Is BETT really where it’s at?
Having spent two and a half days at the BETT show I am left wondering whether it actually reflects the cutting edge of ICT in UK education anymore. I’ve attended the vast majority of BETT shows since it’s inception 25 years ago, and once again this year was apparently the biggest and therefore the best. Although it was clear that not all spaces were necessarily sold, indeed one standholder I know complained about their position at the end of the first day and there was room to move their stand to a position with more ‘foot-fall’.
In recent years BETT has been dominated by a number of large stands (and therefore dominant players) in the centre of the Grand Hall. The lack of an Apple stand this year has certainly diminished that impression. RM, Microsoft etc are still there, and the stands around are still large, impressive and with expensive budgets, but there seemed more of them in exactly the same square meterage.
As far as wares are concerned, BETT 2009 exhibitors fell into a number of categories this year, 1) VLE and admin systems; 2) content (usually delivered online in Flash) 3) hardware (I’m including everything from voting systems to plasma screens to furniture here), and 4) some software suppliers now providing online web 2.0-esques tools. The overwhelming impression is that this is a thriving market with no hint of having yet been hit by the ‘credit crunch’ or recession.
So why isn’t BETT where it’s at? It was illustrated by Sue, a fellow visitor to the show not touting anything on a stand. She showed me what she’d be doing with her year 8 English class. Firstly, there was all the free web 2.0 tools she used everyday. One example was Go Animate. Here she set a number of homeworks which culminated in her students re-telling the story of Hamlet using modern scenarios. Here’s one example of a student’s work:
Next, and perhaps more ambitious was to use the social networking site Bebo to both develop her students understanding of Shakespeare and their awareness of e-safety. She chose Bebo because she knew most of her disaffected girls already had Bebo accounts and it therefore provided the perfect environment for the learning objectives she wanted to develop. Posing the question, “What sort of Bebo page would Shakespeare have?” gave a stimulus to discuss the e-safety issues surrounding using this and other social networking sites. What aspects of Shakespeare’s persona would he be unwise to display and why? Which features and widgets would he want to use to illustrate his interests and thoughts? Since Bebo was blocked by the authority, she got them to draft their work in Word and upload it to the VLE, and then co-oped parents in the process of supervising the creation of the final Bebo page to engage them in the positive aspects of e-safety with their 12/13 year olds.
The essence of good learning, and therefore teaching, is the engagement of students within a context they can relate with. BETT is about the old-model ‘commercial’ world of educational ICT, while perhaps the really interesting stuff is being done elsewhere, with tools that typically cost nothing and by engaging learners within their ‘environment’. There is no formal exhibition or display for this type of activity except distributed on the web of course. The prospect of a ‘free BETT’ meeting on the fringes is tantalising with continued and growing support for the TeachMeet which unfortunately I missed in person, but was able to toddle over virtually to join in.
Image credit: Ian Usher
Tags: bett09, bebo, education, bett 2009, teachmeet bett 2009
Powered by FireStats
January 17th, 2009 at 11:21 pm
I’m much newer to this whole world, having only returned to education in 2004 after a 25-year career break in industry, but had a similar reaction. Over the last couple of years, I’ve been helping develop the use of blogs in East Lothian schools. We run a WordPress Multi-User installation. Thanks to the generosity of the WordPress community, we have built an LEA-wide networked learning community, http://edubuzz.org, for sums that would not have bought us much at BETT.
I’m sure many of the products on show were good in their own way, but that’s no longer enough. They have to represent the best possible investment, in terms of educational return, of the very limited funds available. If the cost of the products is high enough to fund large, impressive stands potential buyers may question if they’re getting value for money.
January 18th, 2009 at 10:27 am
I agree with you David in almost every respect. I’m actually for a thriving educational ICT-led commercial market, but I’m coming to think that commercial educational ICT suppliers are increasingly living in a bygone era. We need to start to create an emphasis on services, since ‘tools’ have always been better taught ‘in context’, and context has never been as good as a ’simulation’ in a closed and perhaps sterile educational environment. Even the more innovative collaborative tools on show are but simulations of what’s kids are doing online outside the classroom.
Gareth
January 18th, 2009 at 11:20 pm
It’s hard to pass judgement on BETT as I have never been. But I get the general impression that I would have found lots of useful resources. But, as you’ve suggested, such a wealth of free Web 2.0 tools are available, is the need for such an event still the same. Perhaps there should be an event where Web 2.0 tools are displayed to teachers. Like you I’m frequently inspired by the ideas of teachers who use such resources and who share their ideas. Or perhaps this was the purpose of the TeachMeet afterwards? In any case, I would love to go to BETT in 2010.
January 19th, 2009 at 10:12 am
Don’t get me wrong James, you would have found lots of things you would have been interested in, and although plentiful, free Web 2.0 tools won’t provide a complete range of software needed to meet the needs of a ‘national curriculum’ such as ours, subject content for example. My point is that we are unlikely to see such tools showcased at a major exhibition unless services for schools are built around them, as such presence require finance. At the moment there is no adopted business model for this. TeachMeets are interesting in they provide a ‘alternative’ but these rely on a great deal of goodwill and to some extent sponsorship, and they attract the maverick in us all (hence the notion of them being part of an ‘unconference’ culture). Without a change in context therefore it is unlikely that they are sustainable.
Gareth
January 19th, 2009 at 3:29 pm
Been to BETT for last 4 years and tired of seeing interactive whiteboards. The one to many approach in teaching is past its sell-by-date. I see more and more people switching from whiteboards to screen sharing software which better supports more personalised learning and sharing in the classroom. I like the idea that the fringe events are becoming more popular, wanted to be at Teachmeet, but had to go home Thursday. It all seems very Edupunk to me, and breaking out of the traditional mould of teaching is what gets results in the classroom - maybe BETT needs to follow suit.
January 16th, 2010 at 5:53 pm
[...] year I asked whether BETT was where it was truly at, this year my doubts were swept away, not by the hundreds and thousands of products on show, but by [...]