Get interactive in twenty-twelve

The task in hand –  to summarise exhibitors at BETT 2012 offering ‘interactive technologies,’ is certainly a challenging one, mainly because of its breadth.

Interactive, collaboration, communication, creativity, learning and of course technology are words that have become a part of virtually every education product description over the past decade. With more than 600 exhibitors to choose from at BETT we need to narrow this question down a little further.

Interactive Whiteboards
At the turn of the century, interactive was a word reserved for interactive whiteboards – now virtually every learning resource is interactive. However, this product category has developed over the years. In general, schools will standardise with one brand of interactive whiteboard so that the created lesson activities can be used on all displays. However, visitors wanting to consider alternative brands, either because they offer different functionality or a cheaper price may want to visit the following stands at BETT.

Guangzhou Shiriri Electronics is on stand H12 with its Seewo IIP (Interactive Intelligent Panel) highly incorporated product which uses a full HD LCD panel as the display and operation platform, combined with technologies of man-computer interaction, panel display, multimedia information processing and network transmission. With functions of handwriting, remarking, drawing, multimedia entertainment and net meeting Seewo IIP has become an interesting consideration.

On stand G30 Hitachi Solutions are showing its recently announced StarBoard Link EZ, a unit type interactive whiteboard system, which transforms any flat surface into a fully functioning interactive whiteboard. The system consists of digitiser and reflective bars, which can be easily attached to a wall or an existing dry erase board. Once attached, it is connected to a computer and projector. The StarBoard Link EZ is based on touch technology.

All the way from China, Zhejiang BCY Electronics Stock will be on stand E95 in the Grand Hall demonstrating their interactive whiteboard. Founded in 1990 this company, whose main sales message is the quality of their global wide customer service and support, are also known for their electronics laboratory equipment.

Elex Electronics Technology & Development is located in Xiamen, another China-based interactive whiteboard manufacturer of infra red and electromagnetic whiteboards. Visit stand K15 to find out more.

Collaborating Technologies
An evolution that has happened over recent years is for interactive whiteboards to become the central display area for information received from other collaborative technologies. These include interactive response, or voting systems as they are better known, tablet PCs or smartphones and event visualisers, also known as document cameras.

And certainly Promethean has bought into this concept, recognising that they now go beyond being an interactive whiteboard company. They aim to offer products that address the big issues in schools at the current time including productivity, data driven decision making, assessment for learning and collaborative learning, as well as how integrated technologies can be used to improve teaching and learning.

Promethean’s portfolio of solutions encompasses many types of usage, including whole class, small group collaboration, personal, online and mobile learning, as well as supporting assessment across the full range of modern technology. These solutions are enhanced further with curriculum content, community tools, technical support and online training.

Promethean is currently working with schools to effectively integrate the technology that pupils are already familiar such as smartphones and tablet devices like iPads. Promethean will be available at BETT on stands B30 and N2.

Another exhibitor stepping beyond the realms of interactive whiteboards is eInstruction on stand S36, who will be demonstrating this progress through their Collaborative Classroom Suite which adds a new, portable, individualised dimension to learning. The suite contains Mobi View™ a mobile, handheld touchscreen interactive whiteboard with their CPS™ student response system, which works directly with their student assessment software Together. These products help create an environment where students can work together and learn from each other, improving collaboration for greater progress.

Interactive response systems
Looking therefore towards exhibitors offering interactive response systems, Turning Technologies on stand E96 will showcase their latest additions PresenterWare™ and PresenterCard™. Both presenter tools provide remote control of TurningPoint suite of polling applications and allow teachers to move freely about the classroom while still progressing through their interactive voting presentations. PresenterWare and PresenterCard offer the users control of the presentation, while not being tethered to a computer.

Those considering the benefits of visualisers or document cameras as they have also been termed may want to visit PolyVision’s stand D99 in the Grand Hall. The new fuse visualiser is a scanner web-camera and digital camera in one offering schools a compact solution for creating distance learning between remotely connected classrooms. Their TrueSnap™ technology automates perfect alignment and document clean-up to free up lesson preparation time —and bring learning to life.

At the same time, Visual Education on stand H49 will be airing its view that the majority of response systems are too limited in their choice of responses. Charlie Boshier, science teacher, Compton School, Barnet agrees: “The modern science syllabus is about exploring opinions in the media and the scientific community; you can’t resolve that down to A, B, C.” The company’s answer to this contentious issue is WordPad 2, a new student response system being launched at BETT 2012. It’s an interactive interface where students use joy-pad controls to navigate round the screen, competing to get top of the leader-board. Alternatively it can be used to create dynamic spider diagrams as students type in their ideas from their keypads. It’s like a games machine for the classroom. A smarter alternative to thinking up three hundred wrong answers.

Gaming
The mention of games brings me on to another growing area of interactive classroom technology – gaming. The quantity of gaming products on the market is possibly equal to the number of parents arguing that children should not use these applications in the classroom when parents have such a challenge limiting their gaming time at home. While a valid argument, the flip side is that in today’s multimedia environment we have to enrich each student’s visual experience to stimulate their learning. Now is the time to take advantage of the way children entertain themselves, to employ those same media and thinking habits they foster for the betterment of learning outcomes. Because so much of students’ experience is shaped and surrounded by imagery, highly visual interactive activities have truly become the new currency of learning. However, with this in mind, significant consideration of the learning content of highly visual gaming resources must be given.

Following the recent launch of the Joint Mathematical Council’s report into digital technologies and mathematics, STEM-subject innovator Texas Instruments (stand J30) should be of interest to mathematics and science teachers. The TI-NspireTM CX colour software, handheld and datalogger, was developed to offer an interactive learning tool and address demand for greater understanding of and engagement with core concepts in maths and science.

Q&D Multimedia are one company that has carefully considered this balance and on stand B39 they are showing Busythings.co.uk, offering over 120 educational games for three to six-year-olds with a new one being added every month. Dedicated entirely to early years and children with special educational needs, busythings.co.uk was a BETT award winner this year for Best Early Years and Primary Digital Content.

Workshops & tutorials
Artech Academy on stand H3 is another company offering games applications focused on learning content, with their high-tech workshops and online tutorials in video game design. Aimed at teachers and students in both primary and secondary education, Designing Video Games is a cross-curricular activity that equips teachers with the tools to incorporate Video Game Design into the existing curriculum.

PlayBrighter is another games based learning resource which recognises the struggle of motivating teenage students to learn in the classroom. PlayBrighter therefore combines such gaming with studying in a unique online platform that offers cutting-edge educational games to re-engage pupils with learning. PlayBrighter can be used to teach any subject from maths and science to art, history and Welsh; teachers are able to choose from a database of over 2000 question sets or input their own tailored questions. Visit PlayBrigher on stand T52.

In my attempt to discuss interactive technologies at BETT I have only touched the surface by looking at alternative interactive whiteboards, interactive response systems and gaming devices. Of course, interactive technologies includes virtually all eLearning resources, and hardware, but I hope this has given you an idea of the breadth of learning resources at BETT. Please come to visit us at the BESA Information Point for information on any other areas of learning technology.

For more information
www.bettshow.com