The Hindu Business Line : UK-based Promethean enters India with Activclassroom range

Smart teaching tool: (From left) Almoe’s Consultant, Mr D.S. Krishnamurthy; General Manager, Mr Rajiv Johar; Promethean Senior Vice-President, Mr Mark Reeves; and International Business Development Manager, Mr Peter Ormerod, at the launch of Promethean’s Activeclassroom products in Bangalore on Wednesday. —

Anand Parthasarathy

Bangalore, Nov. 29

Classrooms will never be the same again if the Lancashire (UK)-based educational technology supplier Promethean can help it.

The flagship product of its Activclassroom range — an interactive ‘white board’ seamlessly morphs the traditional teaching tool – chalk and board — with ‘live’ Internet and a box full of software surprises.

Magic wand

Teachers will seem like magicians as they conjure up an infinite variety of lines, shapes, colours and patterns on a classroom-sized electronic board, even as they merge what they draw with content from a Web browser – and presentation tools like Powerpoint.

Its magic wand is an Activ pen – and software that transforms the writing surface of a white board into an Interactive Internet-driven play ground.

On Wednesday, Promethean unveiled its products for the first time in India, backed by the company’s Indian partner, the Bangalore-based audio visual specialists, Almoe Digital Solutions.

Market size

Mr Peter Ormerod, Promethean’s International Business Manager, said that the global market for interactive white boards was estimated to be around 1.2 million in size, estimated to grow to 5.3 million by 2011.

Worldwide, 3.7 per cent of classrooms were equipped with these smart teaching tools — and India was among 66 countries seen to have the potential to cross the ‘tipping point’ in demand – 3 per cent of classrooms — by next year.

In the UK, six out of 10 classrooms were equipped with such smart white boards, added Mr Mark Reeves, Promethean’s Senior Vice-President of International Sales.

The technology was increasingly being seen as a more cost effective solution for e-driven teaching compared to ‘one computer per student’ – and gave the teacher more control over classroom learning, he said.

System’s features

Almoe’s Technical Manager demonstrated the capabilities of the system which included add-on tools like Activote, a small egg shaped wirelessly driven device that enabled students to ‘vote’ or respond to choices on the board with a click – and allowed teachers to evaluate and grade an entire class performance almost in real time.

Price range

The General Manager (Operations), Mr Rajiv Johar, added that the selling price of the Activclassroom systems in India ranged from Rs 85,000 to Rs 1.15 lakh. A few schools in Chennai, Bangalore, Delhi and Kolkata had already adapted the systems within weeks of their availability in this country. Almoe is also active in evangelising the active white board concept among educationists and creating an ecosystem of India-specific teaching software, he said.

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