BETT 2009

Apologies for the lack of a post last week, it was a busy one. But busy in the sense that it was good and really productive. As we all know it's that traditional time of year where people ramble down to Olympia to visit BETT to see what how the latest technology is innovating education - still probably one of the best shows of it's kind in the world. This was my 15th year attending to BETT and there's something every year that gets me excited. This year was no exception - what I found exciting was that more teachers are becoming more savvy about the potential of E-Learning. This is a really interesting change in dynamic that I think will have quite an impact on the market over the next few years. Day to day classroom teachers are becoming educated consumers who show a much better understanding of the pedagogical value of E-Learning. Undoubtedly for me the highlight of the show was FROG - FROG 3.o was showcased and it's looking absolutely awesome. In my mind it is one of the few learning platforms that has grasped a good understanding of the educational marketplace and what schools want. They're streets ahead of the competition in terms of pure functionality and flexibility. Of course, many will question my bias as an existing FROG customer but those that do should really get a demonstration of it for themselves. For me what stands out as a large jump forward is the level of MIS integration and how that will support home/school partnerships and give access to a wealth of MIS stored data, this coupled alongside the social networking elements that can be set up to be used to deliver specialised learning communities for example -really cool! The system uses graphical widgets to start laying down content - I think this is going to be really innovative as, just like with iPhone apps, people will be able to develop third party widgets for the system - so the sky's the limit. This will see an unprecedented amount of support for the platform by third parties and create a system where more seamless integration becomes a possibility rather than a mere pipedream.

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