#Bett25 #Bett2025 How Was My Bett

I think I say this most years. I am really lucky to have time to attend BETT and given that privilege it is important that I share my own reflections.

Will be remembered as year of big storm up north. I think everyone from Scotland will have a travel tale as all trains and planes cancelled at one point on Friday and trains on Saturday too. We made it home on Sunday. 

Here is a quick summary of who I met and what I discovered at this year's BETT25 Conference . It was nice not presenting this year and just being able to move around. I missed last year as I was in Ankara with Turkish Qualifications Authority. 

I was a guest and contributor at an excellent Tuesday pre conference event held by 1EdTech really around global intransigence to adopt open standards - I'll blog about that next.

This was the year when - shock horror - private consultants and private companies had to pay to attend BETT. I am chair of an educational charity and got my ticket that way. It seems fair enough that private sector folks pay for entry as a stand at Bett is a really expensive investment. Still lots of scope for meetings in an around London during event. I did notice that the World Education Forum has moved from the Monday and Tuesday of this week to a later date in April. I wonder if that will in time impact international policy makers attendance at BETT.


Here is my quick summary and observations

1. Queen Elizabeth line to Excel is a revelation for travelling to and from venue and opens up possibility of accommodation across London. ( though others will have spotted that last year)
2. I was staying between St Martins Kings Cross and Excel, to make it easier to catch up with daughter. Whitechapel was great fun, even managed a curry night with old city pal in his favourite spot. Tayyabs , the lamb chops amazing - I'll be back.
3. Ministerial address really excellent and on point - though I've heard a few good ones in past. Challenge is that the changes actually happen ( and also the education minister lasts more than a year) but sense that a vision is in place. But sense too from delegates that things on the technical front/blended learning agenda, have slowed down. I do think that the content is king rather than competency based models are winning the arguments at moment in terms of curriculum design. See too the anti-mobile phone lobby. Some bits of system are just so wilfully backward.
4. Probably less stands but still two halls full and busy on Wed and Thursday and a lot to get around.
5. Huge esports area, seems to have got bigger and large global area taking up one side of exhibition space. In centre a UK pavilion and lots of action from Department for International Trade ( will this lessen now world education forum not on as present ?) but no real Scottish exhibitor and or agency presence. The international stands made UK pavilion look puny.
6. Smartboards still everywhere but getting better and better , AI with everything and loads of programmable robots for every stage of learning.
7. Start Up areas kind of spread about - so not as easy to find and talk to new companies - did meet some Scottish edtech start ups - I hope they got value from BETT. If I can help them I will. 
   
   
   
8. I attended some key notes and sessions. Perhaps just me but I found particularly those in HE Advance area to not be well enough organised or themed and/or well that relevant. Perhaps organisers need to work more closely with Jisc and Association of Learning Technology - but may just have been my timing. I know I missed some great sessions on assessment on day one and on AI on Friday. So may just have been sessions that I attended.
9. Apple Education seemed to have more of a presence than previous years - perhaps trying to play catch up with Microsoft and Google but while I heard about great developments on Apple classroom front - hard to see how they can make up lost ground.
10. The size of London Grid for Learning Stand almost as big as Canva and Kahoot. Figured out why and lessons to be learned. They run an Appstore for schools and vendors pay to get inside this. Sensible really and good model for GLOW. The London system supports more schools , teachers and learners than GLOW - I sense too eye on rest of England in terms of services for schools and academy trusts.
11. Well done Smartboards for facilitating a Scottish edtech gathering on Wednesday afternoon. Was amazed no one from Education Scotland along at this - and indeed at Bett25 - really not a good idea to have no feet on ground. 
12. Panel session with English old guard Mary Bousted, Jim Knight , Robert Halfon - agree with one statement that English system has an obese curriculum thin on skills and competencies and weighed down with too much content.
13. TeachmeetBett25 I got to for a change and did a two minute plug for learning design and for membership of ALT - thanks too Everway/Texthelp for sponsoring cracking social at Millennium Dome and for old pal Dawn Holly-Bone from 2Simple for chairing so well.
14. Bonus additional day in London. We walked from Whitechapel across London to the West end, stopping for pie and mash in Smithfield and ending back at Aldgate - for excellent fresh pasta at Emilia's. ( a new chain to me) 

As usual I targeted having 30 minute meetings with 10 minutes in between to get around conference. It made for a busy two days but best way to make most of BETT.

Useful bits and bobs with some plugs at end -

Adobe 

Express is so good for education and now with more AI built in great for animation https://www.adobe.com/education/express/?

Microsoft - marching on on many fronts. Got along to some great sessions from Mike Tholfsen. He has helpfully blogged about these sessions and included his presentations. Here are some direct links. Liking particularly some of the new Canvas by Instructure integrations. Not sure about the Microsoft Designer plug by offering all attendees a chance to create our own badge avatar - but Microsoft designer is cool. 

AI for Educators from Microsoft useful on line course https://learn.microsoft.com/en-gb/training/paths/ai-education/
More AI for Educators Resources https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/training/educator-center/topics/ai-for-education
AI classroom Toolkit https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/training/educator-center/instructor-materials/classroom-toolkit-unlock-generative-ai-safely-responsibly
Overview of what is new https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/blog/educationblog/whats-new-in-microsoft-edu-bett-2025-edition/4291951

Google - again moving on many fronts attended some excellent sessions AI and other developments all summarised in one place https://blog.google/outreach-initiatives/education/bett-2025/ 

Really interesting stuff is Google integration of Gemini, Video, Sheets and Docs and on going development of Notebook LM. 

You can find that in link above. You find 11 new ways Google can help you here https://blog.google/outreach-initiatives/education/ai-tools-education-2025

IBM Interesting stuff from Justina Nixon Santil https://www.ibm.com/think/insights/ai-skills-you-need-for-2025

Intel 

Still plugging their excellent Skills for Innovation programme

https://www.intel.co.uk/content/www/uk/en/education/intel4education/programs.html

Shameless Plugs 

Great to see and chat to Teachermatic Team Bett Gold award winning solution.

Caught up with Louise Jones and Thinglink - an amazing platform and still not used widely enough in Colleges and schools.

Padlet , Canva and Wakelet still brilliant. 

This for English composition looks interesting https://olex.ai/ and another competitor for Grammerly https://lex.page/

The  Daiverse Project  looks interesting for inclusion https://daiverse.eu/

On hunt for some funding - this potentially useful 

Though Colleges and training providers should be looking at grant funding from https://ufi.co.uk/

Great to see 

All the Scottish Edtechs who made journey and stayed the course and everyone else of course

- special mention to Graham Brown-Martin and Tony Parkin who I haven't seen at Bett for years and Mags Amond from Ireland doing her stuff at Teachmeet and Dawn Holly-Bone 2Simple and Charlie Love - Bett award winner. 

Sorry to miss around conference arena 

Dom Lukes , Vikki Liogier , Stuart Walker , Matt Wingfield , Elyan Ezekiel, Dan Fitzpatrick, Sara De Freitas, Debs Hill,  ClickView team , Scott Renton from City of Glasgow who made decision to head north before storm hit. 

And special shout out to  Prof Stephen Heppell who is normally a fixture but laid low - still found time to offer advice on Brick Lane Curry spots. Get well soon. 

For me funniest moment - International Teachmeet on immersive rooms - a really good session from Finland. Where Finnish colleague repeatedly asked us if we were "aroused"  apparently we should always ask students how 'aroused' they feel. You must be 'aroused' to learn. 

I'll not take that approach with Scottish staff ;-) . In fairness what was showcased was an immersive learning space - four walls of any image you want with suitable sound effects from forest to nightclub rave.   

2024 In Review

Graphic from Co Author Studio

Strange year, 2024. While Scottish education wrestled with AI's implications, I shifted back to consultancy after 7 years leading digital transformation at City of Glasgow College. The timing proved interesting - just as assessment anxiety peaked and international interest in Scottish vocational education grew and with the funding model for Colleges pretty much in crisis.

Some key developments from 2024:

In College -

• Supported Turkish Vocational Authority's education reform programme with workshops in Ankara.
• Led AI policy development at City of Glasgow College and continued to share this work internationally.
• Presented at QAA Conference on assessment in an AI world and delivered series of workshops on Active, Blended, Collaborative Learning for Tertiary Sector in Scotland and garnered welcome support too from SQA.
• Pushed on continued development of Canvas platform and staff digital skills against some interesting internal headwinds.
•Hosted ALT Scottish SIG - this time on-line from COGC.

Post College -

• Participated in UNESCO's Future of Education bootcamp in Bilbao and now authoring bid with international partnership around adoption of open badge framework to support micro-credentials.
• Continued pushing for open educational resources despite system inertia
• Supported hashtag#Canvascon in Barcelona and facilitated a tertiary sector workshop back in Scotland.
• Ran series of workshops for HE and Colleges on blended learning for QAA including online workshops - deploying model developed @cityofglasgowcollege. Active, Blended and Connected.
• Supported an enjoyable workshop on Future of Learning with Prof Martin Bean.

These posts from LinkedIn capture pivotal moments:

"It's not the end of learning design and blended learning - it is just the beginning." Moving back to consultancy while reflecting on 7 years of institutional change.
https://lnkd.in/eb4anc2y

"It was an amazing privilege to be invited to make presentations and chair workshops in Ankara." Supporting vocational education reform internationally while Scottish reforms continue.
https://lnkd.in/em6K23C8

"Scotland is still not even partly on the bus despite best efforts of hashtag#openscot. Yet we are a country proud of education as a public good." The perpetual challenge of advancing open education.
https://lnkd.in/evGZVnrJ

" It was great to have opportunity to be part of cross sectoral expert team to develop this resource for QAA and associated workshops"
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/joerwilson_planning-and-delivery-of-active-blended-learning-activity-7252070604621631488-6Uyb

Grateful to colleagues at City of Glasgow College and the team at Instructure Canvas who helped deliver real change, and to the broader Scottish education community still working to embrace open educational practices despite the obstacles.

Looking ahead to 2025: ready to help more institutions navigate AI integration thoughtfully while continuing to advocate for open education. The challenges around transferable skills and digital capabilities remain much the same as 20 years ago - but the positive relationships between learners and teachers still drive meaningful change.

Broadly I anticipate working with;

• UNESCO - Continue shaping bid for project around better understanding of the open source code available for creation and management of Open Badges in support of Micro credentials.
• Continue work with UK Digital Badging Commission
• Champion - Teachermatic and other AI platforms , Adaptive Comparative Judgement and Canvas by Instructure as means of changing the learning paradigm.
• Hopefully continue to support work of QAA around Scottish Tertiary Quality framework.
• Continue supporting sensible policy and practice around adoption of AI in vocational system.
• Following recent Dubai Summit working with Open Scotland to encourage more open educational practice in Scotland.
• Supporting institutions and staff who want to digitally transform their practice and their learners’ experience
• Continue as chair of ALT Scotland SIG and have a bit more time for community building - perhaps exploring new community platform.
• Where I can, offer informed input on shape of tertiary sector and future of vocational landscape including qualifications. 
• Continue having more me time - great trips since great escape to London, Berlin, Bologna, Viareggio, Lucca and France - along with business trips been a busy end of year.

To everyone working to make education more open and accessible: it is always the people who make the difference. Be as optimistic and cheerful as your learners.  

Here's to more progress in 2025.