I have been more than impressed at BETT over the last couple of years with the exhibition that RM has put on regarding the future of learning spaces. I was also very impressed with my visit to the RM real centre at the end of last year – I just wish that more schools adopted some of the amazing options that are available to them instead if of still building just classrooms.
Anyway, I am delighted to be supporting RM at one of their 2010 events that will look at the a vision of future of learning. More information about the events are here – the first one was at Bristol last week and by all accounts it seemed to go really well and generated a buzz from the people that attended.
I am supporting the London event on Tuesday as part of the expert panel. If you are going along come and say hello and feel free to ask me difficult questions!
As always BETT is a great time to see the latest inventions from 2Simple labs! They always have great ideas, they make fantastic products and really know how to throw a good party!
It was great to see the on-line tools suite being shown off. I've seen various beta versions of this over the past 12 months and the finished product looks robust, useful and really user friendly (much like all their products actually!). I already know that this is going to be a huge hit with schools.
The on-line tools comprise of 2Paint, 2Publish, 2Design and Make, 2Publish Extra, 2Go, 2Graph, Logo, 2Count, 2Animate Lite, 2Sequence.
Find out more about them and view some students work over on the on-line tools website.
I also managed to get a copy of 2Create A Superstory - again this is a killer product!
"2Create A Superstory is your complete tool for personalised multimedia story creation. It helps to inspire children’s writing through the use of versatile tools and templates.
The product allows you to:
Incorporate text, drawings, imported images, sound and object animation.
Bring characters to life with the use of lip sync.
Compile simple time lines to map story elements.
Use the magical Augmented Reality template to see your drawings move both on and off screen.
Save your stories as SWF Flash files so they can be shared online and embedded within your Learning Platform."
I was going to write more about 2Create A Superstory but Chris Drage has already done a great job of describing the product in detail over on Merlin John Online.
The use of Augmented Reality is very clever. I love the idea of children being bale to take their animation home on a single piece of paper - very cool.
Massive improvement on the Microsoft dress sense this year at BETT. The back t-shirts looked a lot better than last year’s blue rugby shirts!
They were also showing some interesting stuff.
Kodu -Kodu is games design software that has been available for the xBox for a while now but now it is also available for the PC in Beta form. We are going to be using Kodu as part of our games design project at the Consolarium and there will be more information on this soon over on the Consolarium Blog.
Semblio -Although Semblio wasn’t available Dave Garland was talking about how he had used it with students in the lecture theatre. Now Semblio has got the potential to be a big thing for Scotland because you can export Semblio content (including PowerPoint, Quizzes, word files and multimedia content) and as a SCORM package really easily. This will provide a really easy way for Scottish teachers to import this content into Glow Learn.
Office 2010 - As I have mentioned before. I really like some of the extra presentations functions of Office 2010.
Live@edu - Microsofts cloud based computing solution to Google Apps for Education. It provides web based outlook email, chat, skydrive (25 GB) and collaboration through office live tools. Its free to education
Windows 7 was also being shown off all over the place...
Great to see Manga High having such a
presence at BETT this year. If you have not seen their maths games then I would
really encourage you to have a look
We are currently working with ten Scottish
schools to pilot this web based software and will be reporting back on the results of the
pilot over on the Consolarium blog.
One of the great things about BETT is
walking around and seeing all the little booths with small developers in them.
I saw Musii in one of them – I'll let them explain what it does…
"Musii is a interactive music system designed for play and developmental therapy.
Musii is a soft inflatable object that emits sound and is illuminated with colour when touched. It enables any non-musician to experience playing a musical instrument as well as offering stimulating visual and tactile sensation.
Musii combines an array of state-of-the-art technologies into one exciting product that invites participants of all abilities to control sounds and colour through touch".
A lovely simple idea that would be great in
the early years and to support the development of motor skills for children
with support needs.
Great to see the famous Mark Pentleton up
on the stage at the Apple Solution experts stand. I listened to Mark
enthusiastically talk about iTunes and podcasting. He should know how powerful
these tools are for learning as I believe that his own Radio Lingua podcasts
have now had over 60 million downloads!
It was just a shame that BETT 2010 wasn’t at the
start of February as we might have been able to see one of the new devices that
will being launched next week… allegedly….!
My last post was about the RM Future Learning Space at BETT 2010. I like this area - but as I have already said, I've seen a lot of the ideas and products before. However, I really liked the addition of the outdoor learning equipment.
Here are some pictures of some of the things I liked:
1) Giant outdoor musical instruments...
...lots of them...!
2) Interesting seating from natural materials.
3) Outdoor play pads that make a sound when you step on them.
4) A bit of color on necessary safety features.
Great stuff, but what a shame they didn't include things like GPS?
For the second year in a row RM had a
future learning spaces exhibition in the O2 arena next to the main BETT
Exhibition Space. I really enjoy walking around this space even though I have seen
a lot of the products a lot of times before now – there is something about it that makes me think.
Here are some of the things that I caught
my eye:
1) A giant video wall that students can
spray-paint and interact with using a variety of sensors and devices.
2) Some colorful and imaginative furniture – I
think this is so important in any learning space (do you remember the tree from
last year?)
...and you know how I love ducks!
3) An interactive immersive room that you
can walk around in and interact with.
4) A simple short throw projector and ebeam
mounted on a traditional whiteboard…
…that can be folded down to become an
interactive table…
5) A way to compose music and do
calculations by interacting with beams of light.
6) A nice big wall you can write your ideas
on – the simple ideas are always the best!
What did you like the most about the RM
future learning spaces area?
As I though augmented reality was
everywhere at BETT this year. I saw it on the…
ConnectED Stand (I saw it there last year
as well)
Smart Stand
Specialist Schools and Academies Trust
Stand
There is no doubt in my mind that this type
of technology has massive potential in education. But I still think that many
of the concepts on display lacked the pedagogy to make them really valuable in
the classroom.
We are going to be doing a Consolarium
project using Second Sight for the PSP this year and we also have a few other
Augmented Reality projects up our sleeves. So watch this space.
However, at BETT we almost fell out. I was showing Steve my new ‘happy Snap’
disposable camera from Kodak (which I am very proud of) when he produced from
his bag a digital camera that looked to me like it should have been around at
BETT 2001.
It was a massive clunky thing that looked like a piece of deep sea
diving equipment!
However, Steve was quick to point out that
what he was showing me as a video conferencing camera and a very impressive bit
of kit.
Using the camera Steve and his team from Shropshire have been able to
broadcast back to schools via VC from venues including building sites. The
camera has a built in wifi or you can easily connect a 3G dongle via USB. You
can’t see the people on the other end of the video conference but the camera
has a built in speaker so you can hear everything that is said. Thus allowing
for dialog and two way communication between the person with the camera and the
classroom.
What a wonderful tool with massive
potential in the schools.
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