scotland who keeps a busy blog full of ideas

Dai Barnes: http://daibarnes.blogspot.com from Ealing in London

Rosie MacAlpine: http://iwbaustralia.wordpress.com from Australia

Chris Betcher: http://betch.edublogs.org – Another great blog.

We say designed by “Educators FOR Educators” – and with this release, we feel we have lived up to it.