You can watch this week's episode above or click/download on the audio-only version below.

While talking about BETT 2026 on Zoom is not half as much fun as in a pub or London Heathrow’s Terminal 5, it’s always great to get the skinny from players in the edtech field. And who better than Liz Crawford to lay out the details.

Unlike previous years when companies rushed to rebrand themselves as "AI companies," BETT 2026 featured more substantive discussions about practical integration. Says Liz: "AI was definitely a hot topic. It was everywhere as part of every conversation. But I think the conversations are getting a little bit more thoughtful about AI and how we support teaching and learning with AI, and keep some of the fundamentals like reading and math and obviously the teacher-student relationships intact."

The conference drew ministerial delegations from around the world, creating what Liz describes as a "high energy" atmosphere with "people speaking multiple languages, cultures," and booths "packed pretty much all day, every day, three people deep trying to get demos."

One notable difference from U.S.-centric conferences such as ISTE: LMS adoption patterns vary significantly by region. "I hosted some sessions in the booth and asked if the educators were using LMS as an example, and sometimes they weren't really," Liz observes. "So I think from that perspective, the U.S. is a little bit ahead on the LMS usage."

However, Kahoot is experiencing "viral growth" in markets including Germany, France, Indonesia, and Japan—driven not by top-down government mandates but by teacher adoption. "I think it's just driven by teacher adoption of tools that are a good user experience, that provide value, that impact learning outcomes," Liz explains.

Two other topics generating significant buzz at BETT: future-ready skills (formerly called "21st century skills") and formative assessment. The latter received particular attention, appearing in stage keynotes, concurrent sessions, and booth demonstrations.

Discussions also centered on how technology supports soft skill development and how edtech platforms can work together more seamlessly. "Partnerships is still a big conversation around amongst edtech tools and amongst the platforms that are used every day in education, and how do we work together to make sure that we're trying to be seamless and help educators connect the dots across all the platforms they're using," she says.

In the snippet below, Liz discusses the evolution of AI in education:

• Tech & Learning Conversations with Kevin Hogan

The best of BETT 2026 is all here. Well, technically it was all laid out at London's ExCel Centre, as it has been every year since it started in 1985. But the best of that show is right here in this article, which has been created after walking the show floor, meeting the exhibitors, and exploring the less well-known brands and tools that give us a glimpse at the future of tech in education.

The event featured appearances from the usual big names such as Google, Microsoft, and Asus, but this year stand-out new names include WhimsyLabs, Routine Roo, and Faheem, among others.

Here are my very best picks from what I saw on the BETT 2026 show floor, featuring the technology to propel education forward in a way that makes teaching better than ever.

While this is our best bits from the show floor, be sure to check out the Bett Awards for the final decisions on the very best to come out of BETT 2026.

Best of BETT 2026: WhimsyLabs

WhimsyLabs stood out at BETT 2026, despite being hidden away, as the passion of its creators, and excitement of anyone giving it a try, made this a show gem. Having been secretly under production for sometime, the VR science teaching software finally made its BETT debut.

This platform scales to fit devices -- so a classroom with ChromeOS could access this on a relatively low-powered computer and will still get a fully interactive VR experience. And that's the point here as this is a near like-for-like physical world experiment platform, only purely digital.

This scales from schools to college with simple pre-made experiments right up to complex original creations. Educators can tweak details to a super fine level, even adding in impurities in the case of chemistry, for example. The end result is a chance for students to carry out experiments, with real hand movements and object interactions, as if in the physical world.

This has been used in universities as a helpful way to teach lab process to students so, when they get access to the physical labs, they're experienced and prepared to get the most out of the time they have. It's like a digital practice space for chemistry, biology, and physics experiments.

Best of BETT 2026: Routine Roo

Routine Roo is a charming and hugely exciting tool designed specifically to help parents, or teachers, and young ones. The idea for this app, due to launch in March, is to help empower young children to perform their routines with more enjoyment and -- for parents and teachers -- with far less resistance.

So, at home that can mean working on bedtimes that otherwise take hours and can be draining, by agreeing with the little ones on the process, so they can be awarded as they complete each stage. From setting up teddies and reading a certain number of stories, to brushing teeth -- it can all be included. This uses a visualized cartoon version of the child to make it even more inclusive and engaging for the children.

Routine Roo is digital, with an app, but also offers physical boards that are magnetized to help children see and lay out their routines as part of the empowering planning process.

Best of BETT 2026: Faheem

Faheem is one of the more interesting AI education tools appearing at BETT 2026 because it moves beyond static AI tutor chatbots into something closer to an agentic learning companion.

Rather than simply responding to prompts, Faheem is designed to proactively guide learners, adapt explanations based on mastery, and shift approach depending on a student’s intent or difficulty level.

Faheem stands out because it learns rather than having the usual novelty AI features. The platform positions itself as inquiry-led, encouraging students to explore concepts through questioning and adaptive pathways rather than linear instruction. For teachers, this suggests potential use as a differentiated support tool rather than a replacement for instruction.

This is Egypt-backed and -based right now but can easily scale internationally, with plans to do just that. Keep your eye on this one.

Best of BETT 2026: Agibot

Agibot was a stand-out at BETT 2026 thanks to its free moving robots that could be spotted wandering the halls of the show -- and getting lots of attention. This should also be the case in a classroom where these robot have huge potential for engaging students.

Agibot offers schools a tactile way to explore AI, automation, and human-machine interaction. Its robots are designed to move, see, and respond in human-like ways, making abstract concepts around robotics and AI far more concrete for students.

The robots can be used to support STEM teaching, coding, problem-solving, and discussion around how AI systems work in the real world. For teachers, this opens up new opportunities for hands-on demonstrations and cross-curricular learning, particularly in computing and engineering.

Best of BETT 2026: Intel AI PCs for Education

Intel AI PCs for Education are being shouted about this year at BETT 2026 as these have really come into the mainstream, bringing real-world AI use to the class.

AI in education often relies on cloud-based tools, but Intel’s presence at BETT 2026 highlights a growing shift toward on-device AI processing. Intel is showcasing AI-capable PCs designed for classroom use, focusing on performance, security, and responsible AI deployment.

For teachers, the key takeaway isn’t raw processing power, but what it enables -- faster AI tools, reduced latency, better data privacy, and offline or limited-connectivity use cases. Intel’s Skills for Innovation program also ties hardware directly into teacher training and curriculum development. From Asus and Lenovo to HP, lots of big brand PC manufacturers are getting on-board in this shift to onboard AI.

The ASUS Chromebook CL14 CL15 series stood out as a way to get that level of AI support while keeping prices reasonable without sacrificing on features.

Best of BETT 2026: BBC Bitesize Learning Hub

BBC Bitesize Learning Hub is the BBC’s classroom-friendly extension of its long-running Bitesize brand, designed to support teachers with high-quality, curriculum-aligned resources. It’s built to make lesson planning easier and learning more engaging, with a focus on accessible content that feels familiar and trustworthy.

The hub brings together videos, interactive activities, and teaching materials across a range of subjects. The idea is to help teachers add depth to lessons without having to build everything from scratch. It’s especially useful for quick explanations, revision support, and reinforcement of key concepts in a way to which students actually respond.

For educators, the real value is the BBC’s editorial rigor with content that is well-produced, clear and classroom-ready.

Best of BETT 2026: Muud

Muud (pronounced "mood") is a wellbeing platform designed for children, but also for schools, as a way to monitor moods. It provides teachers with tools to check in on student mood, track wellbeing trends, and respond with appropriate support.

The platform is built around simple, regular check-ins that help educators spot patterns early, and gives students a safe space to reflect on how they’re feeling.

For teachers, Muud offers a way to build wellbeing into the day without adding extra workload. It is especially suited for schools that want to add a more proactive, whole-school approach to mental health.

Best of BETT 2026: Promethean

Promethean is one of the most recognizable names in classroom technology, best known for its interactive whiteboards and touch displays. Here at BETT it stands out thanks to a focus on teacher-led learning.

That means fewer features than some but to the advantage of educators that get a reliable platform that supports their teaching style.

Teachers can build activities, annotate live, and involve the whole class without needing a tech specialist to run the show. It’s the kind of setup that keeps lessons moving and students engaged -- especially in busy, mixed-ability classrooms.

Best of BETT 2026: FocusSpring

FocusSpring is a South Korean-based software solution that's used in schools widely as a way to help inform educators on student mental and educational wellbeing. Started by a concerned father, due to high suicide rates in the youth of Korea, this is about preventing problems by offering useful data on how students are doing.

Crucially, this gets all that by collecting what students are doing, live, rather than them having to do anything. A combination of eye tracking, keystroke detection, voice sensing, stylus use, and more -- all from current hardware -- allow for key metrics to be monitored by educators and parents.

The outputs include learning behaviors such as attention and emotional engagement, self-regulation, stress, and more. While this is used to monitor students supportively, it's also being used as a way to help teachers train, seeing what works and what doesn't -- live -- using the data to help. Plans to launch this in the U.S. are already underway.

Best of BETT 2026: Pasco

Pasco is a hands-on science and engineering offering that brings real-world experimentation into classrooms. Rather than relying on simulations, Pasco’s equipment, from sensors to lab kits, lets students collect real data, test hypotheses, and see science in action.

What makes it particularly useful for teachers is how easily it fits into existing lessons. The tools are designed to be durable, straightforward, and curriculum-friendly, so teachers can run practical experiments without needing a specialist lab. Data is captured cleanly and instantly, to help students move from observation to analysis simply.

When STEM learning is increasingly becoming digital, Pasco stands out by keeping experiments tactile and authentic. It’s the kind of tech that supports deeper scientific thinking and real investigation. At BETT it’s a reminder that technology can enhance learning just as much through physical, hands-on tools, as through screens.

Check out the full list of USA EdTech tools at BETT 2026 here.

USA EdTech has landed at BETT 2026 where it is showing off all the best education tech that the U.S. has to offer.

I met up with the team's head honcho, Jim McVety, who explained that this group of U.S representatives has grown again. This increasing cohort is here with USA Ed Tech which has come to this event for the last four years. Since the government doesn't back a stand for the U.S., as is the not case for many countries at the event, McVety and his team created USA EdTech to serve that need.

The result is a perfect point for U.S.-based education technology companies to safely explore and make the move into Europe and beyond. And the flip of that is true, for other countries and companies looking to make a connection with U.S.-based edtech professionals. As such this year's selection of providers is more varied and pioneering than ever.

Below are some of the best that the USA EdTech stand has to offer at BETT 2026.

Want to check out more? Head over to the USA EdTech site for full details of everyone involved and your chance to join the community.

Some of the members at BETT this year include: Amplify, Trimble, ClassLink, ImagineLearning, EdLink, Walkabouts, Jupiter and more.

Here is some more on a few that were able to share time with us this year.

Amplify

Amplify is a long-established education technology company with a clear focus on supporting teachers in the classroom. You may know it for its work in literacy, maths and science over the years. Amplify blends research-driven curriculum design with digital tools that are genuinely practical to use day to day.

What stands out is how teacher-led the experience feels. Whether it’s formative assessment, intervention support, or full curriculum delivery, Amplify’s designed to help educators quickly understand where students are, adjust instruction, and keep lessons fresh. Data is laid out clearly, without being too much, which helps to make it easier to turn insight into action.

Amplify is also the home of the well-known math platform Desmos Classroom, bringing interactive, discussion-rich maths into the digital and classroom. Amplify is all about engagement, clarity and evidence-based practice. As such this fits well with schools looking for technology that strengthens teaching without complexity -- a theme that appears to resonate across BETT 2026 this year.

Walkabouts Platform

Walkabouts Platform is a learning system that focuses on bringing movement into the classroom. Built from research that shows movement is directly linked to greater neuronal activity in the brain, and therefore better performance, this is science derived.

The tool links movements, like squats or jumps, to different words that are the answer to questions. In this way students use their bodies to make movements which answer the questions on screen. This leads to a measurable increase in focus as well as academic performance, while also helping to decrease hyperactivity.

From Pre-K to 5th grade, this is tailored to help educators bring more movement into the classroom while keeping students engaged and learning. Lessons are correlated to national and states standards for easy integration across math, ELA, reading, science, social studies, financial literacy, and test preparation.

Jupiter

Jupiter is a learning management system, a gradebook, and a student information system for K-12 and higher education. Jupiter is used in all 50 states across four million students. Crucially, this is a minimal solution designed to make the lives of teachers easier rather than over-complicating it with more tools.

The layout, as such, is super simple and designed for clicks and taps rather than keyboard input. For example, students can be seen laid out on screen as they sit in the class, and all a teacher need do is tap each one to mark them as absent, present and so on. It just works and helps support teachers efficiently.

Trimble SketchUp

Trimble has taken to the show floor to give us a look at its SketchUp platform, acquired by Google in 2006 before Trimble nabbed it in 2012, used by designed professionals and now available as a free education specific tool.

SketchUp is a full 3D modelling system that allows educators to help teach students to work in this environment. It operates through a web browser, making it highly accessible across devices and easy to use for students and teachers alike.

The system works within Google and Microsoft LMS options and is standards aligned to help make integration a simple process for teachers. From creating buildings to modelling a solar system, there is a broad range of possibilities available for use here. And it's all totally free to use.

Imagine Learning

Imagine Learning is an education technology company focused on making learning more accessible, inclusive and effective for every student, particularly those who need extra support. Its tools are designed to fit effortlessly into classes as a way to help teachers differentiate instruction without more workload.

The platform focuses on language development, literacy, and maths, with support for multilingual learners and students working at different paces. Teachers get clear insights into progress, alongside resources that help adapt lessons simply.

Imagine Learning offers flexibility and responsiveness, so that educators can meet learners where they are. It’s a good fit for schools looking for technology that supports equity, personalization and real classroom impact -- some key themes at BETT 2026.

ClassLink

ClassLink is all about making life easier for teachers and students by simplifying access to digital learning tools. Best known for its single sign-on platform, ClassLink lets users get to all their apps and resources through one secure login. The idea is that this cuts down on lost lesson time and login problems.

Rostering, analytics and usage insights help schools understand which tools are being used and where support might be needed. With a strong focus on security, accessibility and ease of use, ClassLink works to remove friction from everyday digital learning.

Edlink

Edlink is a platform built to make school technology ecosystems feel less messy. Its core strength is connecting different apps and tools so they work together smoothly, without teachers having to be tech pros.

For teachers, that means less time wrestling with logins, spreadsheets, and manual rostering, and more time teaching. Edlink also helps school leaders keep systems secure and compliant, via third-party support, while giving a clearer picture of how tools are being used across the school.

Edlink’s focus on integration and simplicity is powerful and can make a big difference in day-to-day school life. This is the kind of offering that matters more than people realize -- until it’s missing.

The best of BETT 2025 is here and we've been walking the show floor to find the very best tech on offer for education this year.

As the education world descends on London's ExCel Centre for this year's BETT 2025, it's clear that the hot topic is AI. While the show has been running since 1985, this is a special year -- not only because it's been 40 years since inception, but because the AI jump represents one of the biggest shifts in education yet.

So while there is plenty from the usual big names such as Google, Microsoft, and Lenovo, you can also expect to hear from AI creators, including Olex.ai, Keath, and others.

Here are the very best picks from what we saw on the BETT 2025 show floor to shift education into a new gear that could change the way we work for the best.

While this is our taster from the show floor, be sure to check out the Bett Awards for the final decisions on the very best to come out of BETT 2025.

Best of BETT 2025: Microsoft CoPilot and Spark

Microsoft has taken to the show floor with some serious AI advancements leading its offerings for 2025. Chief among these is the CoPilot AI smarts. This is essentially artificial intelligence baked into devices, including specific processors that allow teachers to use AI right there on the device, without an internet connection.

That should mean superfast responses and deep levels of control right there. So you might want to find something you remember from months back and there is only a description of what you were doing. The AI will work out what you've asked for and find it for you.

Also shown off this year is the Spark software that uses AI to allow teachers to create useful assessment learning materials. Upload text, use stock images, and more, all of around which the AI will build a lesson. Students can then learn from the slides, while answering questions in various styles, getting feedback as they go. This is all auto-generated but can be edited by teachers to suit students or groups as needed.

Another area of advancement is in wellbeing, in which a fantastic free system called Reflect is now available that lets students check with teachers on how they are feeling. Usefully, this also offers deeper emotional language development and tools, such as video guidance, to help them -- all while letting the teacher know how they're doing in relation to any area on which they want to focus.

Olex.ai

The Olex.ai platform has been awarded at BETT this year as a standout product thanks to the inventive solutions it offers. Teachers can use this artificially intelligent platform when teaching English.

Thanks to AI, this will help teachers mark essays for the whole class with detailed feedback, in under two minutes. And that applies to multiple languages so students get it all in their native tongue.

While a lot of this is automated, teachers can also apply nationally recognized rubrics or their own custom setups to suit individual or school needs.

This also offers automated lesson planning and can even take a student story and turn it into a visual narrative with AI-generated images, too.

RoboRobo

RoboRobo is a fun and interactive coding platform that uses robotics to make coding playful and real. This curriculum-based system allows for STEAM education in which students code for the joy of interacting with a robot -- while learning at the same time.

This offers varying levels that cater to students to match the level they are in coding, topping out at Black Line Pro in which students can learn real-world coding skills. But with RoboKids, this is also accessible to students that are new to coding and need to have a more sensor experience.

MagicSchool

MagicSchool appeared at BETT 2025 to show off its AI-powered platform that makes custom tools for teachers easier to use and more powerful than ever. This combines lots of dynamic AI tools in one place, all aimed at education.

With Magic School, teachers are able to build academic content, proofread text, comment on report cards, generate images, rewrite text, generate rubrics, and plenty more. Crucially, since this is all AI-powered, it means a faster process with results that save time and can even lead to a more individual student learning experience.

Read our full MagicSchool review here.

Writer's Toolbox

Writer's Toolbox, already popular in Australia and New Zealand, is at BETT to show the world how AI can help to transform writing instruction in schools.

The system works with students as they create, offering real-time feedback individualized to them, across topics, to help them progress. Creativity is at this tool's core and this applies across features such as the Sentence Train, paragraph scaffolds, classroom poster creation, and more.

Ultimately, this gets students more excited about engaging in the writing process.

Keath.ai

Keath.ai is using BETT 2025 to show off its AI-powered assessment tool, which it calls "a personalized AI Assessment Assistant."

This platform was developed with university-level research and government interest but has resulted in a tool that's available to all, and works for multiple levels of education.

The point here is that teachers should be able to make marking assessments, at scale, far easier. In fact, this can mark 1,000- to 15,000-word essays with a baseline accuracy of 85%, which is expected to hit 95% with ongoing training use.

EdTool.ai

EdTool.ai offers teachers a way to make tests and lesson interactive, instantly. Using generative AI, EdTool can help create presentation and assessments for use in class and beyond.

Since this is for business use as well as education, the complexity is helpful and allows for great levels of editing. Yet, thanks to an AI assistant, it is also simple to use and can quickly output tasks, such as creating a test, with ease.

Teachers can type what they want, upload any source materials, select a target age and ability group, pick the activity type, fine-tune, and generate. Simple yet powerful.

CodeMonkey

CodeMonkey appeared at BETT this year to show off its fun coding system for kids. The idea is to make programming enjoyable and easy enough to get even younger kids involved.

This teaches real-world coding such as Python and CoffeeScript so kids can gain usable skills. It begins with block-based and text-based coding so that younger students can get involved at a level suitable to them.

Crucially, this is all a game-style learning space, making it fun and immersive. Suited for students ranging from ages 5 to 14, this uses scaffolded puzzles and even allows students to build their own games.

Thanks to a teacher and admin dashboard, lesson plans, and assessment tools, this integrate well into class for ongoing learning. Plus, parents can track progress, and it allows for use at home.

Infento

Infento is a modular toy-building system that makes STEM learning very fun. It also means, thanks to that modular nature, that creations can be hugely varied, limited only by the imagination of the maker.

As you can see from the Back To The Future DeLorean above, the limits of this are very few. From creating scooters and go karts to walkers and electric quads, this represents a lot of building fun.

Since kids can build real creations that they can ride and interact with, this is a super powerful experience with real motivation outcomes.

Many education-specific kits are available to suit the needs of the school age, student number, budget, and more.

Zoe

Zoe, brought to BETT 2025 as part of USA EdTech, represents a new way to teach using VR. This offers teachers a way to create their own bespoke virtual reality experiences to use in class.

Thanks to the user-friendly setup here, any teacher should be able to get up and running to build their own interactive VR experience relatively easily. You can dive into the Unity coding side of things to get more complex, if needed, as well.

The end result is a space to build virtual experiments, virtual trips around the world, and more -- bespoke. Since this is all shared as a community, it should mean more pre-built content that teachers can edit as needed, coming soon.

Check out the full list of USA EdTech tools at BETT 2025 here.

USA EdTech has taken to BETT 2025 this year to show the best education tech that the U.S. has to offer.

While many countries have government-backed stands at BETT, the U.S. is yet to explore this. Spotting that need, Jim McVety has worked with providers of educational tools and software to build their own. The result is a one-stop show for all things edtech.

Consequently, anyone in the U.S. wanting to expand internationally now has a chance. It also means those from other countries have a chance to connect with and get involved with the U.S. market as well.

This year we caught up with Jim and the team to find out some of the best edtech tools to be shown at BETT 2025.

Want to check out more? Head over to the USA EdTech site for full details of everyone involved and your chance to join the community.

The members at BETT this year include: Content2Classroom, ClassLink, Authentica, EdGate, Boclips, Zoe, Slooh, and MakeDo.

Here is some more on a few that were able to share time with us this year.

Slooh

Slooh is a U.S.-based tech platform that spans the globe to offer star-gazing opportunities to students. This exciting offering allows teachers and students the chance to take control of powerful telescopes, dotted about the world, to view objects in the depths of space.

Imagine taking a class anywhere in the sky, be it a planet or astral body, and you can see it -- live -- in just a few clicks. This is what Slooh has achieved and now offers with games and missions that help educate students and teachers alike.

Zoe

Zoe is a VR tool that allows teachers to create their own worlds. That can mean science teachers creating bespoke experiments that students can interact with in virtual reality.

This is designed to be easy to use and offers a variety of options so it can be applied to many different teaching scenarios. No coding experience is needed as this is an icon-based system that anyone can use easily.

The community shares content so other use cases can be edited to suit the needs of that teacher and class. Even students can use this to build virtual worlds.

EdGate

EdGate offers publishers a way to create bespoke education items with a central taxonomy that can make for a quick-and-easy way to find, create, and share resources.

Crucially, this works internationally so publishers can have their current content adapted for varying markets around the globe.

This represents a way to leverage broad concepts, such as dividing fractions, scientific methods, and more, but adapted to the learning standards of that area, school, or subject.

Boclips

Boclips offers more than 2.2 million videos that are specifically tailored for use in education. While that in itself is very powerful, it also leverages AI to make searching for specific results easier and more effective.

This is so smart it will even break down clips into specific areas. So, for example, you may be teaching about a certain scientific process and this will pull out the snippet relevant to that, rather than showing students the entire video.

These curated videos align with many standards, including Common Core, NGSS, CBSE, and more, across curriculums, such as ELA, Science, and Math.

No ads, easy sharing within the LMS, and algorithmic recommendations are just a few of the positives this powerful tool offers.

Tech & Learning, the award-winning provider of publications, websites, newsletters, and events, will be the official Bett media partner with USA EdTech, a coalition of education and edtech companies dedicated to global expansion.

USA EdTech is a unique fellowship of edtech companies and service providers operating in the U.S. that are keen to access global market opportunities at Bett 2025, the world’s largest EdTech event. While countries from around the world send delegations of their own, the U.S. had never organized a delegation until last year.

Building on this successful first year, USA EdTech is helping forge meaningful relationships among education providers around the world. What began as a fellowship of like-minded providers has evolved into a growing movement to accomplish two major goals. First, USA EdTech helps US-based providers build connections with educators around the world, including school leaders and ministries of education. Second, USA EdTech supports the mission-critical role of services companies dedicated to helping global education companies navigate US markets with confidence.

Tech & Learning has joined the USA EdTech’s mission with the intent of supporting the growing community of US-based providers that are building bridges with education organizations around the world.

Christine Weiser, Content/Brand Director at Tech & Learning, cited the power of a USA EdTech’s collaborative approach, “Through the many events we convene each year, we know the power of building communities of practice in education. USA EdTech is a unique coalition of diverse providers that share a common goal of improving educational outcomes, which is why we are so excited to cover their work and support their growth.”

USA EdTech is organized under the direction of Jim McVety, Managing Partner of First Step Advisors, also a delegation member. McVety spoke to the mission of USA EdTech, sharing: “Through the power of community, even early-stage companies can make incredible connections, making global markets more accessible than ever.”

McVety lauded the participation of Tech & Learning, specifically, citing its unique role in helping amplify important discussions, “Tech & Learning is an important resource for all stakeholders in education. Their reporters are known as exceptional listeners and astute analysts, so their involvement in USA EdTech underscores just how much impact USA EdTech is poised to have on education systems around the world.”

About USA EdTech

USA EdTech is a coalition of US-based companies that are committed to global expansion. Solution providers that serve schools, and the B2B companies that support them, are strong candidates for membership in USA Edtech, which is focused on elevating the profile of education companies across the US education ecosystem. Visit www.usa-edtech.com for more information.

About Tech & Learning

Tech & Learning’s award-winning publications, websites, newsletters, and events provide factual and evaluative information on trends, products, and strategies to support education leaders’ efforts to drive innovation in their districts. Visit www.techlearning.com for more information and continuing coverage of news, trends, and events in education, edtech, including USA EdTech.

The best of BETT 2024 is here and we've trawled the show floor of BETT UK to find the very best this year's wave of technology for education has to offer.

Once again, the world of education has flowed into London to the ExCel Centre where BETT UK 2024 is taking place across several days and hundreds and hundreds of stands. Running since 1985, and ever growing, the British Educational Training and Technology show is the place to be when it comes to seeing the future of education and how that is evolving.

Expect to hear from huge names such as Google and Microsoft as well as education-specific companies including Class, Bookr, SchoolOnline, and others.

Here are the very best picks from what we saw on the BETT 2024 show floor to help education progress in a way that's innovative but easily integrated into K-12 schools and higher education.

Best of BETT 2024 top picks

BenQ EDLA Board Pro

The latest smart screen from BenQ crams in more technology than ever to make teaching with a screen a seamless experience. New to this year's model is Android 13 so you now have access to all the Android apps out there, but can also access those from Microsoft. So from using Zoom or Teams to PowerPoint and Slides – and plenty more – this has you covered.

Hardware is impressive with two included stylus pens, a powerful soundbar-style speakers and sub-woofer, companion app for controls at a distance, and a 4K resolution screen. A helpful NFC point allows teachers login to continue where they left off, apps still open and ready, at the touch of an ID card – ideal for ease and security. 

This device even features a ionizer to clean the air, anti-germ surfaces, smart eye care certification, eight microphones, and an optional camera add-on. A powerful EDLA-certified smart screen also lets you split apps for a whiteboard and side-by-side browser, for example. You can even drag and drop images, write, and have it converted to type and translate at a touch.

Read more on the BenQ EDLA Board Pro here.

SchoolOnline.AI

Artificial intelligence (AI) is a big part of this year's show and leading the charge is award-winning SchoolOnline that offers AI-powered teaching tools. Designed for English and Math, the OlexAI system is built from ground-up to offer curriculum-based learning – UK specific at time of writing.

This allows educators to automatically mark work, assess, and moderate with AI, plus use AI for faster lesson planning, personalized learning, precise feedback, and even intervention. All that equates to a selection of tools that are quick and easy to navigate, reducing a lot of the admin work for teachers – giving back more time to focus on the teaching itself.

Lu Interactive

Lu Interactive offers an interactive learning display wall quite unlike any other on display here at BETT 2024. This features a projector, speakers and lights, but creates an interactive wall on any flat surface -- rather than floor-based interactions as have been traditionally the offering. 

Floor-based options were always difficult as the student stood in the way of the projector blocking the images. Lu Interactive's method creates a more immersive finish with tremendous potential for sports.

This combines gaming and physical sport to, theoretically, get more students involved. The wall projection can display targets that detect interactions from balls, for example, allowing students to throw in a dodgeball-style game -- minus anyone being targeted or hit. It offers options to bring math into the games, throwing the ball at correct sum answers for example. 

zSpace

zSpace gives all the interactive abilities of augmented reality without the need for an awkward headset. This uses a dedicated laptop and camera sensors to allow students to interact with 3D models as if they were really in front of them. While that's difficult to show here, it really is an impressively immersive AR experience -- think Iron Man or Minority Report in which virtual images can be grabbed and moved.

This makes for a fantastic way to explore the human heart in biology, removing walls to see inside; or for engineering, working on taking apart and exploring the inner workings of a robot arm. 

A huge selection of apps is available, and with the need to simply use a stylus to interact, this could be used by students of a wide range of ages and abilities with little to no guidance required. 

Read more about zSpace at BETT here.

CleverTouch Impact LUX

The Impact LUX smart screen from CleverTouch offers Google EDLA-Certified interactivity and apps as well as one of the most comprehensive security ratings too. That makes this a very powerful and safe way to use an interactive screen with the class.

Stand out features include antibacterial glass, 50 touch points, LYNX Whiteboard, super wide sound, and a dynamic stylus with CleverInk. While that's all great, you can also go for the LUX Mini if you already have an older screen, which this plugs into, to upgrade it with this operating system for all the latest Google-based features.

Ora

Ora is the first six-axis robotic arm that's specifically designed for education. The idea here is to offer a way to teach students about engineering and manufacturing, as well as coding, in a way that has a real-world connection. Crucially, it provides experience that could also be directly used in future careers.

Ora is a portable arm system that uses both simple block coding as well as more advanced coding options so as to suit a wide range of students in terms of age and abilities.

mozaBook

mozaBook is part of the mozaweb suite of offerings for education, this one specifically designed for educational presentations. This is mozaBook 4.5, to be precise, which offers a way to interact with the class via an already established interactive whiteboard. 

This software is designed to offer a selection of teaching resources, including thematic apps, games, 3D scenes, and more, all for K-12 subjects. Lots of educational videos, images, and exercises are also all included as part of the software. Crucially, it's very easy to use, super compatible across displays, and is education specifically safe and tailored to ages.

You can try this for free over at mozabook.com.

UBTECH

The UBTECH brand offers a range of robots designed for education in school. Those you see above are from the UGOT range that offer seven fast assembly robot options and the power of AI to make them configurable.

The hub of these robots features a quad-core CPU with dedicated NPU and GPU, equating to a mind-bending 10 trillion computations per second. Enough to make the robot build of your choice move in many ways with ease!

This features offline model training, intelligent speech, machine vision, motion control, and AI-enabled education systems. Plus this is micro:bit, Raspberry Pi, Arduino, and open Python SDK compatible. 

Class

The simply named Class is a virtual classroom setup that is designed to make hybrid learning a more realistic option. This is built on a Teams- and Zoom-style platform, so you can interact in a recognizable way, only with more options.

What sets Class apart from simple video chat is the integration of other options. For example, a student can stay within the video platform while still having a browser open, perhaps led by the teacher. This can be locked to one website alone, if students are young, or opened to individual control for older kids.

A real-time integration with most LMS offerings is available, which should make connecting and working locally, or over the internet, a simple process. This all works as part of Zoom or Teams, making it easy to integrate with a current setup.

Bookr

Bookr is an award-winning tool that uses AI to enhance education. Specifically, this uses AI to tailor learning experiences to individual students as needed. That includes an AI reading comprehension test center, an AI word annotation system, and AI Word based support.

The system offers more than 1,000 books and nursery rhymes to work with comprehension, plus over 4,000 educational games to focus on language skills. It also features narration by native speakers, AI speech recognition to help with pronunciation, and synchronized animation that works to improve understanding. 

A teacher's dashboard allows educators to monitor student progress and assign reading as needed. Also available is a wide range of printables, activity tips, and lesson plans.

The BenQ EDLA Board Pro was shown off at BETT 2024 this year as a stand out example of how smart screens should be done. It is, as the name suggests, an EDLA-certified screen, so it comes with the latest Android 13 OS. For educators that means access to all the latest Android apps without any lag or refresh issues, as has been the case in the past. All that and more help to make this one of the best of BETT 2024, overall.

This is a well-thought out bit of kit, designed specifically for education. As such, you get two stylus pens as standard, an app that allows controls from a tablet, laptop, or smartphone anywhere in the room, and a rich 4K resolution display. 

Unlike some of the competition, this also comes packing an NFC addition. This means teachers can tap in and login immediately with all their apps and tabs opened as they left previously. This is great for security but also for ease of use, especially if educators need to move between rooms and login for different use cases.

Luis Afonso, Business Development Manager, told Tech & Learning: "This is the development of the EDLA system, which gives a new level of access to Google apps that were previously not implemented in this way. You also have Microsoft apps for the best of both worlds -- all in one place."

Under the screen is a built-in soundbar with dual 20W speakers backed by a powerful subwoofer, which helps this to offer immersive audio even in larger room spaces. You also have eight microphones onboard so this device is able to pick-up audio accurately across the entire room – ideal for hybrid learning. 

The whiteboard feature is powerful, allowing you to dual screen with a browser and even drag images across to the board with ease. Write words and convert it to text with one button, then translate instantly with another. Crucially, that can all be done on the screen, or on a laptop with the app, all recorded so it can be shared with students at a later date if needed.

All that and this also offers anti-bacterial covers plus an air ionizer to clean the air as well as the option to add a camera system. The folks at BenQ appear to really have thought of everything with this Android- and Windows-friendly setup that integrate with most LMS options.

• Best Of BETT 2023: Robots, AI, Smart Lockers And More Revealed

zSpace -- appearing at the best of BETT 2024 this year -- does what augmented reality should, only without the discomfort of a big and heavy headset. That makes AR accessible to more students and also means a more comfortable experience for longer-term use.

This system comprises the laptop, which features eye-detection cameras, a side-based camera setup, and a wired stylus pen device. All that combines to create an 3D augmented reality experience on the screen that feels as if the objects are floating in the air in front of you. 

So why does that help? It means students can interact in a tactile way with 3D objects. For example, you can have a human heart floating in front of you and use the pen to remove walls and look inside, move the heart about as if it were in your hand, and zoom in and out to examine it more closely. Take that to robotics and engineering and you can dismantle or built robotics with each part taken into consideration.

As zSpace's representative told Tech & Learning: "This is a comfortable way to experience augmented reality in the classroom. That's both for the user, with digital tools, but also for the educator who no longer has to use physical examples -- like an animal's heart -- to show students how these objects break down."

This is a very intuitive AR system to use so it can be enjoyed by a wide range of student ages and abilities. 

• Best Of BETT 2023: Robots, AI, Smart Lockers And More Revealed

Veative is a well-established VR brand that was created purely for education purposes, as was shown at Bett 2023. While there are more and more virtual reality headsets out there, Veative stands out as unique. Unlike many others this is a totally independent system, so you don't need a computer, smartphone, or even internet to use this.

A Veative spokesperson told us: "This is a totally independent VR system where all the content is loaded directly on to the headsets, which are battery powered. No cables, no computers, and no internet are needed to run these."

That makes these ideal for school use as it can be moved between classes, very little technical training is required, and no costly computer systems are needed to run everything.

On top of all that, Veative has been producing content for years so there are masses of educational VR experiences from which to choose. With more than 670 modules for both VR and AR, you can access 100+ hours of immersive content. And since this is a global brand, it is aligned with more than 20 curricula and is offered in five languages.

• Check out the best of BETT 2023 here

For older students there are unique career discovery and CTE options with gamified interactions. For younger students there are STEM learning and specific subject modules covering physics, math, biology, ELL, chemistry, virtual tours, special ed, and more.

Everything can be managed from an app, which allows educators to monitor student progress, set work, analyze data, and more.

Veative Full is available now for $10 per user per year. Or go for the Library Mode, in which anyone can grab a device and use it, for $200 per VR headset per year.

The best of BETT 2023 is here as we take to the show floor to find all the best technological innovations that can help enhance education now and in the near future.

This year the education world descends upon London for the annual Bett Educational Training and Technology trade show which has been running since 1985. Year after year the show has centered more around technology in the classroom and this year is no different, with robots and artificial intelligence dominating the event.

Expect to hear from huge names such as Google and Microsoft as well as education-specific companies such as WizeFloor, Dobot, LapSafe, and others. 

Here are the very best picks from what we saw on the show floor this year to help education progress in a way that's innovative but easily integrated into schools, colleges and universities.

Best of BETT 2023 top picks

Dobot Magician E6

Dobot Magician E6 is at BETT 2023 this year to show how bot-based learning can help engage all levels of students and enhance both STEM and STEAM lessons. 

This is a six-axis robotic arm which is controlled by bespoke algorithms written with education in mind. As such, this can be used to teach about robotics, coding, production, and more, all from a small space. The desktop robot is small enough to fit on a space the size of an A4 sheet of paper, making it an option for nearly any classroom.

Dobot is working to create more software that answers the needs of educators and currently offers support to help enhance use of this frankly mesmerizing robot educator.

Jamworks AI

Artificial intelligence (AI) is well and truly here and how that affects education is being decided already. 

Jamworks is on the front line of this new wave of technology, with a product that uses all the smarts of an AI assistant but in a sandboxed system that keeps students safe, and stops plagiarism and cheating, while serving both student and educator.

Jamworks is able to record a class and automatically transcribe a lesson with concise bulleted notes, images, links, and headings, which combine for easy learning and revision. It can also create quizzes from classes, making cheating far more difficult and helping gauge student learning in class.

Students and teachers can even learn by simply asking the AI to summarize a subject and it will trawl the internet to create a concise lesson that suits their age range. The future has arrived for class.

Veative VR

Veative is a VR company aimed at education specifically. Unlike many others, this brand offers a stand alone headset. That means this has all the content loaded on so you don't need any computer, smartphones, cables, or even internet to use the virtual reality experiences.

There are over 100 hours of content across 670 modules spanning STEM learning, ELL, special ed, physics, chemistry, biology, math and more all made to curricula standards. Plus there is an app backing it up so educators can assess progress of students and analyze data over time to see how effective the VR classes can be.

Older students can also use the VR world to experience careers virtually in order to help them decide on a career path that could be best suited to their needs and abilities. 

With fair rates for use across classes or school-wide, Veative is a very appealing option for any schools considering adding VR to their education portfolio.

MakeKit AS

MakeKit AS was at BETT 2023 to show off its range of educational robots. From bots that blow bubbles when you clap to flying drones -- students can now build and code these smart machines with more ease than ever. 

MakeKit has created a system that works with micro:bit in order to control robotic movements and commands, all within the MakeCode language framework.

All that should mean a far more straightforward experience for educators and students who want to enjoy STEAM learning. Backed by a host of helpful YouTube videos, the MakeKit AS makes teaching and learning of robotics and coding more pleasant and all while using sustainable parts too.

LapSafe Smart Lockers

LapSafe Smart Lockers are the future of laptop storage -- and it's available now. From digital access to built-in charging, there is a lot to be excited about when it comes to these smart locker systems. 

Educators and students can use the touchscreen to access a locker, where there will be a fully charged laptop waiting. Since the bay charges the device it should mean no need to lug about chargers or have unsightly and potentially dangerous cables laying about the building.

Secure, easy to access, and built to be efficient on space, these smart lockers are ideal for schools. But thanks to the 24/7 nature of the accessibility, these are also a great choice for colleges and universities. From fixed units to lockers with wheels that can be moved about, there are several options to suit most needs. All come with a lifetime parts and labor warranty too, for that extra peace of mind.

ViewSonic Universe

ViewSonic, the display manufacturing specialist, has taken to BETT 2023 to show off its new Universe software, which aims to blur the lines between reality and digital engagement.

The ViewSonic Universe is a virtual classroom space in which teachers and students can appear as avatars, signing in from wherever they are, using nearly any device. The idea is to reduce absences while also offering a space that can be adaptable. Teachers can post quizzes or polls instantly, or teach about the stars by turning the ceiling into a virtual observatory.

This platform has huge potential and the more it balances the real and virtual worlds, the more teaching opportunities it can offer.

WizeFloor Interactive Surface

The WizeFloor Interactive Surface is a smart projector system that can turn a floor into a digitally interactive experience for students. In using this, a video is projected on the floor that smart cameras can detect when a foot is placed on a certain point, and the video reacts accordingly. Think giant touchscreen, only on the floor and able to react to multiple students at once.

From presenting quizzes that require students to stamp the right answer to playing virtual soccer games, there is a huge range of possibilities offered by this system. Everything can be scaled to suit the size of the room, or you can go for a mobile option, on wheels, to be used anywhere it's needed in the school.

Crucially, educators can create their own games and tools on this platform, which broadens the possibilities.

EntrySign Login System

The EntrySign Login System has been shown at BETT as a fantastic way to manage the visitors of any education institution. This automated system crams in features while keeping student security and safeguarding at the forefront as it is designed specifically for education institutions. 

This system automates the process, allowing staff to get on with other tasks. Send temporary time sensitive QR codes to guests so they can sign in with their devices, use fobs for regular visitors, and enjoy features such as automatic temperature taking and self sanitizing. All while collecting all the data you need to stay safe and keep records of everyone that signs in and out of your education space.

The Dobot Magician EG for education is being presented at BETT 2023 to show how robots can help in varying subjects at schools and higher education institutions.

As you may recognize, this little robot looks very much like the automation machines seen in manufacturing plants across the world. This has a lot of those impressive features only scaled down to a desktop size that makes it ideal for classroom use.

This six-axis robotic arm is able to move freely to pick up and transport objects as its larger siblings would on the production line. The company says that this bot is perfect for helping to educate students about robotics, coding, and production in an engaging way.

Dobot is working to create simple programming methods as well as guidance for educators to get the most out of teaching with this in the classroom. The algorithms that run this bot were created bespoke so it can be leveraged as needed by educators to help teach in STEAM and STEM learning.

The Dobot Magician E6 is a plug-and-play device, making it very simple to setup and use for both educators and students alike. And since this takes up little more than the space of an A4 sheet of paper, it fits easily into lots of classroom situations and spaces.

The bot also uses AI and works with drag-to-teach and graphical programming that should be simple for most students to use. The fact it looks exciting, dare we say it mesmerizing, is a great feature in helping keep students engaged while learning.

Check out the best of BETT 2023 here.

EntrySign made an appearance at BETT 2023 this year as an ideal education sign-in and visitor management system.

The EntrySign system has been built with education in mind so boosting security and safeguarding students are at the forefront of the features here. Everyone who visits the site can sign in and sign out easily, without the need for staff to play a part in the process. 

Consequently, visitor access can be managed safely but also monitored, allowing you to collect all the information that is needed for the safest possible experience. For example, you can use QR codes that are time sensitive, allowing specific invitees to have access for a specified period only. This can mean saving money by negating the need to offer physical passes, instead allowing visitors to use their own devices, with their unique codes, to gain access.

That said, there is still a traditional NFC card or fob reader so those entering the school regularly can do so without the need to use their device or having to spend any time entering information -- simply tap and go.

Other useful features include instant fire evacuations, documentation tracking, date tracking, infection control with automatic sanitizing and temperature checking, MIS integration, and more. Usefully, the EntrySign system can send automatic email confirmations to guests as well as offer custom attachments to suit individual needs. 

Various physical units are available to suit the needs and the space of the institutions in question. This is a very comprehensive system that can be scaled to fit the needs of your education space.

Check out the best of BETT 2023 here.

The WizeFloor projector range was shown at BETT 2023 as a smart way to turn any floor into an interactive education space. 

Using ceiling-mounted projectors, or mobile units, WizeFloor is able to create a video on the floor that can be interactive. Step on it and the smart cameras will pick up what is being selected and the video can react. Consequently, the possibilities are huge! Think touchscreen, only on the floor and able to support multiple students at once.

As such, WizeFloor can be used for education and sport. Football (soccer) is one option, with up to eight players able to kick a virtual ball around a pitch at the same time. Or turn the floor into a giant keyboard and have two students play either end of the virtual piano at once, using their feet (like in Big). Do a class quiz with movement to answer. The possibilities go on and on.

The award-winning interactive learning floor, developed in Denmark, not only offers a wide selection of app-based content but also lets you, as an educator or institution, create your own. This can be a great way to get the class working collaboratively while also engaging movement and exercise at the same time.

A range of projectors that can be scaled to suit the room size are available, making this a viable option for many rooms. Or go for the mobile unit, on wheels, and it can be used in any classroom that needs it.

WizeFloor is available to buy now in its varying forms. Since everything is included in the one unit -- PC, projectors, cameras, speakers, vinyl flooring, and software -- this is a very easy to setup and use system.

Check out the best of BETT 2023 here.

The ViewSonic Universe was shown off at BETT 2023 as a new virtual space for holding class with students signing in from their own devices.

As hybrid learning becomes a more viable option and student absences continue to be an issue, ViewSonic has created a digital space that aims to get everyone together. That can include students signing in from devices at home while students in class use devices there, for a near seamless group experience.

Educators can pick a virtual classroom, or build their own, then students are able to create their own avatar characters before all entering the virtual space together. Students may already be adept at video chat but by making the world a 3D environment they should be more focused and attentive.

Want to take the class into space, why not change the ceiling to an observatory? Need to teach a history less? You can bring historical figures right into the virtual classroom to teach with you.

Collaboration becomes more powerful here as students can work together, regardless of their physical location. You can post a poll, put on a quiz, and more, all with results coming instantly for you as the teacher. Pull in a camera feed of real-world teaching in front of the class, add a screen share, use a digital whiteboard -- everything can be brought together in this one unifying digital space.

ViewSonic is still in the process of launching this relatively new Universe so expect more and more integration with other systems in the near future. Thanks to this being widely accessible, through a browser, ViewSonic Universe can be used on many devices, from iOS and Android to PC, Mac and more -- so it should be inclusive for most students.

Check out the best of BETT 2023 here.

MakeKit AS has taken to BETT 2023 to show off its micro:bit-powered robots aimed at education use for STEM and STEAM learning subjects.

The Norway-based company has set out to make building robots and using programming skills a much easier process for educators, students, and schools. 

The hardware is based on the BBC micro:bit technology that is affordable and offers a system which, once learned, can be easily scaled. Unlike other micro:bit builds, there is a special MakeKit AS control board that helps to manage everything. Think of it like a translator that speaks to all the different languages so you only have to speak one.

The MakeKit Wonderboard, as it's called, uses MakeCode and works to control and power all the micro:bit robotic functions. So from the flying Air:bit to the Bubble:bit that blows bubbles, everything in this ecosystem is easily built and controlled -- making this a viable education option even for younger learners.

Everything is designed with sustainability in mind, using materials that are reusable, recyclable, repairable, and durable. This makes these robots environmentally friendly while at the same time helps to save money on the upfront costs of these affordable materials. 

MakeKit AS runs a YouTube channel that is filled with helpful information to allow educators to pick this up fast and to teach it to students. It offers lots of ways to work, with helpful and creative options to bring the coding to life.

Check out the best of BETT 2023 here.

LapSafe Smart Lockers were at BETT 2023 and shown to be the future of locker-based storage for laptops in education buildings. With smart digital access and built-in charging, this is the way lockers are supposed to be.

The idea is to offer a locker system that houses all your education institution's laptops in an easily accessible space that is also super secure. Not only that, but this setup is also powered, so when a student or educator comes to take a laptop out, it should be charged and ready to go.

These lockers can help with security and space efficiency as well as eliminate the need of lugging chargers or having cables all over the school floors. Since the lockers charge the laptops, anyone can remove, use, and return a device before needing a charge.

Everything is automated and runs through a central touchscreen control panel. Consequently, the service is up and running 24/7 -- making it a great option for colleges and universities. 

With more than 15 years of experience and 15,000+ bays up and running around the world, LapSafe Smart Lockers is a company that knows what it is doing. As such, you get a lifetime warranty for parts and labor with any purchased product. 

A range of varying locker sizes and shapes is available, some even packing wheels to allow you to move units between rooms or buildings. Many work on a loan basis and prices can vary based on your needs.

Check out the Best of BETT 2023 here.

Jamworks has revealed at BETT 2023 just how artificial intelligence could work to change our classrooms in the future -- and it's started right now with its own bespoke education AI.

Jamworks' Connor Nudd, CEO, tells Tech&Learning: "AI is already here, right now, and it's just becoming about how we're going to manage it in the classrooms.

"Programs like ChatGBT are freely available and students could use it to write essays but we're working to stop plagiarism and create useful tools both for educators and students."

Based on the GPT-4 learning model, the Jamworks AI was created for education specifically. As such, the assistant is limited to access content from a specific sandboxed database. This not only makes it safe for students of varying ages, but also works to make sure students can't just use this to shortcut on essay writing.

Instead, the AI has uses such as allowing a teacher or student to ask it to summarize otherwise voluminous content. It is also built to help with class notes. A student could record the audio of a lesson and this AI will automatically transcribe the spoken words in written text, organize it into sections, highlight important areas, pull in images taken in class, offer links to more information, and more.

So while this will simplify information, ideal for note taking, it will also expand, allowing students to learn about a topic for which the AI trawls the internet for the best bits to suit what they're asking. Crucially, it knows who it is searching for and so will keep that aged student safe and only offer content that is relevant.

Educators can use the AI to generate quizzes, as can students. What makes this platform stand out is that those quizzes can be made from the notes taken in a lesson. This represents a superb way to test retention in a way that takes away the chance to just look it up online and spout off what someone else has written.

Jamworks is out now in the US and UK, with plans to launch in 15+ countries and languages in the coming months.

Check out the best of BETT 2023 here.

• Best Tools for Teachers

Buddy is an artificially intelligent robot that is being shown off at Bett 2022 as a way to help teach students. The smart robot is built to help communicate emotionally with children for connected learning engagement.

That means that this little bot buddy is already being used in hospitals. The robot works in wards where children are in isolation, allowing them to interact and learn. Equipped with cameras, speakers, and microphones -- as well as a healthy dose of processing power -- the little bot is able to communicate verbally with children.

A built-in camera and screen allow children to use the bot for internet calls, which can mean talking to parents or friends when in isolation. For in-school use, this can be used for remote learning with class members not able to attend in the physical room.

The bot also specializes in teaching coding and programming. As such it is being touted as a viable teaching companion, helping teachers in the class to keep students engaged in targeted learning. 

"Agora's real-time-engagement technology has made Buddy very robust and reliable through its telepresence function," says Ali Nhari, Head of Sales at Agora. "It's providing a more human-to-human connection that helps preserve important social connections for children to reduce a sense of isolation."

Buddy is a collaborative result of the efforts of Blue Frog Robotics and Agora.

• Best of Bett 2022

Sandbox AR comes from Discovery Education as an award-winning digital media platform that now serves over 4.5 million students worldwide across 140 countries, which isn't new. What is new is the Sandbox AR app itself.

Launched this year and shown off at Bett 2022, the augmented reality app gives a glimpse into how education could work in the future, starting now. The app, available on iPad only at launch, takes advantage of the device's camera, display, motion sensors, and high-speed processors to meld reality and digital creations.

But how does this actually work? We took a tour with Phil Birchinall, Discovery Education's senior director of immersive content and teacher of 30 years.

• Best of Bett 2022

How Does Sandbox AR Work?

The app allows students and teachers to enter an empty space, say a school hall, and hold up the tablet with the camera on. Instead of displaying the empty room, the app overlays digital creations in that space. You can then move about in the real world to explore the virtual creation.

This could mean, as shown in the above real-world example picture, that students are able to explore an ancient Roman city as if it were really there right in front of them. That opens up the possibilities for school trips, allowing students not only to travel the globe virtually but to visit certain places in time as well.

What Makes Sandbox AR Unique For Education?

Augmented reality has been around for years now, although upgrades in Apple hardware and software – following the launch of ARKit – are making that more accessible than ever. As a result, this platform has been created to simplify the process of using AR while also creating with it. Consequently, any iPad since Gen 5, in 2017, will now be powerful enough to run this app.

"We are aware of equity in schools and wanted to make sure this was accessible to as many as possible," says Phil Birchinall.

What would have previously taken super powerful computers to generate AR environments is now made available to teachers and students. Sandboxes, as these spaces are called, allow students or teachers to build virtual realities to visit or to share with the class – a bit like Minecraft in AR.

A host of pre-built sandboxes are available, allowing classes to take trips easily without the need to build. This can mean historic trips through time and space. You can also share these using QR codes, a great idea for melding with the real world. Imagine tables in a class, each with a QR code students can scan to reveal a different experiment or trip on that area.

Birchinall points out the choice of this AI over VR: "We have worked with VR for years but it's AR that works so well for education. This opens the experience up so that a group of students can explore a space together in this more sociable way of experiencing the digital world."

How Can Sandbox AR Be Used In Education?

We've already touched on what Sandbox AR is capable of but there is so much more. In fact, this is a virtual creation space so it is only limited by the creativity of its users. Think of how Minecraft has grown since its creation – this is a bit like that in terms of creative freedom, only with a far more lifelike and immersive experience. 

The key here is that this can grow as is needed by educators and students. "We plan to have developments for major events, like Tutankhamun’s 100th anniversary that’s coming up, there will be specialist Egyptian build materials for that," Birchinall says. "But we’re also building based on what educators are asking for. We can do this with direct requests and also from the user data we see from our established De:X platform. Where this grows is up to those that use it in school and we're really excited about that."

You've found the best of Bett 2022, meaning all the latest tech for education is right here. The Bett Educational Training and Technology trade show has been running since 1985 and is now more tech-focused than ever.

This year's show, based in London, is crammed full of teaching tech trend-setters from big names such as Google, Microsoft, and HP, to recognized school systems such as Arbor, Bromcom, and ScholarPack, with plenty more besides.

We've taken to the show floor to find the very best of Bett 2022 so you can see the future of technology in teaching as it is appearing right now. From augmented reality and security to coding and management systems, it's all here.

Best of Bett 2022 top picks

Buddy: The Emotional AI Robot

The aptly named robot, Buddy, has been shown off at Bett 2022 as an emotional artificially intelligent robot that's built to work with children in education. This robot can work in many roles from a teaching assistant or learning companion to a tool for teaching coding and programming. 

How does it do all this? By using AI to combine vision, language processing, and gesture controls so as to allow Buddy to interact with children in a natural way. The little guy is powered by Agora so it can also be used for video calling between the robot, the user, and another on a tablet.

Buddy is currently used in hospitals, having been bought in bulk by the French Ministry of Education. There these devices help children in isolation rooms to learn remotely as well as stay in touch with family and friends.

Jean-Michel Blanquer, France’s Minister of Education, said: "Not only do the children participate in all teaching activities, but they can also interact with their environment. Telepresence robots allow them to move, exchange and establish their presence within the schools, which they continue to attend physically."

Sandbox AR From Discovery Education

Discovery Education is already a well-established force in the world of digital learning but its augmented reality app is newer and is pushing change. Sandbox AR, as the app is called, has been shown off at Bett 2022 as a way to use augmented reality in the classroom.

This platform goes beyond taking the students into another virtual world and actually allows them to create their own for an even more engaging experience. That can mean taking a tour through space and time as an ancient Roman city is explored as if it were standing in the school sports hall, for example. 

Teachers can build worlds, use pre-created ones, or have students make their own. Imagine taking the class on walking tour across ancient cities or building the school as if it were built hundreds of years ago. To call this engaging and immersive is an understatement.

Cypher Learning Neo LMS

Cypher Learning is an intelligent learning platform that aims to make digital learning smarter for adaptive teaching that works to help individuals progress as they need. This is done using a combination of AI smarts, adaptive learning, automation, and gamification.

Neo LMS is the education-focused part of this offering. The K-12 offering is features a selection of lessons that students can work through on any device. This will then carry out assessments and work out which is the best next step to progress toward education goals, based on targets.

Clever Blocks

Clever Blocks is a real-world way of learning coding. The idea is to offer handheld blocks that allow students to learn the basics of coding without the need for screen time. This not only works on dexterity but also offers feedback on mistakes so students can self-teach as they work.

Blocks consists of several types including Memory, Repeat, Move, Rotate, Device, Variable, End, and Main. Using a combination of these, lined up, it will direct a connected device. So a small robot can be navigated using this coding combination, which is executed once the block code has been built and is ready to transmit the commands. An exciting end result for students to work toward.

Since the blocks can be remembered and pasted, it's possible to build complex code combinations without having to invest in a huge number of blocks. The Bluetooth connectivity allows this to be used with multiple robots, creating varied outcomes from the coding work done by students. 

Connect By Locker

Connect, by Locker, is an internationally available system that makes work less manual for admins. The idea is to offer a way to automate the connection of a school MIS with online systems. This will connect to the likes of Google, Microsoft 365, and Teams, and works with MIS systems including SIMS, Bromcom, Arbor, ScholarPack, ISAMS, ESS, Furlong, Iris, Ed:Gen, Civica, SQL, and others.

This will automatically create and remove new and leaving staff in the directory, syncing that with Google and Microsoft 365. Distribution lists and timetables can be automatically pushed to Outlook and other tools, freeing up admin time. 

Granular licensing is also a big feature here through which certain people can be given Microsoft 365 licenses, for example, potentially saving money on the amount needed.

Usefully, Connect is able to sync class structures from Teams and Google so that any can be archived and used from previous years or for future years.

ClassSpaces

Hybrid learning made simple, ClassSpaces offers a way to make sharing the digital world easier in the classroom. This tool is about unifying platforms so that uploading, storing, and sharing of lessons and materials is made as seamless as possible. 

Once everything is uploaded using ClassSpaces -- including documents, images, videos, web tabs, and more -- these can be shared to individual student devices, groups, or the whole class with a simple click. 

Teachers can present to the class across devices, ask others to present, chat across devices, and more. Usefully, it's possible for teachers to monitor tabs open on students' browsers so they can close one or several if deemed inappropriate to the lesson. A screen preview feature allows a teacher to view open tabs for each student, and access their active history to see what they've been doing.

This integrates with ClassLive and Clever, and currently works on Chrome, Microsoft, and Apple Mac, and soon will work on iOS too.

Sign In App

As the name suggests, Sign In App is a platform built to digitally manage access records for educational institutions. The idea is to make it as digital, automated, and simple as possible. It achieves this by offering a very easy-to-use app for those visiting, which can be displayed on various devices.

This works not only for sign-in but also manages efficient evacuations, can share roll calls across devices, manages block lists, and even post-pandemic, covers vaccine status. This also lets people scan QR codes for easy sign-in using their own devices.

Everything integrates seamlessly with the school setup thanks to a broad compatibility with a variety of MIS options. These include SIMS, Arbor, RM Integris, ScholarPack, Pupil Asset, Furlong, Bromcom, Engage, Progresso, WCBS, CMIS, and ISAMS. 

Nualang

Nualang is a digital language learning platform that makes progress better. It does this by focusing on conversational learning for faster learning. This is done by offering a phrase, for example, and having the student speak it aloud. The intelligent voice recognition software can then determine if the student was accurate or not. It can then either let them progress onward or playback their effort compared with the correct version. 

Teachers can create their own classes with phrases created as needed. But there is also an array of options already online that can be used right away. This applies to a broad range of languages, and is rolling out fast across U.S. schools. 

Since this is cloud-based and can be used on most devices, it makes a great in-class tool and also one for students to use on their devices outside of class time -- crucial in language mastery.

Musilla

The Musilla platform has won three Bett 2022 awards and is a stand out, polished product. This app is built to help students learn music in a fun and engaging way, using a tablet. The exercises to teach musical learning are gamified to helps students enjoy the feeling of being empowered to play on their own.

This is an ideal blend of those music-playing games that require perfect timing to hit the right button and lessons, only this uses real instrument images on screen with real notes. This is app-based, so a student is not working with the real instrument, however, for learning to read music and work out note placement, it's perfect. 

Following the rapid escalation of omicron cases across the UK and around the world, Bett 2022 is postponed to 23-25 March and will continue to take place at the ExCeL London. Read more. 

On 19-21 January 2022 and for the first time, Bett is thrilled to launch Esports @ Bett in association with British Esports Association, a non-for-profit national body that is helping to educate parents, teachers and policy makers on the benefits of competitive video gaming.  

Esports can hugely benefit students and act as a super power, to encourage learning, promote teamwork and enhance communication. With 73.8 million concurrent viewers at a recent World Championships, esports is a hugely popular recreational activity that also offers many job and career opportunities around the world. 

What is esports? 

Esports is competitive video gaming, where people of any gender or physical ability play against each other online and at live spectator events. It is very inclusive and can be played by both amateur and professional players. 

In the UK, esports is classified as a game, like chess, and not a sport. With a community of around 222.9 million individuals, it has become more mainstream and the industry continues to grow year on year. 

Getting in the game: broadening student engagement 

Not all young people enjoy traditional team activities such as sport, music, art or drama that are built into the school curriculum. Esports offers a fun and stimulating environment that engages a wider demographic of students who can meet new people and develop existing friendships.  

In moderation, and as part of a balanced lifestyle, esports is a beneficial alternative to watching passive media, like TV or using social media. It directly links to computing education, STEAM subjects, the development of digital skills, cyber skills, and digital literacy. It also promotes character development in exactly the same way that traditional team-based activities do.  

British Esports has even partnered with Pearson to introduce the esports BTEC, the first qualification of its kind in the world with a skills-based focus launching back in April 2020, with more than1800 students currently taking part in the BTEC over both Level 2 and Level 3.  

With more than 70% of schools now considering an esports programme, and with the expectation that the global esports market will triple by 2025, Bett is proud to be supporting such a fast growing and innovative industry.  

Esports @ Bett: the epicentre of all things esports  

Bett in association with the British Esports Association will be launching a multidimensional exploration of the growth of esports, enabling educators, leaders and parents alike to experience and understand its potential within education.  

Landmarked by a central feature on the Bett show floor in the South Hall, this dedicated space will be the epicentre of all things esports, providing a hub within which visitors can participate in gaming, experience real time product demonstrations and hear from industry experts: 

• The esports feature will include a dedicated theatre offering educational talks on the benefits of taking part in, or having, an esports offering at schools.   
• Visitors will also have the opportunity to experience and see demonstrations of the tech used in esports and during live competitions from key partners like Lenovo, Acer/Planet9, Republic of Gamers and more.  
• Every afternoon, join to watch exciting live tournaments for school groups across the UK followed along with live professional commentary. 

Come and visit Esports @ Bett across 23-25 March, with live tournaments, hands-on tech and exciting keynote speaker sessions. Registration to visit here  

BETT UPDATE

Following the rapid escalation of omicron cases across the UK and around the world, Bett 2022 is postponed to 23-25 March and will continue to take place at the ExCeL London. Read more.

Welcome back to EdTech’s biggest reunion

Bett is the global community for education technology: We spark ideas, create connections and accelerate trade, driving impact and improving outcomes for teachers and learners.  

For the first time since the beginning of 2020, Bett returns to the ExCeL London on 19-21 January 2022 to reunite the global education community in person. 

REGISTER NOW

Driving long-term action for the global education community 

In the past year and a half, we’ve seen the education community demonstrate true resilience and resourcefulness in the face of ongoing disruption. Bett’s year-round digital offering provided a platform for the education community to share best practice and learnings from responding to the pandemic, driving the belief that #LearningNeverStops. Looking forward, however, schools and institutions are moving beyond crisis response with the aim to turn lessons learned into sustainable, long-term action. At a strategic systems level, what can be retained, developed, and/or streamlined? At a practitioner level, educators are in a unique position to build beyond their huge initial upskilling in digital literacy and focus on developing their students’ social-emotional skills, for example.   

Bett & You: Introducing the Bett audience 

After extensive research with the education community, Bett has identified key visitor profiles so you can tailor your visit to the specific needs, priorities and interests of your role and institution. Whether you’re a Math teacher, a Headmaster or IT Director, Bett is dedicated to help you overcome your challenges and offer you the most curated experience at the show.  

Creating the future: Introducing the Bett 2022 global themes  

As the education community looks beyond the crisis response, the overarching theme of Bett 2022 is: create the future.  

When challenged with exceptional, unprecedented problems and barriers to learning during this time of disruption, it has been vital for educators to think outside the box and solve problems creatively.  

Armed with more EdTech solutions and resources than ever before, educators have the opportunity to reimagine traditional models of pedagogy so that students can plug into a personalized, future-facing learning experience and become resilient, creative lifelong learners who can harness their knowledge and skills to tackle the challenges of tomorrow.  

Informed by conversations with our audience, Bett’s six global themes structure the three full days of content at Bett 2022 - leading to the overarching theme Create the future - ensuring that education stakeholders worldwide can address their most pressing challenges and priorities.  

Content destinations at Bett 2022 

With 90+ hours of CPD content, the seminar agenda will offer an exciting line-up with over 225 inspiring speakers including one of the world’s leading authorities on growth mindset, Eduardo Briceño, the comedian and actor Sally Phillips, who will speak about home-schooling during lockdown and life with a SEN child, and Gogglebox favourite Baasit Siddiqui, whose Siddiqui Education organisation helps boost the morale and achievements of disadvantaged pupils. 

Discover what you can expect from our nine content features and stages:  

• The Arena: The heart of the show, home to the most inspirational, future-thinking keynotes and discussions and hosting household names from the world of education and beyond. Content is aimed at the whole education ecosystem from Minister to teacher to student. 
• Teaching & Learning Theatre: The place to celebrate the best use of technology for engaging all students, demonstrating creative learning experiences that enhance teaching and enrich learning across the curriculum. 
• Leaders @ Bett Theatre: The place for policy, digital strategy, whole-school management, HE transformation and more. Sessions are led by institution leaders and their teams. 
• Tech in Action Theatre (North Hall and South Hall): The Tech in Action theatres are a hub for practical product demonstrations to deepen understanding and evaluate the efficacy of solutions. Experience software solutions in the North Hall Theatre and hardware and equipment solutions in the South Hall theatre.  
• Bett Academy Live Theatres (North Hall and South Hall): The Bett Academy is a monthly series of CPD sessions for educators. Accredited and certified by Bett and CPDUK, these tutorials are streamed online every month. At Bett 2022, join the Bett Academy Live Theatres in person! 
• Bett Futures: The home of the startup where you can discover emerging innovations from EdTechs at the start of their journey.  

Offering impactful solutions for your institution 

This year again, Bett has split the exhibition into six solution zones to help visitors navigate and pinpoint exactly where they want to go and who they want to meet. You will have access to over 550 exhibitors and sponsors, from tech superpowers such as Microsoft, Google, Lenovo and Pearson to specialist education suppliers such as Arbor Education, NetSupport, Promethean and 2Simple to rising start-up stars – offering impactful solutions for institutions of all sizes and all budgets.  

NEW FOR 2022  

• Esports @ Bett: The epicenter of all things esports. Experience live gaming demonstrations and hear from industry experts on how schools and universities can harness this growing industry to engage students, support teaching and learning objectives and identify future skills. 
• Bett After Hours 
  As Bett moves to a three-day show for 2022, day 2 of the show (Thursday 20 January 2022) will provide extended opening hours so that visitors who cannot attend Bett during the day can still experience everything that Bett offers and more: 
• Ahead by Bett, the new co-located event designed for Higher Education leaders accelerating disruption. 
• Bett Hosted Leaders Programme 
  Brought to you by Bett and Learnit, the Hosted Leaders Programme is improved for Bett 2022 and will connect global school, university and government leaders with relevant and thoughtfully selected Education Solution Providers through carefully curated 1:1 meetings.  Participating educator leaders identify challenges they are trying to overcome and products and services they are looking to source, and education solution providers request meetings with leaders who are actively searching for the products and services they deliver. No random meetings or forced connections, just high-quality conversations between two parties who are perfectly matched to do business. This invaluable initiative provides tangible ROI for all participants. The event has sold out for the previous three years, so book early to avoid missing out.  

Safe & Secure: Connecting customers and communities safely  

Your health, safety and comfort has been, and continues to be Bett number one priority. As the industry moves forward, Bett is dedicated to delivering events and facilitating trade with health and safety at the top of the agenda.   

In light of this, Bett has developed Safe & Secure standards. Working at the forefront with industry organisations such as AEO (Association of Event Organisers) and UFI (Global Association of the Exhibition Industry), as well as with governments, Safe & Secure is an evolution of already market-leading health and safety measures. Please also look out for the Safe & Secure stamp. Wherever you see this logo digitally or onsite it confirms that Bett has ensured the highest health and safety standards across the event. 

Bett is returning to the ExCeL London on 23-25 March 2022. Discover more information and register here: https://uk.bettshow.com  

Bett, the world’s largest education event, ran its first virtual show in January. BettFest was three days of inspiration, professional development and product discovery. Over 7,500 people from 110 countries and all parts of the edtech industry took part in this exciting event.

The event focused on three key themes which will help to shape remote learning on a global scale: leadership, digital inclusion and resilient futures and content was delivered in three ways: Mainstage, Bett Academy and Solutions Showcases to support the different needs of the global Bett community.

Anchoring each day was a live mainstage packed with thought leaders including Sir Anthony Seldon, Bruce Daisley and Microsoft’s CEO, Satya Nadella. We were also honoured to broadcast a special address from Rt Hon Nick Gibb MP, who recognised the vital role that education technology has played in the past year and announced initiatives to support this to continue. The mainstage also gathered educators from across the world sharing stories from their schools during lockdown. These keynote sessions were designed to inspire but also to celebrate the classroom educator who innovation and dedication has anchored and supported young people through this past year.

At 4pm each day attendees were able to benefit from professional, accredited CPD from Apple, Connected Learning Centre, Animate2Educate and Microsoft – practical, interactive, deep-dive sessions. These sessions officially launched Bett Academy, a monthly series of interactive, accredited professional development that will take place live on the last Friday of each month at 4pm GMT. Sessions are all available on-demand for easy 24-hour access at https://www.bettshow.com/bett-academy.

To keep the spirit of innovation and new ideas alive BettFest also featured daily Solutions Showcase sessions which were available on-demand. Companies including Dell, HPE, Asus, Acer, Cisco Meraki, Microsoft and a selection of entries to the Bett Awards. These exciting sessions aimed to echo the innovative spirit of the Bett Show live and featured product launches, discussions with celebrities including comedian Dara O’Briain and astronaut Tim Peake.

Bett isn’t complete without the Bett Awards and this year was no exception. BettFest culminated in the announcement of the winners of the Covid-19 Response Champions Awards which paid tribute to the companies and schools who have responded to the Covid-19 outbreak in a way that has positively impacted on the education, health and wellbeing of the student population in combating the pandemic. Winners were announced in three categories: International Initiatives; Schools & Colleges (UK & International); UK Companies.

To see the full shortlist and winner for each category of the Covid-19 Response Champions Awards follow this link https://bettawards.com/2021-winners-covid-categories/

To watch BettFest back on-demand follow this link https://www.bettshow.com/BettFest

Bett is the largest education community in the world. From humble beginnings in the car park of the Barbican in 1985 to the ExCel centre, the London Bett Show (incorporating the Education Show) event attracts over 40,000 attendees from over 100 countries each January. Visitors range from Minister of Education to MAT CEO to School Business Manager to NQT. They come to learn at our 11 stages of world class content, to meet colleagues, to test out the latest technology from global suppliers and to discover new ideas to take back to the classroom. 

So what happens when a live events business can no longer run live events? How does Bett, rooted in EdTech for 35 years, stay connected to its visitors and support them as they move overnight to remote teaching and learning? 

Our first step was to create a community hub where we could share free resources offered by the EdTech community and where teachers could write articles outlining their experiences and offering best practice. Over the past nine months this has developed into an invaluable resource built by those who would normally connect in person. We’ve produced a regular Bettcast with contributions from schools and universities from around the world and continued our Podcast series with the EdTech Podcast. 

For the first time ever we’ve also added videos from the January show so you can get inspiration from our stellar list of speakers ranging from EdTech Demonstrator schools sharing best practice to institutions outlining their journey to a full digital strategy. 

Our community hub also has a strong wellbeing focus specifically designed to address the immediate challenges of students studying remotely and ways to support both students and teachers during this extended period of hybrid teaching and learning. 

The past year has helped us move beyond live events to connect with more schools and colleges around the world. But we’re Bett and we exist to bring people together. So we’ve created. It’s with this in mind that we’ve created BettFest, something different to celebrate and support the education community. The three days will offer product discovery, practical CPD and best practice for educating students during a pandemic. 

The completely new, dynamic content will focus on three dedicated BettFest themes: 

Leadership: Leading successful remote and blended learning; collaborating to design innovative solutions; designing an adaptable, scalable digital strategy

Digital inclusion: Solutions to overcome the digital divide; improving access and skills for students at all levels: ensuring impactful teaching for SEND students

Resilient futures: Building a strong workplace culture and avoiding burnout; enabling a culture of resilience; Fourth Education Revolution reimagined 

BettFest is free to attend and will comprise a Main Stage, Solutions Showcase, Bett Academy and After School Club fringe events: 

Main Stage:

2pm – 4pm each day. Tune in to hear keynote speakers and see best practice from the front line. Each day will focus on one of the BettFest themes with an outstanding speaker lineup from the UK as well as inspiring leaders from around the world. The full agenda can be found here. 

Solutions Showcase:

Stream new product showcases daily and discover what’s new and exciting in tech including a preview of the Bett Awards shortlist 

Bett Academy:

Sign up for the Bett Academy and update your CPD, either during the show or visit on-demand whenever you have the time. Sessions will be provided by Microsoft, Apple, Connected Learning Centre and Animate2Educate. The CPD is accredited by CPDUK and participants will be able to download a certificate of attendance. 

After School Club:

Bett wouldn’t be Bett without some of the famous fringe events. We’re bringing you some of the best: you can attend the UK or International Teachmeet, the Global EdTech Startup Awards, a Microsoft Flipgrid event and a ceremony to announce the Bett Awards Covid-19 Champions. 

Registration is now open and we would love to welcome you and your colleagues to join us online to share, celebrate and be inspired.

https://www.bettshow.com/bettfest-registration 

BettFest takes place on 20-22 January 2021.

The full Bett Awards will take place in-person on 16 June 2021.

The next in-person Bett show will take place on 19-21 January 2022 at ExCeL London. 

Sarah Marshall is Global Head of Content for Bett and is interested in all things education, learning and tech. Sarah has been volunteering as a mentor in secondary school since 2009 and has been a Governor at a primary school since 2014 where she is now Chair. Prior to joining the Bett team Sarah was Head of Events for Optimus Education where she was responsible for the programme of training and conferences for teachers.

Bett brings the global education community together virtually for three days of professional development, solution discovery, and thought-leading best practice on January 20th-22nd 2021. 

BettFEST 2021 themes include leadership, digital Inclusion and building a culture of resilience. BettFEST will stream from:  

• Main Stage: Leading education experts will discuss trending topics
• Solutions Showcase: Exclusive product announcements workshops and technology demonstrations on-demand
• Bett Academy: Certified CPD sessions during the show or on-demand
• After School Clubs: Socialize with the wider Bett community through "fringe" events

Agenda highlights include "Leading successful remote and blended learning," "The Future of Learning Today," and "Supporting student and teacher mental health." 

BettFEST boasts a sterling lineup of speakers, featuring some of the top leaders and voices in education technology today. Global  education leaders presenting include:

• Barbara Holzapfel, Vice President of Microsoft Education
• Bruce Daisley, Author and former Vice President, EMEA, Twitter
• Jim Knight, Chief Education Officer, Tes And Former UK Minister For Schools
• Madge Thomas, Head Of Innovative Finance, Corporate And Philanthropic Partnerships, Education Cannot Wait (UNICEF)

Learn more about the BettFEST 2021 agenda and register here 

BETT 2020 was one of the largest educational technology conferences in the world! This year more than 34,000 people attended this amazing conference. Educators from over 146 countries in the global education community were represented at BETT. 

Being one of the first conferences of the year, BETT is hosted in London, United Kingdom. It is an inviting conference for educators from all over the world because it is:

⦁FREE for attendees

⦁Offers a great location

⦁Connects with a global audience

⦁Offers a huge vendor floor for exploration

⦁Offers sessions in booths and in platinum suites

⦁Features beginning of year product releases

BETT Presentations

We (Jeni Long and Sallee Clark, aka. Jenallee) had the opportunity to share Microsoft Teams and OneNote with attendees in our learning area in the Microsoft Booth.                           

At the top of the hour, every hour, we shared some of our favorite Teams and OneNote features including:

Teams

⦁Me/We space

⦁Channels

⦁Posts

⦁+ Tab

⦁Assignments

⦁Grades Tab

⦁Insights

⦁Rubrics

OneNote

⦁Formats: App, 2016 version, iOs, Android, online, Teams

⦁Immersive Reader

⦁Draw tab

⦁Math Tools

⦁Forms quiz

⦁Replay

Some of our favorite features that we presented over Microsoft Teams include the new Grades tab and Rubric Grading. From the Grades tab you can see all of your assignments, easily enter grades, or view student work with one click. Not only that, if you attached a rubric, you can simply click and grade as you view and comment on the returned work. Want to leave feedback? Leave a comment in the same window. This is great for students and teachers; students know what the expectations are for their work during the entire assignment and teachers can grade student work with efficiency all within Microsoft Teams. 

Justin Chando (@justinchando), Principal Product Manager @MicrosoftEDU, building @MicrosoftTeams and @Microsoft365, shares on Twitter how “the full gradebook experience and individual student progress is included in every class team. Thank you for all the teacher feedback that made this possible.” You can read more about tracking students progress in Teams in the full article here.

Immersive Reader in Microsoft OneNote is a life changing piece of technology! We were honored to share how this tech offers users the ability to have any typed text, pdf, or image read to them. The voice is human and not robotic, and you can customize the reading pane: background color, font, line focus, picture dictionary, and even translations! That’s right! Immersive Reader will translate your entire document or individual words into your choice of 60 different languages! It will even read the document to you in many of these languages. We know you don’t believe us, or you can’t even imagine what we are trying to explain in this article. We think it is best explained by the product manager himself, Mike Tholfsen in this 90 second video!

Learning Tools are available in more than just OneNote. You can see in the image below some of the other Microsoft applications that offer Immersive Reader.

One of the things that we love about Microsoft is that they are seeking to empower everyone on the planet to do more, and to do that they have shared Immersive Reader technology with various edtech companies. Check out these third-party applications that offer Immersive Reader to its users!

Want to see the features that we shared with the BETT attendees in action? Check out these quick tutorial videos! Scan the QR code to view them on your mobile device or view this playlist.

What’s New in MicrosoftEDU

One of the best parts of attending BETT is that MicrosoftEDU releases their newest features for the year! There were so many amazing features released this year. Jenallee was honored to share the latest updates coming to PowerPoint. Check out Live Presentations in the BETT episode 1 of Microsoft’s What’s New in MicrosoftEDU! 

Updates came to Microsoft Teams, OneNote, Microsoft Whiteboard, Edge, PowerPoint, and more! Check out these What’s New in EDU videos to get all of the details! 

MIEExpert Community

We have been so fortunate to have a personal learning network (PLN) within the Microsoft Community. When educators earn 1,000 Microsoft online training points, they can become a Microsoft Innovative Educator.

As an MIE, educators have access to:

⦁A huge collection of Microsoft online training courses

⦁Lesson plans and collaboration projects

⦁Connection to thousands of educators around the world who want to connect digitally with Skype

⦁Online community via Twitter

As an MIE you also have the opportunity to become an MIEExpert. These are educators who are active in the community and want to share these amazing edtech tools with the world. To become an MIEExpert, MIE educators submit an application showing evidence of how they are connected and active in the community and show how they are sharing Microsoft tools with others.

As an MIEExpert, teachers have access to the amazing resources above and more:

⦁Microsoft Travel program: where educators attend a conference and present a Microsoft tool. Microsoft will pay for the travel expenses of the conference (you have to apply, and they select only what the budget can handle and no more than 2 a year per person)

⦁You are in the know! You get to learn inside information about new releases.

⦁Focus Groups where individuals ask and answer questions and share how they are using the products in their classrooms.

⦁You become part of a community of educators who care, help, and support each other online and in person. The #MIEExpert community is the best PLN we have ever been connected with offering us friends, opportunities, collaborations, support, and so much more.

Check out The Jenallee Show BETT2020 Episode to hear from these amazing #MIEExperts!

Thank you, BETT!

We had such a wonderful experience at BETT and we are thinking this may have to be a yearly conference we attend. It offered us new connections with educators from around the world and within our existing PLN, we were able to see the latest releases, and we had the opportunity to share some of our favorite Microsoft tools with this global community.

Looking for more resources and information about BETT? Scan the QR code to view the Jenallee BETT Wakelet on your mobile device. It is full of information about our presentations, MIE information, and BETT announcements.

Scan the QR code below to view the What’s New in EDU YouTube playlist. 

SMART Technologies showcased its latest lineup of solutions and services at FETC (Future of Education Technology Conference) on January 14-17, 2020 and Bett (the British Educational Training & Technology Show) in London from January 22 – 25, 2020.

Visitors to the technology tradeshows were among the first to experience the ToolSense™ innovation, along with SMART’s entire new lineup of interactive flat panels.

“The fact that we can incorporate tactile learning objects brings a new level to hands-on learning in the classroom and makes it accessible for everyone.” said Nicholas Svensson, SMART Technologies Executive Vice President & Operations Officer. 

Attendees visited “The Teaching Tech Zone” for a fully interactive experience or stopped by SMART’s stand NH2o to experience the ToolSense innovation for a chance to spin the wheel and win a SMART Board 6000S interactive display. SMART’s Seminar Spotlight “Time Saving Tech Hacks for Teachers” offered educators tips and tricks for using technology to save time in the classroom.   

At FETC, attendees joined the SMART team in booth #2813 along with special guests from Divine Savior Academy and the School District of Palm Beach County to explore the 2020 classroom ecosystem and ways to boost engagement. 

Dr Sue Black OBE kicked it off in The Arena this morning with a talk on Overcoming Challenges, Connecting People and Empowering Others. From leaving home at 16 and having 3 kids byt the age of 23 to saving Bletchley Park with Stephen Fry, meeting Princess Anne, the Queen and Prince Charles (who gave her her knighthood), Dr Black has had an incredible life and career. Her programme #TechMums gives tech training to mums across the country and she is now Professor of Computer Science at The University of Durham. She says that anyone can learn to code - it’s just like learning to read or write!

Dame Darcey Bussell OBE, creator of Diverse Dance MIX (DDMIX) got Bett moving at her talk with the whole audience on their feet joining her in some moves.  Dame Darcey passionately believes that kids are meant to move and we’re letting them down if we don’t help them. With today’s low levels of participation in physical activity it’s important to harness not only team sports but inclusive, non competitive physical activity that matches the stimulation provided by the digital world.  

The Edtech 50 - Celebrating Ambition; Inspiring Educators took place in the Arena. The panel, moderated by Ty Goddard, co-founder of The Education Foundation, consisted of Corrine Latham, Principal of Seaview Primary School and Nursery Unit, Belfast; Zaitoon Bukhari from Witton Park Academy, Blackburn; Claire Jones, Deputy Head of Layton Primary School, Blackpool and Kirsty Grundy, Principal and Trust Primary Director of Shireland Collegiate Academy. Ty started off by saying that we are seeing much more communication through tech for schools, teachers and learners. All four leaders had a lot to say about the use of technology at their schools. At Seaview they don’t see tech as an add-on but a necessity and they use Apple, Android, Google and Microsoft devices. At Witton Park Academy they believe technology is just a tool and that the real impact comes from how these tools are used to enhance teaching and learning. At Layton Primary School they start teaching coding at age 4 and incorporate coding language (if x then y) into everyday speech. At Shireland Collegiate Academy, they are looking to develop the next generation of change makers.

The Arena Keynote Highlight - Sugata Mitra on The Future of Learning

The visionary Professor of Educational Technology headed Friday afternoon’s keynote lineup. To a packed auditorium, he introduced his thinking around "The School in the Cloud." The approach is a combination of two tested practices: First, ‘The Granny Cloud’  - where volunteer educators connect with children around the world to give them opportunities to experience worlds far removed from their own as well as encouragement and admiration that is proven to help them thrive, and secondly, self-learning environments, where by using the internet students are able to find answers self-sufficiently. What they found was that schools in the cloud improve comprehension (in general, not just literacy), communication (the ability to demonstrate that you have comprehended) and computing (ability to solve a problem using the internet) in children.

Mitra’s most striking remarks drew a sharp focus on the current schooling system, the curriculum and in particular, the way that student’s knowledge and understanding is assessed - something he argued was firmly rooted in the past. He suggested that the use of internet and collaboration simply must be allowed during assessment and posed the question: "If we are using it 24/7, why is it that your child should not be able to just that too?"  Summarised as a 'senseless and obsolete" system that we don’t need any more, Mitra instead proposed a future curriculum structured around the questions that we don’t know the answers to in order to foster the ability in children to solve problems "just in time" i.e. to find accurate and current answers to questions. 

His parting thoughts on the future of learning drew us to encourage greater emphasis on fantasy rather than limited methods of looking at the future that are currently used in schools. 

Microsoft has cast a look into the future of education as it looks to prepare the classrooms of tomorrow with the technology they need to thrive.

The computing giant has revealed new research at BETT 2020 today that examines just what the teachers of 2030 will require in terms of technological needs.

With millennials and Generation Z set to make up a significant proportion of the teaching workforce by 2030, the needs of students and teachers alike are set to change, and Microsoft wants to be in pole position.

Advanced

Microsoft’s study surveyed over a thousand new and early-career teachers around the world in an attempt to work out their needs, but also looked to drill into just what technology can do for the educators of tomorrow.

The company found that technology is set to play an increasingly vital role in the classroom of the future, both in terms of enabling learning but also enriching the student and teacher experiences.

The study found that the largest benefits of education technology were seen as allowing more engaging learning experiences (chosen by 36 percent of the participants), enabling self-directed learning (31 percent) and preparing students for the tech-centric job market (30 percent).

However there were also some concerns surrounding the use of technology in the classroom, with 36 percent of respondents saying they feared it could lead to a loss of traditional skills and knowledge, such as handwriting. 34 percent were worried that students already spent too much time on devices already, and 28 percent said that the technology could be too distracting.

A lack of proper tools was named as the top barrier to achieving positive education outcomes through technology, with inadequate training for teachers on the technology they would be using, and inadequate technical support also ranking highly.

cross posted on www.techradar.com

Mike Moore is News & Features Editor across both TechRadar Pro and ITProPortal. He has worked as a technology journalist for more than five years, including at one of the UK's leading national newspapers. He is interested in hearing about all the latest B2B and B2C news, analysis and opinions, including how companies are using new technology to help forward their work and make their customer's lives easier.

The second day at Bett 2020 was off to an incredible start with the insightful Made by Dyslexia panel, discussing how best to integrate dyslexic learning in the classroom and workplace. The main notion of the talk was to remove stigma and instead view dyslexia as a superpower, a neuro-diverse talent that should be recognised and nurtured. Speakers on the panel included the Director General Strategy of GCHQ, who encouraged educators to remove societal barriers to allow dyslexic talent to develop. The Headmaster of Millfield School shared his views on the limitations of standardized testing and the need for educators to be trained in identifying dyslexic traits. The Microsoft Training Platform offers free dyslexic training for all teachers and marks the beginning of how technology can be combined with education to help support different children, each with uniquely individual talents. The Global Head of Human Resources at HSBC focused on the capabilities of dyslexic thinkers, who excel in creativity, problem solving, resilience and empathy. The panel was also joined by a Space Scientist, who shared her experience of being undiagnosed with dyslexia and how she was able to learn new skills and unlock her full potential by focusing on her creative and original thinking. 

Ready for the AI revolution? Esben Staerk, President of LEGO Education, took to the Bett Arena to talk about why confidence in STEAM learning is key to career opportunities in the age of automation. He said there will be a major shift in job categories and a need to build ‘life-long learners’ on a global scale who will have the confidence to adapt and continue to learn new technological skills. 

Laura McInerney, co-founder of app Teacher Tapp, talked about the key trends to watch out for in 2020. She highlighted that recruitment will be a key issue due to the focus on the gender pay gap deepening and a shortage of 19 year olds who are soon starting to enter the job market. Behavioural management and workload will also be a focus, with the vast majority of teachers saying they would prefer to work at a school that had longer working hours but good behaviour in class. 

Dr Ger Graus OBE, Global Director of Education at Kidzania, spoke passionately about social mobility, highlighting the fact that children can only aspire to what they know exists and our duty to widen horizons. He talked about the role the environment plays in education and the need for the world of work to teach children about the possibilities and opportunities available to them. 

The Bett Futures Takeover Shark Tank Panel challenged seven start-up companies to pitch their ideas to the panel. Presiding over the panel was the Former Minister for Schools for the United Kingdom RT Hon Jim Knight, Emerge Education’s Partner Nic Newman, Edulab’s Executive Vice President Norihisa Wada and MindCET EdTech’s Founder and CEO Avi Warshavsky. Each candidate was given two minutes to pitch their start-up company and a further three minutes to answer the complex questions thrown at them by the panel. 

Beginning the panel was Edves, a Nigerian based EdTech company that focuses on automating school processes for teachers, parents and students. They were followed by Sportip in Japan, who aim to use AI to provide sports fitness, rehabilitation and coaching through AI programming and tailor online exercise regimes specific to promote health and prevent injuries. Hong Kong based company MagiCube was next, a cloud-based collaborative programme whose goal is to carry out STEM education in the most economically convenient way. Israel’s company Speak had identified a niche gap in the EdTech market and developed a platform that measured and assessed the quality and ability to speak a language in only seven minutes. Smile + Learn, a Spanish based company, designed a 360 degree adaptive platform that specialised in Content Language Integrated Learning and reinforces key curriculum subjects such as Maths, Science and Robotics. ImBLaze, a powerful platform that enables students to find internships that interests them in the US, highlighted the importance of nurturing students who are beginning to make their way into the workplace. In contrast, Austria’s Robo Wunderkinds target audience was nursery and kindergarten. They give children the opportunity to experiment in the field of robotics using kid-friendly building blocks that encourage them to explore their creative capabilities.

The panel was unanimous in their decision in choosing Israel’s Speak start-up company as the winner.

Broadcaster and author Helen Skelton hosted a debate in the Bett Arena looking at whether the education system is adequately preparing pupils for the job market of the future.

Panelist Richard Henderson, Director of Global Education Solutions, Lenovo, said, “Smart connected devices are changing our lives.  They are in our homes and workplaces and are leading to a digital transformation in schools.  Today’s students need to prepare for jobs that don’t even exist yet; a whole host of new technological jobs.” 

Dan Hawes, Marketing Director, Graduate Recruitment Bureau, said, “The demand for STEM graduates is higher than the supply.  The pace of technological development is now so fast,  that training for the jobs we need no longer end in a degree or university education, students today will need to continue to build their skills over their  lifetimes.  

The panellists also highlighted the need for data that can demonstrate measurable results, encouraging schools to invest in new technologies, and encourage teachers to try out new technologies in their classrooms. 

Microsoft’s keynote led with new research that examined what teachers would need in the classroom of 2030. Anthony Salcito and Barbara Holzapfel, Affective Computing researcher Dr. Daniel McDuff, and NetHope Emerging Technologies Initiative Lead Leila Toplic explored the technology that will empower educators to navigate the changing needs of the staffroom and the classroom and enable students to accelerate their impact and transform the world. 

Universities, Science, Research and Innovation Minister Chris Skidmore announced at the Bett Official Opening the funding of trials of ground-breaking assistive technology for pupils with special educational needs and disabilities in up to 100 schools and colleges. 

SMART Technologies launched its new ToolSenseTM technology, which bridges physical and digital learning by incorporating tactile tools, available on the SMART Board® 6000S series. 

Erik Hanson of Apple took to the stage in the Bett Arena to discuss the critical role of creativity in driving human progress and innovation in the world today. During his talk Erik explored how creativity is brought to life through Apple’s Everyone Can Create curriculum, which helps educators find the creative genius in every child.

The final and most eagerly anticipated talk of the evening was Professor Brian Cox, OBE, arguably the UK’s best known experimental physicist. Professor Cox talked about revolutionary technology and how this has helped to further our gaze deeper than ever into the beginning of time, including telescopes that are now able to take photos of blackholes that are billions of light years away. He also described how digital sky surveys have allowed scientists to map the locations of stars and galaxies to form a 3D map of the universe, and spoke of the ability of the stars to map events throughout time. 

Future brands Tech & Learning, TechRadarPro, and AV Technology Europe, have released the FIRST exclusive co-branded Bett Preview Guide that offers a sneak peek at some of the most anticipated product announcements being exhibited at Bett, the new tech being premiered at the world's largest Edtech trade show!

This Guide offers exclusive interviews with keynote speakers and select exhibitors, insight into the latest trends in education technology, the best new laptops and Chromebooks recommended by our TechRadarPro experts, new edtech being shown for the first time at Bett, and MUCH MORE!

To view or download the guide, visit https://issuu.com/futurepublishing/docs/bett_digital_preview_guide

Bett has announced a three-year global partnership with SMART Technologies in the UK, Asia, Middle East and Africa.

The partnership aims to foster educational and promotional opportunities to help teachers and leaders use technology effectively.

The partnership will kick off in January 2020 at Bett’s flagship event in London, which will introduce 6 new solutions-based zones, designed to help visitors navigate the show and make the most of their time at Bett. The zones include: The Education Show, Equipment & Hardware, Management Solutions, Teaching Tech, Learning Tech and the Global Showcase.

SMART Technologies will be the headline sponsor of the Teaching Tech zone, which will showcase technology and time-saving solutions as well as assessment, lesson development, distance learning and more.

SMART Technologies will deliver education content programmes at Bett UK, Bett Asia and Bett MEA with sessions for decision makers, teachers and IT managers focused on the effective use of technology, saving time and turning static content into interactive learning. Leadership sessions for K-12 leaders and ministry delegations will focus on large-scale implementation and outcomes planning. SMART Technologies will also have a booth at NH20 in the North Hall, where attendees are encouraged to interact with some new, best-in-class products and exciting software updates.

Bett 2020 is free to attend and takes place Wednesday 22 – Saturday 26 January 2020 at ExCeL London.

For more information or to register, visit www.bettshow.com

New research released  by Bett reveals teachers desire technological innovations that ease their workload and cut time spent marking - so long as they have the training they need when it is introduced. 

The research, conducted by Teacher Tapp, surveyed over 4,800 teachers to get their opinions on both where they would like to see innovation in education, and their reactions when it is introduced. The findings will be discussed on Tuesday 3 December at 8pm in a dedicated #BettTalks Twitter hour. 

When asked which area they would most like to see investment in innovation in,  platforms to reduce time spent marking scored most highly. Almost a quarter of respondents selected this option overall. 

When asked what their thoughts would be if their headteacher told them the school was adopting an innovative new software platform that they would be expected to use in all lessons, teachers gave some revealing answers.

 With the majority (44%) feeling they would be fine if they had a day of training, language teachers are the most excited about innovation with over a third (36%) stating they "love it when they get to try new things." This compares to only one in five (21%) of humanities teachers feeling this excitement, whereas almost the same number of English teachers (18%) say they will ignore it for as long as possible. 

Perhaps surprisingly teachers in their 20s have the least faith in new tech working with over a quarter (26%) saying "I bet it fails the first time I use it" compared to just a fifth of those in their 40s (20%).

The Bett Talks Twitter hour will take place at 8pm on Tuesday 3 December 2019. Use #BettTalks to follow and join the discussion.

Bett and The Education Show will unite to become the world’s biggest education event. For the first time, The Education Show will take place inside Bett from 22nd-25th January 2020. The show will bring together over 800 leading companies, 103 new EdTech start-ups and over 34,000 attendees at London’s ExCeL.

The show’s programme has been built around the six biggest themes across the global education landscape: Innovation; Wellbeing; Empowering teaching and learning; Inclusion, Social mobility and SEND; Future tech and trends; Skills.

Eve Harper, Bett Show Event Director, commented; “In 2019 the Bett Show and The Education Show took place alongside each other at London’s ExCeL Centre. It is a natural next step for us to make the experience even easier and more intuitive for visitors and bring both shows together. Visitors will register once, check in once and find everything they need in one easy to navigate space. We think The Education Show @ Bett 2020 will help UK educators and international visitors get more out of the experience than ever before, helping decision-makers see all they need to equip their schools and institutions, achieving the best outcomes for teachers, students and senior educators.”

New research released by Bett reveals teachers are concerned about the negative impact of artificial intelligence in the classroom. 

To open up the conversation around this important topic, Bett will be discussing this research live on Twitter as part of their #BettTalks series, with contributors from across the AI and education sectors. 

The research, which surveyed over 5,000 UK teachers, revealed that 87% of teachers are worried that the increasing amount of access children have to digital devices in schools to facilitate greater use of AI could have a negative impact on their friendships and social skills. These concerns are higher for older teachers, with those aged 50+ most concerned (45% very worried) compared to 33% of those in their 20s being very worried. 

The same research went on to ask teachers about the impact they feel AI will have on plagiarism. Over a quarter of respondents (27%) feel that AI will make plagiarism easier to spot but almost a third (32%) feel that it will be harder to pick up, highlighting a degree of division. 

Crick has released a special symbol-supported version of its child-friendly literacy app, Clicker Connect, for children with additional learning and communication needs.

Clicker Connect SymbolStix enables learners with special literacy needs to take their first steps to independent writing:

- Provide pupils with clusters of words, phrases and pictures to help them create their own sentences.

- Enable learners to develop their understanding of the link between the symbols they see and the words they hear with the speech feedback tool.

- Choose from an extensive range of additional support options to suit pupils of all abilities, including colour-coded words and enlarged cells for extra clarity.

- Use the unique SuperKeys keyboard to make access easier for those with physical challenges.

For further information and pricing, visit Crick Software on stand POD1 on the BESA Pavilion B120 at the Bett Show.

Tech & Learning Content Director Kevin Hogan interviews Marcus Kingsley, Director, NetSupport, on latest the issues faced and solutions provided for schools this year.

Bett or The Bett Show (formerly known as the British Educational Training and Technology Show) is an annual trade show in the United Kingdom marketing information technology in education organised by Ascential. The first Bett show was held in London, England in 1985, and since 2013 it has been held annually in January at the ExCeL London. Tech&Learning makes the trek each year to cover the latest and greatest products, services, and trends at the show.

I conducted a couple of interviews while I was at Bett, to find out what people had seen and what they thought of the event. Here's Neil Rickus, aka @computingchamps.

Read more.

Terry Freedman is an independent ed tech consultant and freelance writer based in London, England. He publishes the ICT & Computing in Education website.

Bett? What's that?

Each year in January London sees the arrival of the ed tech extravaganza known as Bett. Like a mini-ISTE, according to Tech & Learning's very own Kevin Hogan, it's everything you would expect: huge, vibrant, exciting, exhausting and, to an extent, disappointing.

The name Bett used to stand for something – British Educational Training and Technology, I think – but now it's just called 'Bett', hence the absence of capital letters.

Over the four days of the show, somewhere around 40,000 visitors from all over the world pass through its doors. What do they find when they arrive?

First, they will note the dozens of free seminars and keynote talks. Some are aimed at teachers, others at school leaders. The teachers' sessions are themselves divided into elementary school, high school, and post-16.

Secondly, they will be overwhelmed by the number of exhibitors – several hundred of them, in fact.

Finally, they will discover many special events outside of the official program. For example, seminars run by Microsoft and Google, and debates hosted by Smart. Indeed, for several years, though not this year, Tech and Learning itself has put on a well-received panel discussion looking at the main concerns of the moment. One year, for instance, the focus was on the question: how do we bridge the digital divide?

Another feature of Bett, which was missing for several years but is back now, is the opening of the event by a Government minister along with, we hope, an announcement of further funding. This year we learnt that 84m GBP, or around $118m, was being made available over the next five years for training teachers of computing and setting up a National Computing Center.

The Government is not the only one that uses Bett for announcements. Companies use it for product launches (both Microsoft and Google unveiled some exciting developments this year), as do other organisations. This year, for example, a new organisation called EDUCATE was officially launched, its aim being to help ed tech start-ups undertake and benefit from research. Educate is a partnership involving the British Educational Suppliers Association, a key player in the organisation of Bett itself, and University College London.

Another feature of Bett is the Bett Awards, in which companies in various categories (such as best technical support, best educational apps and so on). These are dished out at a black tie event which celebrates achievement.

What were the themes this year?

If I had to pick out just four themes from this year's show I'd say the following. Before I do so I'll preface it by suggesting that while there are many tried, tested and established brands at Bett, there are also many offerings which seem to me to be proofs of concept.

The first thing that struck me was the sheer number of robots of various shapes and sizes. The most compelling of these was one which was not there to help kids learn robotics as to help people, either on an emotional level or by performing tasks. The MiRo, as it's called, responds to people and the environment. Stroke it, for example, and it starts wagging its tail. It's worth reading the website for details of the neuroscience underlying its design.

Another robot was from an Oslo-based start-up, No Isolation, which showcased AV1, a telepresence robot, designed to enable children with long term illness stay connected with their friends and studies, and attend school remotely. See Robots are invading your kid's classroom.

Another theme, as usual, was 'coding', with several new 'solutions' making their appearance. I use quotation marks because a few I saw seemed merely to add another layer of complexity onto the subject. I am not sure why we need any more variations of Scratch, Python or, to be a little retro, Logo.

The third theme was virtual reality, using VR headsets, such as Microsoft's Hololens, which I explored in an article about robots and artificial intelligence.

The final theme I noted was a lot of information and talks about the GDPR – the General Data Protection Regulation. This comes into force on May 18th in the UK, and before you race on to the next paragraph on the grounds that it has nothing to do with you, hold on. The way it could affect US companies is that we Brits will only be allowed to use GDPR-compliant companies for anything in which personal data is involved, like mailing lists. (In fact, even IP addresses count as personal data under the new legislation.)

What was good about the show?

One thing that is consistently good about Bett is meeting up with old friends, and the opportunity to meet new ones. Indeed, I read an article recently which suggested that the only reason to attend a trade show or conference was in order to network! A trifle cynical perhaps, but one can see the author's point!

Another thing was, as you might expect, the buzz. There is something truly exciting about being in an environment in which thousands of people who are interested in education and interested in ed tech come together to explore, listen, debate.

What was not so good?

A couple things were disappointing. One was the absence of a few big names on the British education scene. There was a feeling of loss. Another was that some of the so-called 'solutions' seemed to have no pedagogical basis whatsoever, but were solutions looking for a problem.

I guess when it comes to ed tech, it was ever thus.

What next?

Despite those small disappointments, I'll be back at Bett next year, as will Tech and Learning. So if you want to join us, here's the date for your diary: 23-26th January 2019.

In the meantime, have a look at Ed Tech Predictions 2018 to see what some of the exhibitors at Bett think is on the ed tech horizon, and what the challenges are.

Terry Freedman is an independent ed tech consultant and freelance writer based in London, England. He publishes the ICT & Computing in Education website.

Do:

Visit the Microsoft stand and, if nothing else, see the dictation add-in working. It produced a word perfect transcript as the presenter was speaking. At the end of it he could have saved it, exported it and even translated it into different languages.

Read more.

cross-posted at www.ictineducation.org

Terry Freedman is an independent educational ICT consultant with over 35 years of experience in education. He publishes the ICT in Education website and the newsletter “Digital Education."

Today sees the start of the Bett Show in London, and so I thought I'd let you know what has caught my eye in terms of products and talks.

First, to get yourself in the right frame of mind, you might wish to read the ed tech predictions that over 40 organisations provided to me. I asked them what they thought 2018 might bring in terms of ed tech developments, and what they thought the challenges were. You can read them here: EdTech 2018.

Read more.

cross-posted at www.ictineducation.org

Terry Freedman is an independent educational ICT consultant with over 35 years of experience in education. He publishes the ICT in Education website and the newsletter “Digital Education."

Here we go! This week officially marks a new season of edtech shows and Tech&Learning will be on the scene. The world’s largest edtech showcase BETT18 launches this Wednesday at the ExCel Center in London. At the same time, FETC will be stepping off in Orlando, FL. Each event has a long slate of presenters and exhibitors prepared to showcase the latest tools and techniques you can expect to see in classrooms soon. Be sure to follow @techlearning on Twitter to get live coverage of each!

It’s that time of year again in the UK: the Bett Show, aka Bett. It’s the biggest ed tech show in the UK, in terms of number of visitors (approximately 35,000), size (it’s housed in a conference center measuring 100 acres) and the number of things going on over the four days (several seminar streams, a keynote talks area, a few thousand exhibitors, some of whom host their own seminar programs etc etc etc).

It’s the place to launch new initiatives, new products, new books. It’s the place to meet old friends and colleagues and find new ones. It’s also a fantastic opportunity to obtain some high quality professional development from experts in their fields. And how much does all this cost for the visitor? Not a penny.

Of course, the other side of the coin is that most companies pay a huge amount of money for their stands, leading some educators to dismiss Bett as ‘just a trade show’. It is very much more than that, but what’s wrong with a trade show anyway? It gives you the chance to find out more about a product you’re using, meet the supplier of that product or service and see what’s coming just around the corner. If you’re a technology co-ordinator in a school it’s the perfect opportunity to see what’s ‘out there’ so that you can plan your spending and your direction for the year ahead and beyond.

If you’re planning on going yourself, keep an eye on my website for details of a sort of quick-start guide to Bett. If you’ve never been to Bett before, and especially if it will be your first visit to London, the guide should prove useful. Just to reassure you that that is not a bit of shameless self-promotion, my guide is free, and you won’t have to provide any contact details to get it. Just grab-and-go, so to speak.

The Bett show started over thirty years ago, and in those days the name was an acronym. I think, if I remember correctly, that it stood for something like “British Education Technology and something beginning with the letter ‘T’”. Everyone now just calls it ‘Bett’, and nobody bothers to capitalize all the letters any more.

I used to think that the nearest thing to Bett in America would be the ISTE conference. Both events are huge, both attract big name speakers, both attract an international audience. But when I went to ISTE for the first time, in 2006 I believe, I was bowled over. The size of the exhibition area (in those days at least) was that you could have slotted the Bett exhibition hall into one part of it and still had tons of room left over. I am not sure if that is still the case because since then Bett has moved to its much larger current home.

Some things were the same though. A huge buzz for a start. During the ISTE conference I keep going on pure adrenaline through ridiculously long days. Bett is the same. Each year I promise myself that I won’t accept any invitations to breakfast meetings or evening drinks receptions. It’s the one promise I never manage to keep. It’s ok during Bett itself. But I’ve learnt to not agree to any important meetings or deadlines in the week following!

Another similar thing is the great feeling of meeting people in the flesh who you have previously known only through Twitter or Facebook. In fact, one of the things that the Bett organizers never do, but should, is provide the option of including your Twitter handle on your name badge. So people write it on themselves.

One thing that is very different is the starting point. I loved the sheer exuberance of the openings of the two ISTEs I’ve attended: bands, comedy, whoops and standing ovations. We Brits do it a bit differently: low-key talk by an education minister (usually) while 200 other things are going on at the same time. No cheerleaders, no shrieks of delight and joy, all very British stiff upper lip, in fact. Give me the ISTE approach any day!

If you are going across the pond to Bett, here are a few things I’d recommend doing.

• Register for the show in advance, as it will save you a bit of time when you arrive. You’ll find the details on the Bett website.
• Look at Transport for London’s website to find out how long the journey will take from your hotel to Excel -- and then add an hour. For a start, the train service on that line seems to run only every 15 minutes despite the fact that the number of people using it increases by probably hundreds of times over the Bett period. Secondly, because of that, you may well find yourself on the platform four or five rows back from the front. Work it out: if you miss 4 trains that run every 15 minutes, you’ll be standing there for an hour. By the time you get to Bett, you’ll not only be late: You’ll be frozen.
• Get yourself a travel card for the duration. Not only will it save you time in train stations (the ‘tube’), but it will also enable you to use the buses, which no longer accept cash.
• Plan your time in advance because there is so much to see there you won’t want to miss something just because you didn’t know about it. The list of seminars and exhibitors is on the Bett website. But to be honest, it’s a pretty awful website in my opinion. For example, you can’t just download a list of seminars, you have go backwards and forwards in this very fancy but not-great-to-use interface. A far better option is to download the Bett app. It lists everything in a really easy to view format, and has more functionality (for the visitor personally) than the website. And of course it’s free.
• Keep checking my website for details of my 2018 guide called Getting the Best out of Bett 2018. That will be up there soon (maybe even by the time you read this), and will be free.
• If you’d like a much more comprehensive guide to getting the most from conferences in general, not just Bett, think about buying my book. You’ll find the description on my website. BUT wait! You can’t buy it yet, because I’m about to publish an expanded version which will be available in paperback as well. That may be a week or two in coming, and in the meantime, I’ve removed the links to where people can buy the book so that they don’t buy an out-of-date version. But if you don’t want to miss it then sign up for my books bulletin.This is called, funnily enough, Terry Freedman’s Books Bulletin. Here’s the sign-up form. I’m sorry if that all sounds like a bit of an advertisement, but the book has received excellent reviews so I thought I ought to bring it to your attention in the context of talking about conferences.

If you do get to Bett have a great time -- and don’t plan on sleeping too much while you’re there! It takes place from the 24th to the 27th January. And just to remind you, the offical website, where you can register, is here: www.bettshow.com.

Terry Freedman is a freelance writer, consultant, trainer and speaker in the field of education technology. He publishes the ICT & Computing website.

Boxlight Corporation today announced its participation at the 2018 BETT Show to be held January 24-27 in London. Boxlight will preview several new additions to its whole-class and collaborative instruction solutions.

Being debuted at BETT will be a solution that turns a conventional whiteboard into a touch board in less than five minutes.

Boxlight will also launch two new touch board models for the EMEA market, a 78-inch model with a 4:3 aspect ratio and an 87-inch model with a 16:10 aspect ratio.

Also featured will be the new ProColor interactive touch table with a larger screen size of 49 inches which accommodates up to 12 single-point touch users or six dual-touch users.

Additional products being unveiled will include a new high-brightness laser projector, available in both interactive and non-interactive models.

Boxlight will also be giving visitors a preview of the newest version of MimioStudio software. MimioStudio 12.0 includes the capacity for embedding a web page into a MimioStudio Notebook file and enhanced import features.