Other interactive white boards

[elainedavies]

Hi
All our classrooms are installed with Promethean IWBs.
But we have a 'SmartBoard' in our old library and are moving it to another classroom. Can you please tell me if ACTIVprimary can be used on this board.
Thank you +wave+

[Alison]

Yep, it can! +wave+

[elainedavies]

Thank you, that really helps me.
Elaine [clap]

[Margaret Allen]

errrrr.... yes technically it can... but actually licensing wise that is not strictly true. [clap]

We cannot allow people who have got our boards to automatically just use them on any other board/system that they happen to have. Otherwise what would happen is that people could buy one Promethean board and software and then just go and buy a load of ebeams!:eek:

The best thing would be for you to ring and speak to whoever you deal with in sales to find out how much a licence for AP would be. Or you can ring me.... 07971919510

Sorry to disagree with Alison and I hope you both understand where I am coming from.... +wave+

[boomer]

Hi Margaret,

Without compromising my clients, I, like other members of this forum, work with a number of schools who have a mixture of boards.
The question of being able to use one brand of software with a competitors board using the various "fixes" out there comes up quite a lot.:confused:
I am not sure if the board vendors deliberately blur this area for marketing reasons but it does cause some frustrations for teachers who just want to get on with the job of putting the best possible resources in front of the learners.[clap]
Can I assume from what you have said above that if a school holds a site licence for AP or AS, then it can use the software across the school in any classroom regardless of which board, projector, brand of crayon or shade of curtain they have in the room?:D

Adrian

[Margaret Allen]

Hi Adrian,

In a word "no" ! :eek: :D

Seriously.... the problem here is one of ensuring that the considerable investment that we have made in making our software as pedagogically sound as possible. Not only do we have software purely for education, but we have a version for Secondary and Elementary/Primary thereby ensuring that all are catered for. We have a team of engineers and programmers whose job is to try and accommodate the wishes of those of us in education. In a way it is testament to their success that we are so continuously bombarded with requests for our software to run on their boards! There is a sense in which we have made this more complicated because of the particular success of AP which is to date the only dedicated IWB for Primaries.... blimey I am sounding like a marketing person...:eek:

It is obviously very difficult for the teachers who have to put up with whatever it is that they have been given rather than chosen :rolleyes: BUT if we were to say "here have the software and then just buy whatever board/device/system that you feel suffices" then we aren't actually helping either. Who knows what teachers could end up because a cost cutting "purse string holder" decides that interactivity is just about software! :eek: and then the true meaning of the whole interactive solution gets lost. We believe that it is about the whole package which includes an integrated voting system and slate and that is why our software and hardware have been designed in the way that they have.

My suggestion would be that if a school is looking at ways of having the software then we will see what we can do, but we would need to look at their situation. We have a number of licensing options and ways of allowing schools to have the software legally and not just generally! +wave+

I would suggest that schools contact their local TLC/TLA/Agent/Reseller/Ed Consultant/Sales Manager - it will depend on country etc.

Sorry for the long winded reply but as was said earlier it is not about just the software.

We will be announcing some very exciting options in the very near future which is very closely connected with this whole situation so in the meantime bear with us!
+wave+