BETT 09 Reflections

BETT is now two weeks behind me . Plea to organisers - you must have free wifi that works next year. I could have summed up by Friday of event.

Ollie Bray has spent a lot of time and thought and captured a lot of the technology I looked at on way around as has Andy Black from Becta. You can pick up a lot of buzz from a google search, technorati search or twitter search for BETT09.

Things have stuck with me

1. Patricia Wastiau, Principal Adviser – Studies & Development, European Schoolnet did a wonderful presentation all around why and how we get the learner to drive learning and our education systems - we need to move from content based to skills based curriculum. BECTA represents the UK in European Schoolnet.
2. Ricardo Semler, CEO of Semco and author of best-selling book ‘Maverick’ and ‘The Seven Day Weekend: Changing the Way Work Works’ - did a session that started with current teaching skill set and knowledge has been superceded ( so compelling that some education folks walked out as his presentation got into full flow ! ) Ricardo painted future of project based learning designed around the needs of the learners but still within a national curriculum. He has turned around education - interesting too that Brazil and South America have led on a lot of educational thinking. Is he the next Frierie ? where are the Scottish thinkers and doers ?
3.Andreas Schleicher, Head of Indicators and Analysis Division, OECD PISA, gave a stunning presentation on how quickly education is changing across the world - if you get a chance watch this - South Korea and some new ascension states in Europe all catch up with Finland while USA and UK stutter - I was most impressed on these stats with Australia progress in creating strong vocational system also really obvious.
4. Microsoft, Cisco and Intel - have started project with OECD to look at global curriculum and assessment models - worth watching this space - you'll see our own Ewan McIntosh on front door too.

5. The determination that exists in England to get broadband and a computer into the homes of every learner and to close any digital divide - more evidence of this - this week.

It was great to see strong Scottish contingent of real teachers at Teachmeet BETT 09. Only sorry I couldn't stretch my stay out any further - it was useful to have a stand at BETT and be able to offer a base for folks. We did very well on building up international and business links and I am sure this will be reflected in more posts over the year. I am still closing off actions. We offer a broad range of awards and have centres across United Kingdom - a fact that is little known in Scotland and seldom reported.

This was a good BETT and believe me there have been some pretty ropey ones in the past.