Bett 2020 Seminars in the afternoon of Day 2

January 23, 2020

Here’s a quick reminder of the seminars I thought looked interesting on the latter half of the afternoon of Day 2 of Bett 2020.

Bett2020 Preview, screenshot by Terry Freedman

The Bett2020 Floor Plan

January 21, 2020

As the Bett Show has grown immensely in terms of the number of halls there are, it’s worth grabbing the Preview Guide. It has floor plans spanning four pages.

Terry Freedman's Bett 2020 Supplement

January 20, 2020

Here is my list of interesting-looking seminars at the Bett Show. It’s divided into days, from Wednesday to Saturday. I hope you find it useful.

8 questions to ask educational technology suppliers

January 20, 2020

If you’re in the market to buy a product or service to enhance the educational technology in your school, what are the questions you should be asking potential suppliers? Definitely not “What is your response time?”. Here are 8 suggestions for questions you should ask instead, and why the response time one is not very useful.

Listen up! The audio side of Bett 2020 -- UPDATED

January 19, 2020

UPDATED and CORRECTED! News about Bett Radio and the EdTech podcast at Bett2020.

Coming soon: my seminar recommendations for Bett 2020

January 18, 2020

I’ve gone through the Bett seminar programme, and highlighted the ones that I’d go to if (a) I could be in several places at once (I’m working on that) and (b) needed to know about a much wider range of issues than any person does.

27 Things to do before Bett 2020

January 17, 2020

As a Bett veteran, I’ve learnt quite a bit over the last 30 or so years about how to make the visit to Bett as useful as possible. Here are 27 tips you may find useful.

Bett 2020

January 16, 2020

A heads-up about a pdf guide to Bett. Three articles in particular are worth perusing.

The 4 stages of Bett

January 30, 2019

The four stages of Bett, illustrated.

Pick up your free unofficial Bett guide at http://bit.ly/TFBett19 — Pick up your free **unofficial** Bett guide at http://bit.ly/TFBett19

Bett 2019 News Bulletin 2019-01-25

January 25, 2019

(Very) quick looks

Here are a couple of the things I’ve seen at Bett so far.

Robots

Kubo: teach younger children coding by placing physical objects (“tactiles”) on to a special board, thereby making a small robot travel. You can build up surprisingly complex programs. Concrete learning definitely has a place, though you will need to be very hot on classroom management to make sure bits don’t go missing.

DF Robot: They make and sell kits for the Micro:bit and other such devices. I liked the modular aspect: you can add sensors of various kinds, and there is an add-on which gives the Micro:bit internet access. Impressive.

More news soon, probably after Bett. Look out for more product reviews, and an interview with Mitch Resnick, probably in my newsletter Digital Education in the first instance.

In the meantime, I’ve compiled a list of hints and tips for Bett, along with the seminars I find most interesting, and various organisations’ ed tech predictions for 2019. You can download the free pdf from here:

http://bit.ly/TFBett19

Bett 2019 News Bulletin 2019-01-22

January 22, 2019

More news regarding Bett.

Bett 2019 News Bulletin 2019-01-21

January 21, 2019

If you’re attending Bett this year, these news items may be of interest.

Bett 2019 News Bulletin 2019-01-20

January 20, 2019

Read on for information about a free pdf guide to Bett and the Education show, and some news about a particular product.

The Education Show 2019

January 17, 2019

The Education Show is going on next door to the Bett show this year, on 24th and 25th January. Here are pointers about a few of the sessions going on.

Bett2019 Pointers: a personal perspective

January 16, 2019

There is tons to see and hear at the Bett show this year — even more so than usual I think. Here are the things I’ve earmarked for myself, based on the assumption that by next week I will either have mastered the technique of being in several places at once, or somehow acquired a team of ten people.

Getting the best out of Bett2019

January 15, 2019

Here are a few words about the revamped (I think) Bett show in London, and some tips on how to get the most benefit from attending.

Bett 2019 — Created in Canva by Terry Freedman

Bett 2019: Useful tips

January 14, 2019

My annual guide to Bett is out. Here’s how to access it.

Bett 2019: EdTech Checklist

January 10, 2019

The Bett website has a useful checklist for people looking at purchasing edtech stuff. Read on for the details.

Recent book reviews

When AI can write as well as this, I'll worry! Plus a prize competition.

To paraphrase what Arthur C Clarke said about teachers, any writer that can be replaced by a computer probably should be.

Review: The Shortest History of Music -- two reviews in one!

The music programme of study requires students to possess an understanding of the music they perform and that which they listen to, as well as a grasp of music history, and an appreciation of different musical styles.

Review: The Art of Uncertainty (two reviews in one)

The Computing department would find the section on facial recognition interesting, because apart from possible ethical concerns, the fact is that even if the system has high accuracy, most of its identifications will be wrong.

Review: The Newsmongers: A History of Tabloid Journalism (two reviews in one!)

I was intrigued to discover that a popular news magazine of the sixties had been anticipated by Defoe.

Quick look: AI For Educators

There are some good ideas here, especially for prompts.

Hitler's People: The Faces of the Third Reich -- Extended review

Nearly a hundred years after the Nazi phenomenon people are still asking the question: how could apparently ordinary or, in some cases, highly cultured, people commit such terrible crimes.

Education book reviews of 2024

This pdf contains the reviews of mine that were published in Teach Secondary magazine in 2024.

Review: How I review books on edtech

My views on what constitutes a book on edtech are fairly catholic. Indeed, it would me more accurate to denote the books I review as books for teachers of ICT, Computing, digital literacy etc etc,, rather than books on edtech. The latter tend to have titles like “How to teach Computing”, or “How to use Excel in the classroom”.

Review: Nuts and Bolts: How Tiny Inventions Make Our World Work

It's rather disconcerting when one considers that buildings like The Shard are essentially held together by nuts, bolts and washers.

Review: Love Triangle: The Life-changing Magic of Trigonometry

Like, I suspect, many people, I have never knowingly come across an isosceles triangle in my life, and wouldn’t know what to do with it if I did. However...

(Very) quick looks

Robots

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