“Was this going to be a renaissance year of a new enlightened age of computing?” I pondered the ideas on the crowded train, my thoughts interrupted by loud people who stand around with their mobile phones saying – “I’m on the train – where are you?” I read in a preview of the show that a massage session was available for those tired and weary limbs at the end of the day. I looked forward to it as I stepped out of the train into a bright blue sky day and was pleased to see no queues. Although, by the numbers of people who arrived in the next twenty minutes, I wondered who was actually teaching in the country’s classrooms.
Round the corner from the RM stall was the SCRAN picture library stand. I am particularly interested at the moment in how we source pictures for our teaching and this on-line library looked interesting. SCRAN is a charity based in Scotland and is a learning image service with 300,000 images, movies and sounds from museums, galleries, archives and the media. You can use the images just as clipart but there are tools that can turn the images into a work sheet very quickly. You can keep bookmarks for your own use but it would be possible to set up a list of bookmarks for your classes to use. It is a subscription service but the price seemed reasonable and the collection is growing all the time. I ordered a free trial straight away.
The Apple stand was the next to grab my attention. Wasn’t it strange this year that so many stands were sporting apple laptops? Maybe there is a trend in education that the rest of us ought to take seriously. I speak as a confirmed PC user. I was keen to see GarageBand, a fairly new addition to the I-life suite of Apple software. You can record up to 8 audio tracks at once and quickly produce and edit your own music compositions. Whist at the Apple stand I tried to find out more about the new Chroma-key plug in to I-movie. This is the blue-screen effect that means you can film yourself against a blue background and then electronically put on a weather map behind you. This could be great fun in the classroom and I am sure there are plenty of other educational uses other than just the weather to exploit but no-one could show me how to use it – how disappointing.
How do you organise your trip to BETT? I made lots of plans about the people I wanted to see but then forget it all in the excitement of the event. However, I had made a note to see the Serif Draw stand and then had to say that I had forgotten why. They dutifully handed out a couple of CDs full of curriculum materials and training tutorials. I do like this about Serif. They are keen to give you free samples of fully working software to try out and their licensing for use in school is very competitive and some of the software is excellent. I watched a demonstration of their MovieMaker software, used for editing video. It’s always difficult to find the balance with ease of use against functionality but I think this version does well against the competition.
Would you like a radio station to play with? For £7250 you can buy everything you need to run a radio station. This could be relayed through the intranet so you don’t have to broadcast to the whole of the local community. There is a compact mixing desk, mini-disc recorders, a telephone balancing system for taking on-air calls, basically everything right down to the ‘on-air’ light and radio controlled clock.
Like the radio station, my attention is always grabbed by exotic looking stands and so I was pleased to see the Mirandanet stand decked out in a celebration of Southern Africa. The walls were covered in decorative fabric, there were cases full of wooden carvings, there were baskets and drawings of mud huts and other African scenery adorning the stand. The E-lapa project is for schools in challenging circumstances in the Free State and there have been various exchanges and on-line projects. Mirandanet has also published a paper on ECDL for educators that is worth reading if you are considering the ECDL programme.
Talking about the ECDL programme I noticed a large growth in the number of stands offering ECDL solutions. Aston Swann were famed for their ECDL for Educators programme but have now released a programme for students as well. The ECDL certification seems to be gaining ground, as I notice the number of people asking questions about it. Now that it can gain points and is matched with the BCS User certificates it can be quite attractive. The only problem is finding the right training materials and coping with the administrative burden. Although you can buy packages that include the automated tests and training all together as one.
I had been looking for astronomy support material but I hadn’t expected to find it here at BETT so I was happy to see ‘Starry night astronomy and planetarium resources’ which comes in various forms. There is a complete space and astronomy pack for Key Stages 2 and 3. It consists of software, a companion book and DVD films. View from any location and travel through time to 3000AD to see what the sky will be like in the future. There are various other packs for older students and with the publicity that the Titan landing is generating this might be a good time to get into astronomy with your students.
Time was pressing on and after a rushed sandwich and coffee I realised that all the collectible goodies were running out. At the Ultralab stall, every year I collect their DVD showing the movies made at the Summer school. These are short movies that are excellent to show students to give them ideas for creative projects. I was lucky to get the last one they possessed so next year I advise you to visit them early! Maybe you all took my advice last year. The students on the stand this year were making animated movies using small stages set up with plasticine figures – Wallace and Grommet style. We have tried this in school and it is very effective and I recommend it to everyone. The thrill of making a piece of plasticine come alive on the screen is worth the effort.
Feeling completely exhausted I checked out ‘The National Archive Learning Curve’ suite of computers allowing people to sit and browse their free online teaching and learning resource, following the History National Curriculum from Key Stages 2 to 5. Lot of exciting resources including the Tudors and the Great War. You can find out what they mean by the phrase ‘lions led by donkeys’?
In the afternoon I was delighted to find Wells Cathedral school advertising a music software package called “The virtual Javanese Gamelan”. This is some software that has nothing to do with the computer technology of Java but everything to do with the music produced in Java, the place. The Gamelan is an ensemble of tuned percussion instruments consisting of gongs, pots, metallophones (similar to glockenspiels) and drums. The software explores the instrument and compositions. Using the tutorials you can compose and play your own pieces. Best of all the software is a free download from the site. There is plenty of information on the accompanying website and discussion groups.
As I am a member of NAACE I took refuge in their dedicated lounge and took stock of things. If you haven’t joined NAACE I do recommend it. It’s not just that they provide such a sumptuous lounge but that they are developing useful courses and conferences such as the ‘ICT Alive show in March 2005. They have also produced the NAACEMark scheme – a quality assurance scheme for schools that can be used to aim for success in using ICT. Even if you do not apply for the award the documentation would be a useful guideline for any ICT co-ordinator at primary or secondary level.
Whilst I don’t think we are quite in the Renaissance of a new computing era in education I certainly found some interesting new developments at this year’s BETT that will allow me to take hold of the future and the most disappointing thing was that I couldn’t find the relaxing, rejuvenating massage area. I hope you did and that you found what you were looking for without being overwhelmed.
Links
www.imusic.org.uk The virtual Javanese Gamelan
http://www.scran.ac.uk/ SCRAN
http://www.mirandanet.ac.uk/elapavle/ Mirandanet
http://www.educatorsecdl.com/default.asp Aston Swann
http://www.guildsoft.co.uk/index.html Starry night
http://www.learningcurve.gov.uk/ National Archive Learning Curve
http://www.naace.org/ NAACE
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