What I did at BETT

There were several things that I wanted to do/see this year and although I went with a list – was also looking for inspiration -so what did I find?

Inspiration – yes but not from the large stands – nothing really ‘grabbed’ my eye this year -and talking to my Twitter network this seemed to be true for a lot. Yes there were some things that stood out – 3D technology was featured on lots of stands and stood out – however with limited budgets and value for money – it seemed like more of a visual experience than a viable classroom one.

Instead I found Inspiration from the Teachmeet takeover - where teachers ‘took over’ stands and spoke about their experiences of using free tools in their classrooms. The first one I saw was from Lisa Stevens - @lisibo, who spoke about free tools to use in teaching MFL. She mentioned Voki, a tool I had seen before but have not explored fully – yet! However, after listening to her and seeing how it could be used and also how easy it was to use it will be something I will be looking to use more over the coming year.

On my list was to find out more about the home access programme, I got lots of information, however left feeling slightly frustrated that a scheme to get children online and enabling them to become active learners seems to be a complex process. However, I will be investigating this further over the next two weeks -so will find out if it is actually as frustrating as it sounded. Next up was training both for staff and parents. Naace have launched a new website, offering ICT teachers FREE on-line CPD opportunities – these materials are available on http://www.ictcpd4free.co.uk/ . The training modules cover a range of topics including: assessment of ICT in Primary, ICT knowledge within the QCA Primary Framework and exploring digital resources. I think this is a great idea and credits can go towards the Naace online ICT Diploma – I am going to be completing these myself with a view to introducing them to other staff in school – a great idea and resource that is also free!

I did buy some stuff too! Resources for both my subject areas ICT and humanities – some new digital cameras for year groups, online resources and the latest addition to the 2Simple line – 2create a superstory. I had been reading about this over the last couple of weeks  on the 2blog and had been really excited about what I had seen created by 2simple and their guest reviewers.  I am looking forward to putting into the hands of the children next week.

Another highlight for me – was meeting Moby - I think the picture says it all.  I was on the Brain Pop as a VIB – a Very Important Brainpopper! We use Brain Pop at school and in my class Tim and Moby are like another two pupils, I even went to the stand with a list of questions that my children wanted to ask! It was a great experience to meet other teachers and talk about a tool I use in my classroom, as well as witnessing Tom Barrett taking over the stand and talking about voicethread. Tom is a genuinely great bloke whose passion for education and using ICT to enhance the learning experience for his children is a constant source of inspiration for me and I know lots of others, as well as coming up with the idea of TM takeover and organising Teachmeet!

The most surreal moment was discussing a piece of software with representatives from the Sao Paulo education department! This came about from a piece of software called Race to Learn from Cambridge University press.  My class and I last year were involved in trialling this software and it was a great experience for us all. We are currently using it again across year 6 as part of our Cars and Karting – Forces and Friction topic and the children are really engaging with it again. Congratulations to all involved with the software as it also picked up a BETT award this year for Primary digital content.

However, as with most things in life had saved the best thing about BETT till last and that was Teachmeet Bett 2010 – it truly was an unforgettable evening and there is blog post to come!

So that was my day – how was yours??