Inspiration® Software, Inc. is an education technology software company based in Portland, Oregon, which provides several visual thinking and learning products for the K-12 education and business markets including Inspiration®, InspireData®, Kidspiration®, Webspiration Classroom™ service and WebspirationPRO™.

Early History

Founded in 1982 by Donald Helfgott and Mona Westhaver, the company developed its first product for the CP/M operating system

CP/M

CP/M was a mass-market operating system created for Intel 8080/85 based microcomputers by Gary Kildall of Digital Research, Inc...

 to help systems analysts build products to meet business needs. Next, Inspiration Software created a line of products for the Tandy Model 100, the original notebook computer, which was used primarily by outside sales staff, writers and editors.

Inspiration

In 1987, the company's focus turned to brainstorming, thinking and organizing tools. The first version of Inspiration was released for the Apple® Macintosh® in 1988. Subsequent releases included a Windows version, major upgrades and a native Japanese version on both platforms. By the early 1990s, Inspiration made its way into the classroom as teachers started using it to help their students plan, organize and write.

1996 brought a new focus on developing visual learning software to meet the needs of educators and students. Inspiration 5.0 Education Edition was released in 1997. In early 2010, the company unveiled Inspiration 9, the 'ultimate thinking and learning tool to help students grade 6 to adult to comprehend, create, communicate and achieve more.'

InspireData

In July 2006, Inspiration Software's flagship products were joined by InspireData, the visual way to explore and understand data. Students in grades 4–12 use InspireData to build data literacy skills in science, mathematics and social studies. In September 2007, InspireData 1.5 was released with new and enhanced features to increase data literacy, including more than 100 content-rich databases, the e-Survey tool and database templates to jump-start data collection.

Kidspiration

To extend the power of visual learning to younger students, Kidspiration was launched in January 2001. Early 2008 marked the debut of the most recent version of Kidspiration, which uses the proven principles of visual learning to help K-5 learners strengthen reading and writing skills, build conceptual understanding in math, and develop thinking skills across the curriculum.

Webspiration Classroom service

In the fall of 2008, Inspiration Software developed its first cloud computing program, Webspiration®, in free public beta as it prepared for the launch of Webspiration Classroom. In the fall of 2010, the company launched Webspiration Classroom, a paid subscription service for classrooms and individuals. This cloud computing program is the first Inspiration Software program to offer collaborative file sharing, commenting and chatting capabilities.

WebspirationPRO

In the spring of 2011, Inspiration Software launched its first cloud computing program for business. This online tool, which was based on Webspiration Public Beta and Webspiration Classroom, is a paid subscription service for college students, business professionals and individuals.
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See Also

• List of mind mapping software
• Theory of Constraints
  Theory of Constraints
  The theory of constraints adopts the common idiom "A chain is no stronger than its weakest link" as a new management paradigm. This means that processes, organizations, etc., are vulnerable because the weakest person or part can always damage or break them or at least adversely affect the...
  
   (TOC)
• Study software
  Study software
  Studying in an educational context refers to the process of gaining mastery of a certain area of information.Study software then is any program which allows students to improve the time they spend thinking about, learning and studying that information....
  
  
• Fault tree analysis

External links

• Inspiration Software official website
• MacWorld article (2003) on Inspiration 7 http://www.macworld.com/2003/03/reviews/inspiration7/
• Mel Levine, All Kinds of Minds http://www.allkindsofminds.org/learningBaseSubSkill.aspx?lbssid=80
• Golden Triangle PC Club review of Inspiration 7 http://www.gtpcc.org/gtpcc/inspiration.htm
• University of Wisconsin List of Uses for Inspiration http://www.uwstout.edu/soe/profdev/conceptmap/50uses.html
• SuperKids Software Review of Inspiration http://www.superkids.com/aweb/pages/reviews/writing/1/inspirat/merge.shtml
• Learning Village review of Inspiration http://www.learningvillage.com/html/rinspiration.html
• Innovation Tools review of Inspiration http://www.innovationtools.com/Tools/SoftwareDetails.asp?a=53
• LD Resources on Inspiration http://www.ldresources.org/?p=1253
• From Now On, education technology journal review of Inspiration http://www.fno.org/jan03/inspiring.html
• ISTE book about using Inspiration in writing http://www.iste.org/eseries/source/Orders/isteProductDetail.cfm?product_code=STRUC2
• School District web sites about using Inspiration:
  • FSDB (Florida School for the Deaf and Blind) http://www.fsdb.k12.fl.us/rmc/multimedia/inspiration.html
  • East Buchanan (Winthrop, IA) http://www.east-buc.k12.ia.us/Ins/00-01/00_Intro.htm
• Computer-based study strategies using Inspiration http://cbss.uoregon.edu/
• University of Calgary professor's essay on using Inspiration http://www.acs.ucalgary.ca/~iejll/volume4/johnson_v4n10.html
• Education Oasis review of Inspiration http://www.educationoasis.com/product_reviews/Student-Software/inspiration.htm
• MacWorld review of Inspiration 6 http://www.macworld.com/2001/10/reviews/inspiration6/