Promethean’s award-winning lesson planning and delivery software, ActivInspire, is supplied as standard with every ActivPanel, making it an easily accessible resource for teachers looking to create interesting and engaging lesson content.
ActivInspire contains a huge range of tools and features – so many, in fact, that even ActivInspire veterans will often find new content!
There are lots of free training resources available which cover ActivInspire, including two step-by-step courses on Learn Promethean – but if you want to dive right in, we’ll be covering three great ways to use ActivInspire in this blog post…
1. Use ActivInspire to record your screen
ActivInspire enables you to easily record everything you’re doing on the ActivPanel, which is a great way to create short ‘explainer’ videos or even capture whole lessons to share with asynchronous or distance learners. Most computers also have built-in microphones, so you can use the ActivInspire Screen Recorder to record your voice and talk over any key points, addressing the viewer like you would in a normal class – just select the audio source you’d like to use in the Screen Recorder app settings.
Your video recordings are easily exportable, and perfect for uploading to your chosen Learning Management System (LMS) so that students can access the lesson on-demand, or as a revision tool. Some students might appreciate the ability to pause the lesson, or rewind to hear an explanation again.
To access the ActivInspire Screen Recorder, simply tap on the ‘Tools’ menu, then ‘More Tools’, and select ‘Screen Recorder’.
To download ActivInspire, click here.
2. Check out the Activities Builder
The Activities Builder allows you to create custom activities on your computer, then play them interactively through the ActivPanel.
There are lots of templates available, such as word searches, crosswords, flash cards, and matching or memory games. You can take these templates and populate them with content to match your lesson plan – a crossword on human anatomy in a Biology class, for example.
The Activities Builder is not only great for when your students are in the classroom – you can even get students involved if you’re sharing the lesson via live videoconference or through the ActivPanel’s Screen Share app.
3. Explore and borrow lessons from the Promethean Resource Library
If you’d like some inspiration on how to present a certain topic, you can always take a look at the Promethean Resource Library. The Promethean Resource Library contains over 50,000 ActivInspire flipcharts, created and uploaded by teachers, covering topics all across the curriculum.
There’s a simple search field which you can use to look for topics, then you can preview, download, or even open the flipchart directly in ActivInspire. You can choose whether you’d like to edit it for your class, or use it as-is.
There are two main resource types available to you through the Promethean Resource Library – Flipcharts are a singular file which you can load up immediately, whereas Resource Packs are made up of lots of files including images, sound clips, individual flipcharts and much more.
To explore the Promethean Resource Library, click here.
Using ActivInspire, you’ll be able to create engaging lessons no matter which subject you’re covering. If you’d like some inspiration on using the ActivPanel itself, why not check out our ‘Getting creative with the ActivPanel series’, starting with the first instalment here.