One positive outcome of coronavirus and lockdown is that we can attend Bett, or part of it, this year without moving from the comfort of our own homes. No more being crammed on the Dockland Light Rail along with hundreds of others, no more spending the day breathing lots of stale air, and no more aching feet!

I daresay the experience won’t be as good as usual in many respects, but we might as well look on the bright side.

I’m afraid that from what I’ve seen of the programme nothing much grabs me by the lapels and shouts in my face, “Attend this session, Buster”. To be honest, I’m not even sure I’ll be able to attend anything at all as I haven’t received login details yet. Still, we’ll see.

Online education

One session that might be worth attending is on the first day, soon after the opening of the event. It’s called Leading successful remote and blended learning, and takes the form of a panel discussion. That’s quite close to my heart at the moment, as I recently had to convert an offline course to one that could be run online. I’ve written a very long article about that, which I intend to make available to subscribers to my free newsletter as soon as I’ve received permission to quote someone. (In the meantime, I’ve written an article on hybrid learning, also for subscribers.)

Soon, I will start reading a couple of books about online education that I’ve been sent recently. Hopefully, the session I just mentioned will provide some useful insights too.

The opening keynote

The opening keynote is one I used to attend assiduously, but stopped doing so once Education Secretaries started to promise money they had already promised while trying to make it sound new. However, the opening keynote this year is being given by the Schools Minister Nick Gibb. I might be worth attending just to find out what his thinking is at the moment. With a bit of luck it won’t be a complete waste of time.

Access and skills

On day 2 there is a panel discussing the topic “Improving access and skills for students at all levels”. This promises a look at case studies and best practice from “exceptional education leaders”. I put that in quotation marks so that you’ll realise I’m not the one responsible for the hype.

Reimagining education

On the Friday, Sir Anthony Seldon will be discussing this topic. Presumably it will be a summary of the views he expressed in his latest book, which I reviewed here:

Review Of The Fourth Education Revolution Reconsidered

Mental health

Also on the Friday is a session about supporting mental health in students and staff. This sounds rather more useful to me.

Products

There are various sponsored sessions, product showcases and selections from the Bett Awards entries. Microsoft has announced some new products, although priced in dollars.

If you are attending any of the sessions this year, I hope you find them interesting and useful.