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#BETT 2011 - SQA wins 2011 BETT Award Games Based Learning Assessment

I didn’t get to the BETT Awards this year (I must have been to loud last year?). But I was delighted to hear that our colleagues at the SQA along with their industry partner ‘Learn TPM Ltd’ picked up one of the 2011 awards.

The award was for ICT Education Partnership for the work that they have done on Games Based Assessment Products for Skills for Work.

The judges comments were:

“The quality of entries this year has been consistently high, highlighting the tremendous vision of the ICT industry and its commitment to education. The BETT Awards judgements were achieved through lengthy analysis and detailed discussions.”

“The judges thought this was a clear winner because of its partnership working in achieving creative e-learning solutions. The submission showed collaboration in an exciting environment. They were impressed to see a Qualifications Authority treating gaming seriously.”

“The judges felt that this partnership and the resources they Create, bring course-assessment and learning into the twenty-first century.”

Well done SQA and Learn TPM Ltd – If your interested in the work that we are doing on Games Based Learning in Assessment in Scotland. You can find further details on the SQA Game Space Website.

 

#BETT 2011 - Moople (one of the most interesting things at BETT 2011)

One of the most interesting things that I saw at BETT 2011 was MOOPLE. Why? because it is trying to do what I hope a future version of a Schools Intranet (eg: National Grid for learning Cymry, SWGfL, Glow etc…) might do. It is using ‘single sign on’ to link a variety of tools via open standards.

MOOPLE - My Open Online Personal Learning Environment - provides users with access to a wide range of tools, technologies and resources. Using Single Sign On technologies via shibboleth.

By doing this MOOPLE allows staff and students to make use of freely available, open source tools and resources as well as those provided commercially. The MOOPLE team work with others to provide users with access to the widest possible range of online tools, technologies and resources that suit their local needs.

Think about this for a minute… The MOOPLE.NET single sign on allows learners to make use of free tools such as Google Apps for Education, Microsoft Live@Edu, MOODLE, Drupal, Wordpress, Aviary and much more.

MOOPLE was launched at BETT 2011 and I look forward to seeing how it develops over the next few months.

 

#BETT 2011 - Microsoft

I liked the Microsoft stage this year at BETT. The presenters were in the middle and the audience was all around them. It looked like they had a good program of talks but I only really got to see part of Stuart Ball and Dan Roberts presentation on ‘Classroom Innovation for Free’.

The tools they mentioned were:

• Flashcards allow teachers and students to build revision resources that can be shared online. 

• Partners in Learning Network supports professional development for teachers and schools through shared resources ,events in the UK and a network of connected teachers.

• AutoCollage , as a member of the Partners in Learning Network you can download this great application, and create a single image collage from up to 54 separate images.

• Mouse Mischief – Connect up to 25 mice to a single PC with this free plug-in for PowerPoint. Allows you to create interactive quizzes and activities.

• Math Add-in for Microsoft Word and OneNote – Create and visualise equations and maths concepts, including 3D graph plotting

• Community Clips – Create and record your own instructional videos  with this free screencast software.

The big talk of the Microsoft stand was their new Education pricing structure and also the release of their Microsoft Office 365 product which is the next evolution of Microsoft Live @Edu. I do really like Microsoft Office Live Web Apps and I saw a bit of Ray Flemmings demo that demonstrated Live web apps being shared and edited across a number of windows enabled devices including the RM Slate 100.

I’m interested to see what happens as more and more schools sign up to cloud based services such as Microsoft Office 365. I just hope that school infrastructure and bandwidth can support such services without everything grinding to a halt!

In other Microsoft news post BETT 2011 – OneNote (which I really like) is now available for the iPhone. I wonder if the rest of the office suite will follow?

 

 

 

#BETT2011 - St. Thomas Primary School in Angus shortlisted for Guardian Classroom Innovation Award

Marie Fenton from St. Thomas Primary School in Angus has recently been shortlisted for a Guardian Classroom Innovation Award. The awards are being run by the Guardian Newspaper in association with ASUS Computers.

I was at the ASUS standing checking out the new ASUS Windows 7 Eee Slate EP121 PC (I would love to do a more robust classroom test on this at some point?) when I bumped into Marie Fenton by complete accident.  

Marie was able to tell me all about her blended learning project which makes use of a variety of technologies including Google Sketch Up and digital video.

 

"The P7 class at St Thomas primary is using technology to raise the level of engagement/attainment across the range of abilities. Language skills in particular are a challenge for some of the pupils. These same pupils have shown distinct abilities and interests in computers and visual perception based activities. For medieval studies, using documentaries allows quick access to necessary information, which the children supplement by referring to search engines and literature. They process the information by creating dioramas and once they have greater spatial awareness of the layout, they use Sketchup8 to create 3D technical drawings of the buildings and furnishings. Making their own videos recording the learning experiences, affords them a further range of skills.

Using technology to communicate their ideas removes many of the inhibitions associated with their learning and promotes the skills learned in the light of skills for work in later life."

Well done Marie - more information about the project here.

 

#BETT2011 – Brainpop UK

Always great to catch up with my dance rival Moby and although we didn’t have time for re-match from our SLF 2010 ‘Dance Off' I did have a chance for a quick photo in the Moby photo booth.

It is great to see Brainpop doing so well in the UK and it is no secret that I have always been a massive fan. This has included the very early days when it was only available in the US at it took me about 5 mins to load a movie on dial up!

Reflecting on this it is great to see how times have changed. Just before BETT 2011 BrainPop UK announced the featured movie App for the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad. It is a free and a must download for both teachers and students, particularly if you are a school with a 1to1 iOS deployment.

Brainpop continues to do what it says on the tin, ‘explain complicated ideas in simple and fun way’.

 

Apart from the quality of the movies one of the other reasons I like Brainpop is that the featured Brainpop UK movie is always relevant. For example, if the world has a major volcanic eruption Brainpop makes the volcano’s movie free. If the Olympics are on the Olympic movie will be free. Some movies (the really important ones) are always free these include on-line safety, bullying and mourning.

In short, Brainpop has a real commitment to supporting teachers when they might need it the most.

Another Brainpop UK service that people tend not to know about is the POPbox. This enables you to embed the featured movie into your own blog or website. More details about this here but I would like to see this as an optional widget on Glow Blogs – it would be amazing optional feature for school websites.

Keep up the good work Tim and Moby! See you soon!

 

#BETT 2011 - Idea Paint (@ideapaint)

 

It’s the simple things that often make a difference.

Idea Paint is one of those things. It is white paint that once applied allows you to write on just about any surface. It was being showcased in the RM Learning Spaces area of BETT 2011.

Just think about how many old school cupboards and cabinets could be repurposed with a few tins of Idea Paint in your classroom or school.

Great idea and more information on their website www.ideapaint.com I might try and get some for my office wall?

#BETT 2011 – School Radio with Russell Prue (@russellprue)

 

I’ve always been a big Russell Prue (@russellprue) fan. He has done some much for ICT in Education over the years and his enthusiasm is infectious! I bumped into Russell in the RM Learning Spaces Area where he was showcasing a few of his radio products he has been working on.

I’ve blogged about ‘the pod’ before and it’s a great way to create smaller spaces within a larger open space. The pod is also sound proof which means it is great for sound recording and also setting up your own school radio station.

It was Russell’s latest invention that impressed me the most though!

A mobile radio station that fit in a flight case and can broadcast over 3G. What is it being used for? Well lots of things but I was really keen on the idea of it being used by children to broadcast live sporting events such as sports days.

A great idea with massive potential!

 

#BETT 2011 - RM Future Learning Spaces

I thought that RM did a great job again with their Future Learning Spaces Exhibition at BETT. I thought the layout was better this year and gave a real feel for what you could do with not a lot of money, not a lot of space but with a lot of creative thinking.

Here are some of the things that I liked:

Flexible space to create areas where children can sit and collaborate at different heights. Everything is movable which means the space can be used for a discussion, lecture, group work or on-line activity.

There was lots of other furniture as well. I’m still a big fan of the Isis Newton Chair and the Isis T41 Individual Tip-Top Student Table.

   

New for this year were these colourful Lamu chairs. They have been designed for early years education and I have to admit they are really cool. Great on their own and great when placed together to form a bench. 

I also liked the USB Hub to charge up your Easi-Speak Microphones.

Lots of Lego. I love Lego (almost as much as Con Morris). RM has recently formed a company with Lego (they own 50% each). The focus is looking at the use of Lego in education in particular to look at collaborative activity and to introduce key a difficult concepts on a contextual way (such as renewable energy).

The RM VerTable remains on of my favorite bits of classroom equipment in recent years. I’ve written about it lots of times before but the combination of a short throw projector, a flexi-table which can be positioned vertically...

...or horizontally and an e-beam is a really neat be of kit which can be used for traditional presenting as well as group activities.

For the third year in a row this has been my most favorite part of BETT.

#BETT 2011 – I Can Animate (Kudlian)

 

As always at BETT I like to pop by the Kudlian Software stand to see their latest offerings and creative software.

 

It was great to see ‘I Can Present’ being showcased.

This is a great bit of software which combines video recording, the croma key and an auto-cue to create really professional looking videos. It is also a great tool to drive literacy through the use of innovative technology.

I was lucky enough to see this product in action during is beta testing stages last year at Gavinburn Primary School as part of their Guitar Hero Project. 

The other thing that I liked on the Kudlian Stand was the small croma boards that they had created to help with animation. Such a simple but very clever idea and got me thinking that they need to develop a simple croma solution that fits neatly over a standard size interactive whiteboard.

Also on display was ‘I Can Animate’ for the iPhone / iPod Touch. This is a great App and will prompt me to up-grade either my phone or iPod Touch.

#BETT 2011 – Promethean goes 3D and multi touch

 

Really nice to see Promethean focusing on the learning this year at BETT 2011 as well as just their products. Their latest active-classroom solution the ActivBoard 500 Pro range supports multi-touch and works fantastically well well. Products like this have only been enhanced during recent years with the mult-touch capability being built into operating systems such as Windows 7.

Depending on the projector it is also now possible to view content in 3D and I don’t think it will be long before we see a lot of 3D content developed for Active Inspire and available on Promethean Planet.

 

I continue to think 3D does have a lot of potential in the classroom although a lot of the content is still fairly immature. But if companies like Promethean can build in 3D projection to their whiteboard solution and offer class sets of glasses at a fairly low price point. I am convinced it will take off.

Finally, a big well done to Promethean for being announced ICT company of the year at the 2011 BETT Awards.