Back to the drawing board

You Bett: Exhibitors at Bett 2009 are expected to highlight technology that will shape the future of education in schools

Education has often proved a good bet for a margin-hungry channel, a fact recognised by the British Education Training Technology (Bett) show every year.

Keith Clifford, marketing manager for Bett at organiser Emap Connect, said the show is going from strength to strength despite the economic downturn. In its 25th year, some 29,000 visitors are expected ­ 1,000 more than in 2008 ­ but the number of exhibitors has dropped from 700 to 650.

Bett, spanning 14,000m2 at Kensington Olympia in London from 14 to 17 January, is the world’s largest educational technology expo. Traditional consumer and broadbased business brands including Sony, O2 and Intel are either returning to the show for the first time in years, or
attending for the first time.

“The consumer brands have been here mainly with IT partners in the past, but now they are starting to exhibit in their own right,” said Clifford.

Consumer technology now influences business and organisational adoption, rather than the other way around. Mobile devices such as the Sony PSP are making an appearance this year as more
educational applications are thought up for items once seen only as toys.

“It is the first time at Bett for Sony,”said Clifford.

Hamish Kennedy, business solutions manager at Sony, said people use diverse methods to receive information, so education should do the same.

“Each generation of students has a stronger affinity with technology as a learning mechanism than the last, and for that reason, content is key,” he said.

Clifford also pointed to Steljes’ new interactive, multi-user, multi-touch Smart Table as a probable highlight this year.

Steljes claimed that the Smart Technologies product is the first interactive table targeting primary school pupils and it will boost small group learning.

Schoolchildren aged from four to 11 can use the table to participate in lessons, play games and solve problems in a fun environment. Kids can touch the table to draw, write, select items or move objects on a screen, together or individually, or to answer questions. It complements Smart’s interactive whiteboard offerings and specific content is being created for it.

Nancy Knowlton, Smart chief executive and co-founder, said technology can enrich learning.
“The interactive learning centre builds on that by giving students a 21st century tool they will use to further their own sense of discovery,” she said.

Clifford said other Bett highlights are central feature Learning Elsewhere,incorporating a mock classroom and garden area showing how modern technologies help students learn anywhere, any time. “That will be working with four sponsors: Steljes, Tribal, Smart and LP+, showing people what their product can do.”

Children will use handheld devices, for example, and digital content to learn and study in diverse environments. Live hookups with schoolchildren in the Cayman Islands, South-East Asia, Tasmania and San Diego are planned, said Clifford.

“Another big thing for us is the Future Schools area, linking with Becta and the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) £45bn programme,” he said.

In Future Schools, Atkins, Brother, Civica, Education Leeds, Logica, Place and Tribal will show how technology could create schools of the future.

Clifford also highlighted presentations at Bett that could prove fascinating to resellers targeting education.

Clare Johnson, senior director for the nation’s strategy for secondary schools, will speak about the past 25 years of IT in education.

“Also, Professor Stephen Heppell is giving a keynote on the Friday on 21st Century Schools, Learners and Learning: A New World of Mutuality,” said Clifford.

Bett in 2009 offers more actual content for attendees than last year, he added.
Better than ever? You judge.