It is rare to attend a presentation from a supplier without having one's ears battered from coffee to biscuits about how fantastic their product is and how bad the competition fairs in comparison. A two hour drive to some expensive venue often produces no more information than a quick flit through a glossy brochure in the comfort of one's own sitting room. So I was delighted to find that a one day seminar organised by SATIPS in November '04, and presented by Promethean's ACTIVprimary Development Manager, was actually worth the diesel. Manor Prep School set in the picturesque outskirts of Abingdon, Oxfordshire hosted a full day of practical advice from Promethean on how properly designed software can make interactive whiteboards an entertaining and effective classroom tool. Unusually for a company whose base product is hardware, the focus of the day was on the software that drives the interactive experience. I found this delightfully refreshing as anyone who has visited a major exhibition such as BETT will know. At such events I get frustrated when sales types with a toothpaste smile try to convince me that their high tech, state of the art, full term's ICT budget blown in five seconds, piece of kit is more important than the applications we will be using impart education to a classroom full of children. Sure, I can use programmable pens, play sounds, insert and delete graphics and use an existing whiteboard if I don't mind ducking and diving between projector and image. Therefore, being told by a supplier that the software is actually more important than the gadgetry makes a refreshing change. The seminar, a mixture of lecture and hands on experience, began with Promethean making the point that modern pupils are multimedia children living in a multimedia world. Our classrom and teaching methods need to reflect that state of affairs because static images that refuse all attempts at interaction are no longer acceptable to our twenty first century children. We can of course compromise and use office software such as PowerPoint, but this will only give us a basic multimedia production with minimal interactive capability. Only appropriately designed software can provide the full interactive experience and make the whiteboard come alive in the classroom. The interest this creates can not only make the classroom more interesting but also help to stimulate discussion with children in homes where round table discussions in the family context may not happen anymore. With this in mind we launched into the facilities that the Promethean software offered, starting with a range of colours and pen widths which could be used to create or resize shapes that a similarly comprehensive variety of eraser widths could then delete. Behind this we could place a set of backgrounds in various colours or textures and add a mathematical function machine for good measure. Then see how long we took using clock templates, relaxing at the end of a hard day with educational board games such as snakes and ladders which use images for counters. Of course our children might want to preserve the fruits of their efforts so print outs in different formats were made available including thumbnails, handouts, and of course full page. From that point on we launched into the application of these facilities starting with one of the major features of the software, handwriting recognition. This is not just a means of putting hand written text into typed form but instead works on correct letter formation where a mal-formed 'd' will produce cog instead of 'dog'. The sense of achievement and satisfaction a child would get from having 'the whiteboard' recognise their attempts at letter formation, never mind correct spelling, would be far higher than any tick in an exercise book from 'Miss'. But using the facilities at this level all day would eventually lead to boredom on the part of the computer as well as the child, so after a few more demonstrations of these foundation level facilities we shifted gear and went for a walk. Well Rosie's Walk by Pat Hutchins actually which provided an excellent backdrop for the multimedia capabilities of the interactive software. As we made our way across the meadow and farmyard we clicked on a bird which played a recorded voice, a pig that gave us a more conventional grunts, and a host of other sounds that are included in the Promethean package. Now, you will notice that I glossed over the talking bird and may wondered what was in the coffee I had with my corn flakes. Well, one of the strengths of good interactive software is its ability to engage children in groups rather than individuals which stops the rest of the class getting bored while the privileged few gather round a small computer monitor. So what better way to engage children in groups than to mix up sounds and have them work out which animal or object they should really be associated with? Standard graphics such as cartoon animals and people are fun, but how about making the story more personal? Perhaps create a story using objects, places and people familiar to your class using a digital still or video camera. Having no interest in the matter Promethean suggested we consider an Intel still/video camera for approximately £80, and I have seen similarly specified cameras online from outlets such as Dixons for approximately £85. Using these devices it would be easy to produce small thumbnail images, then mix them up with text and pre-recorded phrases to create a story limited only by your class' imagination. After this excursion into the realms of artistry and creativity we came back to the written word to look at ways of capturing text off site for later upload into the multimedia environment. As a laptop user I have great sympathy with the risks that small hands, mud and creepy crawlies can bring the delicate, not to mention expensive workings of my computer. With this in mind Promothean showed us a machine that most of the room immediately fell in love with known as an AlphaSmart priced at £160. This solid state keyboard that comes complete with its own monochrome LCD display, useful function keys and a USB port could handle being used, abused and occasionally dropped. But as well as being as tough as the proverbial old nails the device also could be utilised to create the text during the field trip that accompanied the pictures which would all be uploaded back in the classroom to create your interactive projects. After looking at the rich graphics available on the internet - did you know that MultiMap provides aerial photographs based on postcodes - we went for the big finish with a demonstration of Clicker4 which was described as the most purchased but least used education software. It is not my intention here to review of individual packages, but as an ICT professional I can understand why having seen some very good packages hide their lights under bushels because of usability. Suffice to say that this package is one that deserves patience and if you have tried it once but given up, I recommend that you try again if you have the time and inclination. There are free downloads once you've bought the program, and apart from the resources within the package itself you can import images from Promethean's software. You might find some of the URLs we explored of interest whether you are an interactive whiteboard user or simply looking for resources. No implication or inference should be drawn about the quality, content or usefulness of any of these sites - that will be for you to decide! Promethean resources www.prometheanworld.com/uk/ Snaith Primary School www.snaithprimary.eril.net Crick Primary School www.crick.northants.sch.uk/welcome.htm Kent NGfL www.kented.org.uk/ngfl/ NAACE www.mape.org.uk/ Sebran www.kidsdomain.com/down/pc/sebran.html Interactive Resources www.interactive-resources.co.uk/ Web Shots www.webshots.com