So last week saw the annual trip to the BETT Show – one of the biggest educational technology shows in the world, for the last time at the Kensington Olympia venue. As always anyone who is anyone in the world of educational technology was here, showing off their latest products. You can see my photos from the show here.
Like last year I was slightly underwhelmed by some aspects of the show. There was very little that was totally new and there wasn’t much of a “wow” factor. I guess that’s the downside of attending every single year for the last few years. Everything was the same as last year, but slightly updated. There were lots of interactive whiteboards, interactive projectors, visualisers, voting systems, learning platforms, iPads on show, but all just slightly bigger/faster/shinier than they were at BETT 2011 (and 2010 to be honest). Many of the people I spoke to felt the same way.
In terms of interactive whiteboards the major players of SMART and Promethean were both there in force with massive stands while there were lots of other smaller players trying to get into the market.
Promethean had many products on show, the one that caught my eye was their new ActivProgress system which looks like a move into a coordinated platform for assessment and student tracking. It provides a web-based system that is linked up with their ActivExpression student voting handsets (as well as paper-based tests) to collect and collate test scores. It should also link to SIMs and other school management systems.
Promethean were also demonstrating their ActivTable, a 46″ interactive monitor with multitouch to allow 6 students to use it simultaneously. It looks nice. Time will tell how easy the development kit is to produce your own materials. I’m still not sure if the money would be better spent on 10 iPads.
SMART were demonstrating Smart Notebook 11 which did look very good. It’s due out “in the Spring” and the version on show still had a few bugs to iron out. The ability to embed whole webpages was interesting, although sadly it won’t do embed codes – although that could be covered by some of the new html5 widgets. Directly embedding a YouTube video for instance would be a handy feature. I can’t wait to get my hands on a copy when it’s released later this year.
Notebook 11 will be a free upgrade for existing users, and the rumour is that there will be an option to buy licences for the Notebook software separately to run on any system you wish – which if true is a big change in Smart’s approach.
I also spent some time on the Polyvision and eInstruction stands, being shown their latest IWB systems, both of which were interesting.
Polyvision were showing off their latest ēno whiteboard which has no need for additional speakers or amplifier. The board itself acts as a loudspeaker, which is quite a cool idea. The Polyvision board can also be written on with regular pens for those “plan B” moments when the technology fails. Polyvision boards use a magnetic strip with icons on it which control the features of the board. Polyvision don’t provide their own generic software, instead bundling the board with Easiteach or Wizteach software.
eInstruction were demonstrating their Insight 360 interactive whiteboard systems. The Mobi system incorporates a wireless slate that can be used to control the lesson and write/annotate on the PC. It also has its own touch screen for adding teacher notes or storing bookmarks and other links. It’s an interesting idea, and gives teachers the freedom to move around the classroom (and pass the slate around the class). It could also be used to control assessments using their voting systems, and store/view scores.
An interesting development is the Mobi360 for iPad which allows teachers to control their lesson via an iPad. They can write/annotate like they could on a slate, as well as interact with other devices such as the voting handsets. For those teachers who often ask if they can use their iPad like an IWB, this might be the solution for you! More info here.
In part 2 I’ll move away from the interactive whiteboards and look at some of the other products that were on show.
Let me know what you thought of the BETT show in the comments below.
Interesting Danny thanks. I was looking at the Epson interactive projector which I was told could come bundled with smart software. I then went to ask at the smart stand about it and yes you will indeed be able to buy the smart software for approx $500 . In fact smart have now introduced their own interactive projector which comes bundled with the software so can be used on any white surface. You need a pen ( rechargeable, projector comes with 2) so not finger touch screen which is a shame.
Epson were also demonstrating Open – Sankore which is free interactive whiteboard software apparently developed in France and made available from the French government but it can be downloaded anywhere.it’s fairly basic but does have quite a lot of maths tools, backgrounds, widgits and some tools built in. There are folders where you can add your own sounds, images, animations etc Sadly you can’t import from many other formats but could import a PDF and images, etc. it reminds me of Interwrite, but with more flexibility with sound, flash etc.
Thanks Mary. Yeah the Smart interactive projector is interesting – it needs to detect the pen – but it’s an interesting move from them to lose the board completely.
Have played with Open Sankore before, and its a good start, but still pretty hard to use and lacks some of the basic features of other IWB software. You can’t even move something you’ve written with the pen. Could be good in the future, but it’s not something I’d like to be using in the classroom right now.
Review here : https://www.whiteboardblog.co.uk/2011/11/sankore-free-open-source-iwb-software/