BETT Review James Bird, CEO Stone
“The technology is important but is not sufficient, it’s what underlies the technology, the data management and analytics…this is what will drive and change behaviour,” said a member of the team adding: “We are making learning 24/7 to facilitate informal learning for the teacher and student with a more personalised, blended approach.” Skype in the classroom is a free global community that invites teachers to collaborate on classroom projects where they might use Skype, and share skills and inspiration around specific teaching needs. Teachers all over the world are using Skype to make learning more exciting and memorable. It’s easy to see why: Skype allows teachers and students to meet new people and discover new cultures all around the world, without taking a step outside the classroom. To date, this has been hugely successful with around 20,000 teachers using the site to share lesson plans and help broaden their students’ minds.
BETT a great platform
James Bird, CEO at Stone, ICT services provider to the UK public sector and education, told us: “We have been attending the BETT Show for the past eight years and it always provides us with a great platform to meet ICT professionals from a variety of educational establishments with which to discuss our products and service capability. Judging by the state-of-the-art technology on display at this year’s BETT Show, the next 12 months are set to be an exciting time for teachers and pupils alike.” RM Education is focused on supporting teachers to teach and learners to learn, it says. The company provides innovative products from classroom resources, through school technologies, to systems for marking exams and delivering school performance data. Head of Sales, Ian Hunter said: “Coming into BETT we weren’t sure how it would be. This is my 14th BETT, but for RM it’s been the most positive. It seems smaller in numbers but in terms of its intent it’s been superb. As Head of Sales, it’s exceeded my expectations. You judge success by how interested people are, how engaged, the value of what they are interested in and the type of interest hey have.”
“BETT 2012 saw the birth of the Budget Challenge. Schools provided a few details and we set the wheels in motion, put our computing power to good use and in an instant, a personalised savings statement was calculated for that school. Schools that took part were regularly saving over £50,000 for a 3-year term against a number of key spending areas such as Internet connectivity,” said a spokesperson. DYMO/Mimio began in 1997 with a singular philosophy: to make learning more engaging for students, with technology that makes it easier for teachers to do what they do best – teach. The result is the MimioClassroom a family of products, said to be among their best teaching tools ever. They allow more active participation by students, while eliminating the complications of other interactive technologies. That’s why DYMO/Mimio stands apart in the world of interactive teaching. Commenting on BETT and the reaction from teachers, the companies Manny Perez said: “The traffic is very good, though it seems lighter than it has in the past, but it’s one of my favourite shows to come to.”
International presence grows Texas Instruments’ DLP division showcased its innovative classroom projectors, with features such as flexible interactive solutions, short- throw, filterless and lamp free. The Education Technology Division was also at BETT, showcasing the latest software and handheld technology for STEM subjects, Ti-NSpire CX. “It’s the leading education show in the world right now. In the last five years the international presence has grown very rapidly, it’s a great platform to talk to people from all over the world,“ said a spokesperson. ‘How to Change your School’ from Every1 Speaks, is the latest in pupil voice software that enables pupils to vote for ideas for their school. It’s a kind of a debating society, except the technology makes it accessible to everybody - everybody has a voice and pupils needn’t be afraid to speak up.
Step 1 is to identify an issue or good change opportunity in your school; step 2 is to capture
everyone’s ideas and opinions on that topic; step 3 is to energise the seed ideas by gaining fans and advocates; step 4 to collaborate to develop and expand the rooted ideas; observe trends and present the fruitful ideas to the school head and then listen to their feedback and amend your ideas or celebrate and promote the new change. Then start back at no,.1 to create more change!
LEGO Education Europe displayed its range of resources and services covering Early Years, Science,
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www.education-today.co.uk
Technology, Engineering, Maths, Language, Arts and Humanities subjects. With more than 70 products, the core offering includes LEGO DUPLO and LEGO system sets (for themed play and construction), LEGO Technic (for constructing simple machines and understanding forces, motion and energy) Lego Education WeDo (for simple computer control and digital story telling) and LEGO MINDSTORMS Education (for more advanced programming and engineering design (robotics)). Most sets have the option of being accompanied with teaching aids, which can include activity packs and teaching guides. LEGO Education Europe introduced a European grassroots teacher training network in 2011 to provide schools with the option of being trained in optimising the use of LEGO Education resources to give students an interactive, informative and effective learning experience.
Panasonic education technology solutions including the latest interactive whiteboards, Toughbook rugged mobile computers, short throw projectors and HD displays were employed as a central feature of BETT 2012 at Professor Stephen Heppell of
Heppell.net’s ‘New Worlds of Learning’ stand. Panasonic was the technology sponsor of ‘New Worlds of Learning’ which offered education professionals visiting BETT 2012 new opportunities to discover how to take advantage of best practice from a diversity of international learning environments. BETT2012’s dynamic and energetic feature was inspired by Stephen’s work with schools across the world and gave a fresh view of what is possible in education globally.
Panasonic at BETT
Panasonic launched their entirely new UB-T580 IWB. The latest Panaboard adds a competitively priced, multitouch and durable model to Panasonic’s range. Panasonic joined forces with Professor Stephen Heppell at BETT2012 demonstrating their latest AV solutions for education with live connections to schools in Denmark, USA and Australia on the centrally located; ‘New Worlds of Learning’ stand.
February 2012
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