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Elementary Technology and Promethean provide the ideal partnership for Walsall College

Walsall College has selected educational technology specialist, Elementary Technology Limited, and manufacturer of Interactive Technology, Promethean as key ICT partners in the building of its new state-of-the-art Wisemore campus. The further education college, which is being developed as part of the ‘Building Colleges for the Future’ programme, chose Elementary Technology and Promethean for their ability to develop an ICT provision that matches the college’s needs, and excellent level of ongoing training and assistance in the effective integration of interactive solutions.

A key objective for the college’s Wisemore campus is to extend and enhance its current use of interactive technologies. While staff already use competitor interactive whiteboards within its existing facilities, the college sought to install solutions in the new campus that would better support teaching and learning for the next generation of students.

To meet this aim, the £250,000 contract was put out to tender, with Elementary Technology selected above four other resellers due to its professional, independent service and competitive pricing. Following the appointment, Elementary Technology worked with Walsall College to carry out a comprehensive evaluation of the marketplace, looking at aspects such as ease of use, impact on pedagogy and the option to integrate additional solutions.

As part of the evaluation process, Elementary Technology supported the college in utilising Promethean’s comprehensive support programme, which is designed to promote successful selection, implementation and adoption of interactive technologies in capital investment projects.

During the specification process, Elementary Technology arranged for key members of College staff to visit a neighbouring further education college that has successfully adopted Promethean technologies. Impressed by the tangible difference Promethean ActivClassroom solutions are making to teaching and learning, Walsall College chose to invest in over 90 ActivBoards and accompanying software for all learning areas within the new campus.

Taking interactivity to a new level, Walsall College will also deploy Promethean’s ActivExpression Learner Response System across the Wisemore campus. The world’s first Learner Response System to offer full sentence and character texting, ActivExpression is ideally suited to the adult learning environment.

“From the outset, Elementary fully supported our vision to create cutting edge facilities that push the boundaries of traditional pedagogy and were able to provide an independent overview of available technologies,” said Jayne Holt, director of e-learning at Walsall College.

“While we already use interactive whiteboards in the existing college building, we wanted to better equip the new campus with more integrated solutions that would enable us to incorporate additional technologies over time. Despite our familiarity with other interactive whiteboards, Promethean immediately stood out as the preferred choice for the College, as teaching staff were impressed with the versatility of the solutions and their natural fit with our vocational learning environment. In particular, the ActivBoard, for us, represents the future of collaborative technologies, and so when aiming to develop facilities that will educate learners well into the future, it was the ideal choice.”

Jayne continued: “As well as supporting the college in selecting interactive technologies, Elementary Technology and Promethean are also assisting site contractors with the effective integration on the solutions and are helping staff make the transition to the new interactive whiteboards and software.”

Following the installation of an ActivBoard and accompanying software within the college’s professional development suite by Elementary Technology, Promethean has delivered face-to-face training sessions to 30 key members of staff to establish a team of ‘Advanced Practitioners’. These practitioners will cascade training to colleagues prior to the campus’ opening later this year.

Commenting on the project win, Chris Deeley of Elementary Technology, said: “Promethean did its utmost to support us in making sure we met the College’s objectives for the project. As well as developing a bespoke technology offering and training provision for Walsall College, Promethean is helping us ease the college’s transition to the new technologies, ensuring staff are entirely satisfied, every step of the way.”

Paul Dean, director of partner management at Promethean, concludes: “Our work with Elementary Technology on the Walsall College project, demonstrates Promethean’s commitment to supporting channel partners. Our ActivPartner programme delivers unrivalled training, marketing support, business demand creation and guidance on selling and engaging with the education sector. Through the programme we can also facilitate visioning sessions and providing a degree of flexibility in pricing and product offering.”