BETT 2010
BETT 2010
13-16 January 2010
London Olympia
Stand J11
Futurelab will be showcasing a range of new and emerging technologies at BETT 2010 – from those with alternative interfaces to Web 2.0 tools and computer games - and offering support for how they could be used in an educational setting. A number of free educational resources and publications to help practitioners interested in adopting innovative approaches to learning in their classroom will also be on display.
Visitors will be given early sight of a new resource for teachers that is due to be launched in the spring of 2010 – Education Eye is a free, engaging and easy-to-use website that gives access to a wide range of useful innovations from across education’s varied communities. This tool will help to connect those ‘in the know’ regarding digital technology and new resources with teachers, and will inspire innovation in the classroom.
Another free resource that will be on display is Vision Mapper, a website that supports long-term planning and decision making in education. With group activities and materials designed to inspire broader thinking and create realistic, achievable action plans, Vision Mapper can help educators to create a long-term vision and strategy for their schools.
Other displays will come from Futurelab’s SPARK exhibition which is an exciting new mobile exhibition designed to showcase new and emerging technologies from a range of sources that can support innovative practice in education. A hands-on experience, these displays will support teachers to explore and interact with the technologies and consider how they can be used in the classroom. Examples include haptic devices (non-keyboard computer interfaces) that provide users with the opportunity to feel what it would be like to touch the thing they are seeing on screen. Such devices are already used in vocational teaching such as developing hands-on skills in medicine and veterinary science, but there are many potential applications in education. Another exhibit will be augmented reality applications that can be used on mobile phones, layering digital information on top of reality using the camera on your phone.
Futurelab will also be giving away a number of free publications and posters to support teachers in developing and delivering engaging learning experiences in the classroom. One of these is a full-colour poster that illustrates some of the ways in which computer games can be used in young people’s education. Another is a practical handbook that supports those who are redesigning their outdoor spaces as part of Building Schools for the Future (BSF), the Primary Capital Programme (PCP), or any other initiative.