I was going to write a long (and more than likely waffling) post about BETT when I returned from London last night, but in the end I felt too tired to do much of anything really. In the meantime others have blogged their thoughts, but I've finally got around to writing my personal thoughts, and I've listed several other blogs that have already put their feelings about BETT online at the end of this.
My initial thoughts during the day can be read on the BETT blog I set up and posted to throughout Friday whilst I was there, but once back home, with time to think about it, a few things stuck in my mind.
Firstly, the event didn't seem as busy as in previous years. In fact last year I attended on the quieter Saturday, but this year the Friday seemed less busy than that. Maybe the crowds were elsewhere whilst I made my around the aisles, but it was quite easy to get around.
There were many companies showing off their wares this year, but nothing truly revolutionary as has been shown in previous years. Casio had a bulbless projector that looked interesting, a few stands were displaying 3D imaging, but most of the hardware on display seemed to be either updated or redesigned versions of previous tech. I did notice that the focus was more on content creation - and in particular children as content creators.
2Simple had a busy stand on the few occasions I went by, and looking down on them from the gallery it was evident that they were non-stop all day (and no doubt all week).
I collected my version of 2Create A SuperStory (as everyone else was doing too it seemed), spoke to Max Wainewright, and saw that one of the pupils in my class had won a prize in the 2Simple New year competition. Well done Sadie! I'll tell her on Monday :o)
I went to see the 2Simple Playful learning demonstration with @2SimpleAnt, during which I was roped into an impromptu talk, discussing the use of ActionScript in 2DIY activities, and the 2DIYarchive that has been created.
FrogVLE were one of my "must see" stands, and I had a long and very productive talk with them about using their service as a primary VLE. I was extremely impressed with their product. It was totally customisable, with a plethora of skins demonstrated to me, and the ease of use of it put other VLE's that I won't name here to shame. This is how a VLE should work and look. The integration with SIMs was present, the ability for parents to see attendance and progress data was present, the ability for teachers to create lessons in a matter of minutes - dropping in a whole range of media resources too - was there, FrogMail (internal email service) was there, customisable noticeboards were there. It was truly a joy to see it. I was drooling with delight thinking I had found my perfect solution for the school instead of using the self built solution we currently have. And then I asked the killer question - the cost! Once I had picked myself up off the floor I tried to take in the figure that was mentioned. Several thousands pounds (due to the need to install a server and run the service locally within it). For a small primary school, this is just impossible, although the staff from frog had several suggestions. If there are any local secondary schools using Frog, we can apparently "bolt on" to their server and run a VLE from it that way, or alternatively find a cluster of local schools who would be willing to use Frog, and share the cost between all schools thus reducing the individual cost.
Talking of VLE's, the DBeducation solution looked well built too. I've already recommended this to our infant school as their platform of choice. The only downside for me of DBeducation was the look of the product. It seemed too "childy" to me. I would like the option to customise the look of the site if possible. If anyone uses DBeducation as their VLE, please let me know and send a link so I can see just how it can look in use.
Several stands were trying to sell me visualisers. It was hard to get them to understand that we haven't any room for anymore of them. We have one in every classroom, the computer suite and the TA workroom. Where on earth would be put another visualiser? (no comments to that thank you) Some stands were still trying to sell me them after telling them this (and offering me half price deals).
Elmo - the visualiser people - had their newest models on show, but I felt it was a step backwards. Gone is the external SD card - the system can now store 16 images internally. Just 16! My current elmo with its SD card can easily record images from everyone in class at least 2 or 3 times each. And, with it being a card, it can be taken and used on any machine, anywhere, easily. Internal memory means no access to the images unless hooked up to a computer. Secondly, what happened to using a flatbed base to give the product stability? The number of times I saw sales staff demonstrating visualisers and tipping it over as they moved the camera head was unbelievable. I think I'll stick to my older, flatbed base, SD card version thankyou!
The latest version of Podium from Lightbox was on display and I liked it. I was really impressed with the ease of use of it for pupils. @orunner demonstrated it to me and basically it was; Click (camera starts recording) - click (camera stops) - click - video saved in mp4 format - click - mp4 published and an RSS feed ready to display video. Fantastic! It also had more advanced features too, like the ability to add still images into the video feed, and a range of file formats to save too. But it was that ease of use that I really liked. It would cut down the extra work that I currently have to do when the children make a video (load pupils .wmv file, convert to .mp4, upload to jellycast, wait...., see on iTunes.) and more importantly - they would become the designers, creators, and publishers of the work. Complete ownership of the work by the children. Afterall, that is what we're after isn't it?
I also want to add so many "thank you"s to everyone who asked me about my recent health. It really is amazing just how much of a PERSONAL network Twitter has become. From the staff at 2Simple who looked after me (@2SimpleKatie and @2SimpleGemma in particular) and made me feel welcome during their fiesta party Thursday night...
...through to the legend that is Sir Tim of Rylands (@timrylands) having a long and in depth conversation with me (he remembered soooo much I had written in my tweets over the past year), and then meeting up with lots of the @'s I've conversed with on Twitter, it was the most social BETT I've attended.
Hopefully next year I'll have more energy, will be fully recovered and ready to attend the evening TeachMeet event.
PS - for those that kept asking why my Twitter avatar is a dragon - take a look at Dragonsville, and in particular the Rock of Knowledge, from my dim and distant seconded- teacher past (it should all start to make sense then!)
Finally, take a look at these other reflective blog posts giving other personal views about BETT2010...
@didactylos 's top 10 nuggets from BETT
@kvnmcl 's view on BETT and the Teachmeet takeover (he also links to two other BETT postings)
@dawnhallybone 's inspirational findings from BETT
@stuartridout 's views on the evidence of teachers excellent practice he saw
@johnmclear 's top 5 finds at BETT
And finally, I loved the audioBOOs created by @joga5 from BETT
