Thanks to Sarah-Jayne, Pam, Leanne, Richard, John and Nigel for adding their thoughts on BETT2015 to my own:
Q1 What was your favourite BETT takeaway or Eureka moment?
Pam O’Brien – I loved Ian Stuart’s sharing of the multi-age second level classrooms on the Isle of Islay. I also really enjoyed Ken Robinson but found it hard to concentrate after a while because I was standing.
Nigel Lane – Good to see Sir Ken Robinson speaking and him hanging around for some of the TeachMeet.
John Heffernan – Some cool stuff from GROK learning
Leanne Lynch – Two noteworthy takeaways: Firstly, I have a wonderful BETT memory of speaking with Sarah Neild and having a hilarious conversation with Tim Rylands, Mags Amond, Bianca Ní Ghrogáin and Pamela O’Brien at the TeachEat on the Friday night. Another highlight was listening to the #iPadBand perform and considering how something similar could be created in school to jazz up an end of the year show.
Sarah-Jayne Carey – I LOVED “Technology Will Save Us” Electronic gadgets you can make yourself- play dough kit, plant watering kit, Gaming, Musical Instrument etc etc. Comes in class sets, lots of free resources online – Lesson Plans, ‘how to’ videos, great for a teacher who wants to bring “Making” into their teaching and learning but doesn’t know where to start.
Richard Millwood – That computing was not the highest priority for English primary practitioners… doh…
Mags Amond – Seeing lots and lots of small scale programmable robotics and ‘makeables’ becoming available at fairly low cost
Q2 Was there a negative aspect to BETT for you? If so, what?
Mags – no blanket wifi coverage, had to continually keep re-connecting
Richard – As ever, a lot of money spent in supposed times of austerity.
Sarah-Jayne – Not as many hands on workshops as in previous years
John – the constant scanning going in and out of the venue
Nigel – Some of the sessions fail to live up to their billing and are, in fact, little more than commercial presentations.
Pam – Lack of consistent wifi was very frustrating!!! I found the loud music which was played during Sir Ken Robinson’s talk very distracting and disrespectful.
Q3 What surprised you at BETT?
Sarah-Jayne – I was surprised at the size and scope of it again..
John – How quiet it was on the Saturday
Nigel – Lack of Interactive Whiteboards. Big touchscreens are all the rage now!
Richard – The number of other European countries, the Steve Jobs school…
Mags – 1 The large number who signed up for the Teachmeet who didn’t show up, and 2. irony of ironies – finding out the recent (excellent) TES Computer magazin is not available online
Any other comments?
Leanne – I would recommend flying to and from London City Airport for anyone considering on going to BETT2016, as it is only a ten minute taxi drive to the conference centre.
Sarah-Jayne – If you are thinking of attending next year, try and tie it in with a visit to a secondary or primary school in England- to see some of the innovations that are happening in the classroom over there.
Mags – The move from office-based ICT as taught topics to Computational thinking / coding as a subject seems to have formed “us V them” and “either / or” camps in the UK, something I would not like to happen here
Nigel – The TeachMeet was the highlight once again, or possibly just the TeachEat!
John – Pretty decent Teachmeet
Pam – I LOVED the Bett Wall (see below) – such a good way to capture and share people’s views on so many things. I also really enjoyed the TeachMeet – lots of great ideas shared.
My excellent Takeaway that I unfortunately cannot share…’cos it is NOT online? Wha’?
Thank you for your caring company to Bianca, Leanne, and Pam.
…and last word to Bianca about the fun at the TeachEat, after the Friday night Teachmeet…
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