Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Inspiration 9 Honored by Association of Educational Publishers Distinguished Achievement Awards

Inspiration 9 Honored by Association of Educational Publishers Distinguished Achievement Awards

Ultimate Thinking and Learning Tool Sweeps New Awards Program Category

Portland, OR (PRWEB) June 22, 2010

Inspiration® 9 (http://www. inspiration. com/inspiration) , the ultimate thinking and learning tool to comprehend, create, communicate and achieve more, recently added two 2010 Association of Educational Publishers (AEP) Distinguished Achievement Awards to its growing list of honors and accolades from the education, technology and parenting communities. The newest version of Inspiration® Software's (http://www. inspiration. com) visual learning software for learners grade six to adult swept the awards program's new "Technology & New Media: Alignments Tools" category, taking honors as the best product for both grade ranges 6-8 and 9-12.

For more than four decades, the AEP Awards have honored outstanding resources for teaching and learning. One of the largest and longest running recognition programs in the educational publishing industry, the annual AEP Awards mark the standard for quality, professional educational products and excellence in education marketing.

"Teachers around the country are telling us that the new presentation capabilities and visual view in Inspiration 9 are allowing them to take visual learning in new and powerful directions for their students, helping them build the strong communication and thinking skills that are requisite for 21st century success," said Mona Westhaver, president and co-founder, Inspiration Software. "We are proud of the recognition that the ninth generation of our flagship software has earned from the educational publishing community."

New in Inspiration is the Presentation Manager, which students use to create organized and compelling presentations to present and communicate their knowledge and work. The Presentation Manager automatically creates bulleted slides and graphics from a student's diagram, mind map or outline. Students use this as the starting point to build their oral presentation and handouts and then add slides, speaker notes, talking points, graphics, video and sound to emphasize their points. Inspiration 9 makes it easy for students to include the graphic organizers they created in Diagram and Map Views in their presentations to effectively communicate concepts and ideas they've developed. Once their presentation is complete, they can play it directly from Inspiration 9 or from any Macintosh® or Windows® computer, using the Inspiration Presenter available on the installation CD and downloadable from http://www. inspiration. com (http://www. inspiration. com).

Inspiration also features more visual ways to think and learn, including Map View, which allows students to create and think in mind maps, another proven visual learning methodology that promotes better understanding of relationships and connections among ideas and helps students retain information. Mind maps capture information in a natural, free-flowing style. With Map View, students build visual models, adding ideas branching off a central topic with just one click, and reorganize ideas by simply grafting one branch to another. Graphic images, colors and fonts allow learners to embellish, differentiate and emphasize their ideas. Just like with idea maps, concept maps, graphic organizers and other diagrams created with Inspiration, the process of building a mind map is fluid and visual, complementing the natural way that students think and expand on ideas. As with other diagrams created with Inspiration, mind maps can be instantly transformed into outlines to support the writing process.

For more information about Inspiration 9, go to http://www. inspiration. com/inspiration (http://www. inspiration. com/inspiration).

About AEP
The Association of Educational Publishers (AEP) is a nonprofit organization that serves and advances the industry of supplemental educational publishing. The membership of AEP represents the breadth of educational content developers, delivering progressive educational products in all media and for any educational setting.

AEP's thought leadership and market insight have created ground-breaking opportunities for its members to collaborate, network and partner with each other as well as to acquire a voice in the development of government education policy. Founded in 1895, AEP now assists its members in navigating the global realities of educational publishing in the 21st century. For more information, visit www. AEPweb. org.

About Inspiration Software, Inc.
Recognized as the leader in visual thinking and learning, Inspiration Software, Inc.'s award-winning software tools, Inspiration, Kidspiration® and InspireData®, are based on proven visual learning methodologies that help students think, learn and achieve. With the powerful combination of visual learning and technology, students in grades K-12 learn to clarify thoughts, organize and analyze information, integrate new knowledge and think critically. Founded more than 25 years ago by Donald Helfgott and Mona Westhaver, the company's visual learning software tools are used today by more than 25 million students and teachers worldwide.

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