A safe Bett for innovation

With the UK's largest educational technology event just two days away, Laura Hailstone previews the 2008 Bett show

Now in its 23rd year, the British Education Training Technology (Bett) show has grown to become the must-attend event for anyone involved in the education sector. This year’s show is expected to be the biggest yet, attracting close to 30,000 visitors and featuring 700 different exhibitors.
The four-day event, which runs from 9 to 12 January, will span both the National and Grand Halls of London Olympia and will cover topics such as personalised learning,
varied learning platforms, curriculum focus, and inclusion and assessment so teachers can keep their fingers on the pulse while they learn how to accommodate these subjects with the latest technology.
Although aimed predominantly at teachers, the majority of vendors use Bett as a launch pad for new products and preview announcements, so the show provides a good opportunity for resellers to find out what will be hot in education over the coming months.
Nancy Knowlton, chief executive of interactive products vendor Smart Technologies, told CRN: “We now use two annual events for product releases - Bett in January and InfoComm in June. Between now and InfoComm we will launch 15 new and/or enhanced products.”
The majority of Smart’s new products will be unveiled at Bett 2008 and will include: version 10 of Smart’s Notebook software; the second generation of the Senteo interactive voting system; a classroom audio system called Sonifi; a wide-format interactive whiteboard (IWB) with a 16:10 aspect ratio; and the second generation of the 600i all-in-one IWB system. Called the 680i system, the new all-in-one system is 30 per cent cheaper than its predecessor, Knowlton revealed.
“As the 600i has been available for more than a year, we have been able to determine the features that teachers actually use on the all-in-one system and have been able to strip out certain functionalities that they do not need. This has brought down the price of the system,” Knowlton said.
The main feature Smart has excluded is the Scratchpad application, which allows the system to be used without a computer.
Smart will also showcase its Smart Wall technology, which enables any surface to become interactive.
“We want to use Bett 2008 to share our offerings and vision with VARs as well as unveiling emerging technologies such as the Smart Wall,” Knowlton added.
Rival interactive technology vendor Promethean will also be using the show to launch several offerings, including a product that enables two pens to be used simultaneously on an IWB. Called Activarena, it is available only on Promethean Activboards and gives teachers another way to help pupils collaborate by working together to solve problems, for example..
Promethean will also be showcasing Activexpression, its latest learner response system that allows students to text responses to their teacher. With an interface similar in design to a mobile phone, ideas can be texted to an IWB using words, phrases or numbers. Students can also engage in two-way communication with teachers and classmates and respond to polls, questions and tests while teachers are able to provide feedback directly to individual students or the entire class.
Paul Dean, director of partner management at Promethean, told CRN: “We are very excited about Bett 2008 as not only will Promethean have its own stands at the show, but a large number of our resellers are also exhibiting Promethean products at the show. This is recognition that our message of becoming 100 per cent channel focused really is filtering through to our partners and they are fully behind us.”
According to Colin Messenger, senior consultant at market watcher Decision Tree Consulting, the interest in IWBs in the education sector is still str ong despite predictions of a tail-off. “We will see many new features and enhancements to boards at Bett that will keep the interest in IWBs alive,” he said. “Visualisers will also feature strongly at Bett this year. It now feels like the right time for visualisers to take off in the way everyone has been expecting them to for the past few years.”
Messenger is also looking forward to seeing Sahara’s interactive voting system. “Sahara has entered the voting space with a low-cost offering that could give the other vendors in this market a run for their money. However, the other voting vendors are also showcasing new versions and enhancements.”
One such vendor is Turning Technologies, which will be using Bett 2008 to launch TurningPoint XR, its newest interactive voting handset, while Qwizdom will be unveiling handheld technology software for Key Stages 2, 3 and 4 as well as its Actionpoint Suite software.
Gary Morrison, sales director at Qwizdom, said: “Actionpoint Suite provides teachers with a comprehensive way to assess their pupils’ knowledge and have fun while they do it. The software not only reduces the time they have to spend marking tests, but allows them to manipulate the data to focus on different pupils and demographics.”
Qwizdom will also be displaying its new voting system designed for use in large groups, as well as primary and special education needs pupils. The handset uses a simple send-on-press technology to help children master it, claimed Morrison.
Aside from the interactive technologies on display, Bett 2008 will also see a host of companies offering various means to protect schools’ networks, such as SmoothWall with the latest version of its School Guardian web filter; Bloxx with its Tru-View Technology, which can instantly track anonymous proxies that traditional filters cannot spot; and Kerio with its new version of Kerio MailServer, which features offline Outlook access.
For networking vendor ZyXEL, 2008 marks the first time the firm will have exhibited at Bett. Sarah Guy, UK head of communications at ZyXEL, told CRN that education had always been a focus for the firm, but it is now aligning itself with several Becta-accredited resellers to move further into the education sector.
“Networks are the backbone of a school’s IT infrastructure - technologies such as digital signage and IWBs all need to sit on a network,” said Guy.
Sharing a stand with reseller Gaia Technology, ZyXEL will be showcasing its wireless channel blanket.
“It enables users to roam from classroom to classroom without losing the connection,” said Guy.
Software vendor Richmond Systems will be exhibiting its SupportDesk product, which helps IT support teams in schools better manage their work load and processes.
Richmond Systems’ managing director Eric Wright, said: “It will be interesting to see what innovations in education technology are on show this year. The event will tempt schools into purchasing more hardware and software to create the best learning experience for pupils, but can schools adequately support the IT they already have?
“It’s great that more of Britain’s 9.1 million schoolchildren can access computers in the classroom. But all this new kit is worthless if it’s not working properly, as teachers need to teach, not provide IT support.
“The average secondary school IT team is just three or four people who struggle with limited resources to maintain the whole school’s IT. It’s essential that schools have the right systems in place to support the staff. New technology can move schools forward - but inadequate support still threatens to drag them back.”
For education establishments eager to reduce energy consumption levels, D-Link will demonstrate its first-to-market Green Ethernet Desktop solutions, designed to reduce energy consumption without compromising network performance.
Chris Davies, D-Link Europe’s general manager for the UK & Ireland, said: “Every organisation has an obligation to consider ways in which it can reduce energy consumption. With the introduction of the Green Ethernet range, D-Link has made it easy to cost effectively deploy a solution that can help realise considerable energy savings.”
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