User manual | Walsall College selects Promethean for college of the future.

Case Study: UK | Walsall College | 2009
Walsall College selects Promethean for college
of the future.
Walsall College is a vocational further education (FE) in college in Walsall, West Midlands. As part of the
Government’s ‘Building Colleges for the Future’ scheme, Walsall College has received a £64 million investment
to develop a new ‘future-proof’ teaching and learning environment for the next generation of learners.
In creating the state-of-the-art Wisemore campus, Walsall College looked to implement the latest interactive
technologies, which will support teaching and learning now and into the 21st century, and ensure the college
meets the objectives of the Government initiative.
The Challenge
The Building Colleges for the Future programme marks
an unprecedented investment in England’s FE estate, with
the goal of creating innovative and inspirational facilities
that cultivate highly skilled and proficient workers.
To realise the benefits of the programme, Walsall
College sought to develop a cutting edge teaching and
learning space that encourages educational attainment.
Recognising the importance of ICT within this overall
vision, and looking to extend its current use of interactive
technologies by implementing more integrated solutions,
Walsall College undertook a comprehensive evaluation of
available technologies.
Walsall College also wanted to partner with an interactive
technology provider that would deliver exceptional
support during each stage of the new-build process, and
provide ongoing assistance beyond implementation.
The Solution
Promethean offers a comprehensive support programme,
designed to assist effective planning, selection,
implementation and adoption of interactive technologies
in capital investment projects. As part of this programme,
Promethean is able to offer consultancy services, such as
expert advice and support at any stage of a new build or
refurbishment project, as well as product demonstrations,
visioning sessions and ongoing training beyond installation.
To help Walsall College develop a clear vision for its
Wisemore campus, Promethean arranged for key
members of staff to visit a neighbouring FE college that
has successfully adopted its technologies. Impressed
by the innovative, forward-thinking design of its
Walsall College selected ActivClassroom solutions to equip new campus
solutions, and their natural fit with a vocational teaching
environment, Walsall College chose to invest in a range
of ActivClassroom technologies for all learning areas
within the new campus, transferring from the competitor
interactive whiteboard used previously by staff.
At the heart of the campus’ new learning areas is the
Promethean 95-inch ActivBoard, an advanced interactive
whiteboard, which is designed by teachers, for teachers.
Operated by electromagnetic grid technology and
a battery-free/wireless pen, the ActivBoard delivers
excellent on-screen accuracy and allows students to
lean against the board while writing, without affecting
the content displayed. The 95-inch board also provides
teachers and students with a large area to share ideas,
view multimedia clips, and interact with lesson content.
The ActivBoard is supplied with a choice of Promethean
award-winning age specific software. Intuitively designed,
the software allows teachers to create electronic
flipcharts, incorporating a range of text, image, video
and sound files, quickly and easily. This new generation
of software allows teachers to save multiple profiles,
customising the toolbar, layout and operation of the
program. Alongside its flexible and functional design,
Promethean’s interactive software enables full integration
of its ActivClassroom technologies, making it an ideal
platform for the evolving learning environment.
Walsall College also deployed Promethean’s
ActivExpression Learner Response System. The world’s
first system to offer full sentence and character texting,
ActivExpression enables students to input complete
sentences, making it an ideal tool for stimulating
discussion, especially within a vocational adult learning
setting. The device also facilitates a wide range of
questioning formats such as sequential ordering, likert
scale, numeric and free text response, across a range of
subject areas and topics.
To ensure staff encounter a smooth transitional period
to Activboards, Promethean arranged for the installation
of an ActivBoard and accompanying software within the
college’s professional development suite. Promethean
has also delivered face-to-face training sessions to 30
key members of staff to establish a team of ‘Advanced
Practitioners’. These practitioners will cascade training
and share best practice with their colleagues.
In addition, all teaching staff will also be able to
access additional support by becoming a member
of Promethean’s global teaching community,
PrometheanPlanet, and complete online training
programmes via the ActivLearning Virtual Learning
Environment PrometheanPlanet.com.
The Benefit
Jayne Holt, director of e-learning at Walsall College
has been impressed by the ongoing level of help and
advice offered by Promethean in developing the new
campus: “From the outset, Promethean has provided
an outstanding level of support. By arranging a visit to
a neighbouring college, we were able to experience the
latest interactive technologies first-hand and establish
a clear vision for our facility.”
Jayne has been also overwhelmed by Promethean’s
support in easing the transition from competitor
technologies to ActivBoards. “Moving to an entirely
new building is quite a daunting prospect for some of
our staff, so helping them make the changeover to new
technologies before the move has removed some of the
stress,” said Jayne.
“As well as conducting expert-led sessions at the college,
Promethean has also showed us the free online courses
on ActivLearning that may be completed by staff at their
own pace. These courses are specifically designed to
support those migrating to new interactive whiteboard
software, so will help our teachers develop confidence
and a fundamental understanding prior to the move.”
In addition to supporting teachers and students in
making the most of its new technologies, Promethean
and channel partner, Elementary, have been on hand to
ensure the effective implementation of ActivClassroom
solutions during planning stages. “Working with site
contractors, they have advised on practical details such
as the positioning of interactive whiteboards within a
classroom in terms of sightlines and the number of power
points required,” added Jayne. “This holistic approach
Promethean will make sure our new campus is the best
possible for both staff and students.”
Promethean is the world’s pre-eminent education
solutions provider, guiding and supporting forwardthinking institutions in Education, Business and
Government in their pursuit of achieving more.
Learn more at PrometheanWorld.com or
0870 2413194.
Case Study: UK | Walsall College | 2009
Walsall College_CS_EDU_UK 12/11
Jayne continued: “Alongside the company’s in-depth
understanding of education and the FE sector, solutions
such as the ActivBoard represents the future of
collaborative technologies, and so when aiming to develop
a college that will educate learners well into the future,
Promethean was the ideal partner.”

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