I BETT you . . .

On my way home from another marvellous BETT Show. I sometimes hear people talking about BETT in jaded terms; they’ve ‘seen it all before’ or ‘there’s no new tech.’ Well not me. I always try to include something new or fresh. So this year I made a point of getting there for the Friday TeachMeet where we were treated to some excellent presentations … no matter how immersed you are in edtech, TeachMeets never fail to teach you something new. It’s also a chance to catch up with members of your PLN ‘in the flesh’ and to meet some for the first time. I never cease to be amazed at how supportive, positive, inspirational, generous and just damn fine company folks turn out to be.

On the subject of TeachMeet’s, I spent a most informative and enjoyable half hour listening to Dom Breadmore’s TeachMeet Takeover session on the subject of Geo-ing things:

I also signed up for and delivered my 1st  Takeover session on the BrainPOP_UK stand. Saturday afternoon was never going to be a busy time, but the BrainPOP team were very supportive and a few hardy souls hung around to keep me company (thanks Tim). Did I enjoy it? Sure! There’s always something new to learn when you put yourself out there a bit and it’s so important to expose yourself to new experiences … especially when your years become more advanced. Anyway I was talking about free, online alternatives to proprietary response systems (clickers). There’s a LiveBinder with all the links and resources, so by all means dip in to find out

• What we might want to use them for
• Things to consider
• Different tools
• Comparison chart
• Support resources (including links to more ideas and brief tutorial videos)

#TMTakeover 2011

I also got the chance to link up with some suppliers to follow up a couple of queries. Even though I wasn’t on the spend for new stuff, they were still very generous with their time and advice and helped me move forward in a couple of areas.

All in all then a great visit and roll on BETT2012.