Promethean, Channel One Launch Interactive News Service

• By Therese Mageau
• 07/11/11

Promethean, a global interactive education and training company, and Channel One Network, which operates an in-school television news network for middle and high school students, announced recently a partnership that will deliver interactive daily news broadcasts to schools.

The new service, Channel One News InterActiv, will enhance the traditional Channel One daily news program by delivering it via Promethean's interactive whiteboard and learner response systems. "The combination of the two products will create a platform that moves news from a static analogue model to something that’s completely interactive," said Kent Haehl, CEO of Channel One Network, in announcing the service at ISTE 2011 in Philadelphia June 28.

The new service, which will be available beginning in the fall of 2011, will turn Channel One daily news broadcasts into interactive content for use by integrating it with Promethean's ActivBoard line of interactive whiteboards and learner response systems (ActivExpression, ActiVote, ActivEngage). The new platform will offer assessment activities, pop quizzes, and collaborative exercises aligned to current events and Common Core standards.

"We are working hand in hand with Promethean," said Haehl. "They are developing frameworks that are allowing us to drop our content pieces in and make them actually interactive. This isn't just about taking our news program onto a large-format screen. It's about transforming news into an interactive experience in the classroom."

The companies said that the new offering will also include embedded professional development activities designed to build teachers' skills and confidence using interactive content. The activities will connect teachers to Promethean Planet, a professional online education community with nearly a million members, which offers peer-to-peer collaboration, exchange of best practices, and other professional skill-building activities.

In the same announcement, the two companies said that they also planned to launch this fall Channel One News InterActiv Jr., a daily interactive news service tailored for students in grades three through five. The new program will include reading comprehension and assessment activities delivered via Promethean's interactive whiteboard system.  

"Blending the power of broadcast news with interactive tools will tie real-world situations to learning and challenge students to become educated, engaged global citizens," said Jean-Yves Charlier, CEO of Promethean.