All set for BETT

BETT looks to be a biggie this, its 26th, year.

Recommendations include:

• Check out the Future Learning Spaces
• Newcomers like Google
• Product launches from the likes of Dell and Toshiba

The government has spent (I think) £5b since 1997 on educational ICT, and BETT is the largest educational technology event in the world, apparently. Last year 25% of visitors were from overseas.

Apparently the Home Access programme is going to be widened, so listen out for that.

Stephen Heppell: we're in the post-appropriation phase. But we can't appropriate any more: we can't reel in what the kids are doing, we have to go where they are!

Also, what kids' play is these days is engaging and seductive: using GPS for example,, so it should be worth checking out Prof Heppell's Google-sponsored Playful Learning.

Some welcome news: according to Ray Barker of BESA, Ministers from around the world are now recognising what we old hands have always known: it's not the technology, but the people, that makes the difference!

Great quotable statement from Heppell: we've been very lucky: we've been able to do 19th century teaching with a bit of 21st century gloss!

Content-driven sessions like the 3-night Teachmeet is the future of BETT, according to Richard Joslin of EMAP: it's almost like Web 2.0 in an offline format.

Update on Wednesday, January 13, 2010 at 10:00AM by Terry Freedman, Educational ICT Consultant

I've discovered a problem when using my netbook to write blog posts in Squarespace: I can't see the 'tags' section on the screen, and so have to ad tags when I get onto a big computer. Please bear with me!