Downloading Software on PC w/no Board

[mvining2451]

Can anyone tell me if you can download the software onto a pc without the ActivBoard. I have teachers wanting to work on flipcharts and home and bring them to school. I was told there was a licensing issue. Is this true?

Thank you for your help!!
Marci

[Dug]

I you have a board(s) than this is not an issue (within reason). I think there might be a definitive number of installations you are allowed to make for each board you have, but it would seriously undermine the power of the software if you could only use it on a PC connected to the board!
I'm sure a Promethean person will come on and give us the answer, but in the mean time get it out to teachers to use at home would be my advice.

[Lara]

I think it is only be a reasonable use licence issue. If you have a board then you can have the software on a computer at home for lesson preparation, but not install it (for example) on all the machines in your school ICT suite.

[Sarah Carpenter]

Hi,
This question was raised a while back and this was the answer from Promethean - hope it helps.
--
Sarah :)
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"The official line is that there is 1 licence per board and 5 additional licences granted for preparation away from the board. So each board ships with 6 licences.

Using Activstudio or Activprimary for presentation purposes (i.e. on a projection screen or on any other manufacturer's IWB) is a breach of licence.
Each Activtablet (for preparation) also has a single user licence for the software.

Hope this clarifies it for you "

[mvining2451]

Thank you guys so much!! This helps so much.
Merry Christmas,
Marci

[Dug]

Blimey Marci, it's not even December yet!:)

On this subject. I was teaching PGCE students today and two of them seriously upset me with stories of their teaching practice schools not allowing them to take the ACTIV software home to install on their own machines (despite the schools having multiple boards). This sort of short-sightedness makes me absolutely SEETHE!:mad:
I know it's nothing to do with Promethean as such, but how can teachers be expected to get more than about 10% of the usefulness out of a Promethean board if they're blocked in this way. Student teachers are some of the most ICT savvy, creative people I know and if anyone's going to move education into the 21st Century it's this lot.
Anyway, rant over. I realise it's not the people reading this post who I need to shout at.
(I did say that Promethean would probably supply discs addressed to them at a nominal price if supplied with the school post code - the school's probably still using the original version of AP anyway!)

[Peter Lambert]

I worry that Network managers and IT technicians are concerned about licensing issues, software theft and the like that they don't want to risk giving the software out willy-nilly to students on TP. Because of this we have re-written the license (refered to as a EULA - End User License Agreement) so that it is implicit that the software may be installed on PC's for preparation purposes by anybody working in the institution that has Activboards. [clap]
On leaving the institution the software should be removed/uninstalled from personal PC's.

Any of you who are feeling "repressed" :mad: please pass this message on to whoever is holding the CD's!

Please bear in mind the "watermark" will still be displayed when Promethean hardware is not detected, but this doesn't limit you in any way for preparation, apart from disabling handwriting recognition.

[Sarah Carpenter]

That seems like asensible change to have made to the licensing - thanks Pete [clap]

Sarah

[gmoss]

Yes, there is a license issue. We have a spankin' new system and our tech department was told that they can load the software on 6 machines per board. We have several bagged laptops available to teachers which, in theory, could be loaded w/ the software. This would allow teachers to take home the software and work on it at home.

[clap]

[Gem]

Blimey Marci, it's not even December yet!:)

On this subject. I was teaching PGCE students today and two of them seriously upset me with stories of their teaching practice schools not allowing them to take the ACTIV software home to install on their own machines (despite the schools having multiple boards). This sort of short-sightedness makes me absolutely SEETHE!:mad:
I know it's nothing to do with Promethean as such, but how can teachers be expected to get more than about 10% of the usefulness out of a Promethean board if they're blocked in this way. Student teachers are some of the most ICT savvy, creative people I know and if anyone's going to move education into the 21st Century it's this lot.
Anyway, rant over. I realise it's not the people reading this post who I need to shout at.
(I did say that Promethean would probably supply discs addressed to them at a nominal price if supplied with the school post code - the school's probably still using the original version of AP anyway!)
Further to Dug's note about PGCE students; I am fuming after my PGCE mentee was criticised last week, in front of me by her university tutor who had come to observe her teach. The criticism was that she was using the IWB "for the sake of it" as "all" she was doing was writing on it in a variety of colours and on different pages. The stupid woman said that there was no point in doing this and the normal whiteboard should be used if it was only for writing on!!! and it had taken my three weeks to encourage my mentee to use the whiteboard to write on (before hopefully becoming more proficient and building flipcharts herself). If there is this kind of attitude in the training of new teachers then there's little hope for enthusiasm amongst NQTs!!! rubbish.

[davidlloyd]

I think one issue I've found visiting schools, is that some of them never realise that there are the 5 preparation licences. I do like the new licensing system. Thanks Pete.

Re the university lecturer, it sounds like she's no idea what she's doing or is frightened of the new technology. On a serious note, I would point out to the university concerned that perhaps their staff need some training on the power of IWBs, Maybe you could talk to your local TLA to see if a joint approach could be made.

[Gem]

thanks for this.
am on the case re: the TLA; emailed him today!