Last Friday I attended BETT 2016 at London Excel. Before attending, I knew a little about the show and the types of people I would expect to meet and talk to. But I never imagined the level and huge extent of information which the show had on offer. As I walked into the show I was amazed to see hundreds of stalls all offering different types of technology which can be used in education.
I was keen to go and speak to some people from Apple as I used iPads
frequently with a year 6 class on placement. I wanted to 
discuss the problems I found with using iPads in class. The main problem I found was that as soon as you walked away from one group/pair of children and went to speak to another, they would have switched apps and gone onto a game or another app. This was frustrating however I felt as though there should be the technology in place to stop this happening and which should allow a teacher to control and restrict what is available to the children at a certain time.
The person I spoke to from Apple seemed excited to tell me about new software that they will be releasing in the summer. He seemed confident that this new software will bring a stop to problems exactly like the one I encountered. He directed me to look at the preview of this software which is on the apple website. (http://www.apple.com/education/preview/) The p
review shows that this software should make the classroom experience better. Part of the new software gives the teacher access to a ‘my classes’ app. This allows the teacher to see what the children have been doing on the iPads by showing their most frequently used apps. Also, instead of a complicated apple ID, each child can have a 4 digit pin which they log in to; this will make it much more accessible for younger children.
Whilst at BETT, I got drawn towards the Education City stand. It was brightly coloured and seemed to be buzzing with lots of people. A representative from the company showed me how the 
online resource worked and gave me examples of both a teacher and pupil user profile. Education City is an online resource which provides both in class input and activities and homework tasks. It is similar to sites like MyMaths and Mathletics with the tasks available however it is much more cross curricular offering tasks in all curriculum subjects. I really like the fact that education city offers more than these other sites and the fact that it is not only for one subject. I also really enjoyed the pupil tracker feature, where you can track the progress of your pupils, look at how they completed individual tasks, including the time they spent on it (useful to see if they have rushed their work!).
I ended the day by talking to some people from WizeFloor. They have created an interactive floor which focuses on learning through play. Using the floor, you can play thousands of different games which all have a subject focus and link with ready made lesson plans. The games can be adapted and edited by individual teachers to make sure they include exactly what they need. I had a go at using the WizeFloor and have to admit it was incredibly fun! I would love to use this in schools in the future and feel that it takes learning onto another level.
Overall I feel my experience at BETT was highly beneficial. I have opened my eyes to technology I never knew existed and hope to use much of this in my future practice.
Ellie George 
I too found BETT really interesting and much larger than originally anticipated. Education City was really interesting as like you mention you are able to track the students progress. I really enjoyed the interactive educational games. Did you get a chance to play any of the games on the system?
I really wish I had spotted WizeFloor it sounds really interesting.
LikeLike
No, unfortunately I didn’t have a chance to play any of the games on the Education City system as I wanted to make it on time to one of the talks.
I’d definitely recommend having a look at WizeFloor as it was something completely unique and that I’d never seen before!
LikeLike
I look forward to visiting BETT next year and hope to have a go at Wizefloor as its sounds really interesting. Thanks for the link, i’ll definitely research more and learn how i could apply it within a KS1 classroom.
LikeLike
Looks like you had a great time at BETT to , I am glad I wasn’t the only one shocked by the size of it. Wizefloor looks really interesting and I am defiantly going to have to look into it more , as I’d love to have a go.
LikeLike