Uni Trip to London for the BETT Show!!

On Wednesday 21st January, our university seminar group traveled to London (at 5am!) to attend the annual British Educational Training and Technology (BETT) show. The show is made up of a range of exhibitors, most of which have developed technologies which could be used in education and further education. These included big technology companies such as Apple Inc, and Google. There were also a number of companies offering learning platforms for school systems, such as Learn pad and Frog. These are designed to offer an easy learning tool for teachers, to enable them to assess pupils progress, and to get students thinking creatively. We also noticed that there were a large number of companies offering tools to develop pupils coding skills. With these tools, pupils will be able to create their own programs and develop essential IT skills. It was surprising to see how many companies there are that work with primary/secondary and SEN schools, all offering new technologies and ideas to support learning. 

As part of our assignment for our Education Futures module, we were required to create a stop-motion animation, and although we used Zu3D, it was interesting to see some of the more advanced equipment in the BETT workshops. We were also able to see the Zu3D technology being used in action, and even had the chance to ask a few questions to the team who were marketing it! 

Before the trip, I was not aware of just how big the market is for educational technology, or how much technology is actually out there to be utilised by teachers and educators. It was also useful to see what technology I could possibly be working with in the future, and learn about their benefits for children. I feel that I personally have benefited from attending BETT, and would advise any future teachers/educators/entrepreneurs to attend.  

Once we had spoken to various speakers and collected a number of freebies, we decided to leave the uni side of the visit behind and head to the west end to see Wicked the musical, which was equally exciting and highly recommended!!