Category: BETT

I couldn’t be at BETT this year which made me sad. I can do without the exhibition in itself; what I missed was the interaction with others and particularly the TeachMeet and TeachMeetTakeovers from which I have learned so much.

Not to be beaten, I recorded a 2 minute nano-presentation in case my name came up on the ‘MagicFruitMachine‘. It didn’t, but all is not lost as a)a list of URLs and links to presentations and blogs was given to every attendee and b)I’ve recorded it so you get it anyway!

Here it is – entitled Be patient – it’ll happen, it’s my encouragement to those who feel that their “drop in the ocean” won’t make a difference.

[vimeo http://www.vimeo.com/34787586 w=400&h=300]

Thanks to @Iris_Connect, you can now access some of the many TeachMeetTakeover sessions.

Click here for access to talks by @tomhenzley @dannynic @kevinmulryne @gvibe and @charte – and me- and to spot the highly amusing typo (you’re good, Mr Harte but not quite the Messiah!)

I’ve also put mine below ;o)

On Friday, I hit BETT in London.  I didn’t really see much on Friday apart from some wonderful presentations as part of TeachMeetTakeover which I was helping coordinate for the day.

TeachMeetTakeover is a sort of ‘organised flashmob’ idea where companies offer their stands for half hour / hour slots to be used by someone talking about free ideas that they’ve used in their classroom.  There were presentations throughout Thursday, Friday and Saturday – the variety of ideas can be seen from the wikispace, which also shows how many offered but didn’t get to take part.

Having snaffled a helium balloon from a stand, I taped the logo to it and flew it by presentations – it seemed to make people stop for that all important three seconds it took for them to be drawn into the presentations!

My presentation was on the Babcock4S stand – and I have to say a huge thank you to Dan and the team for their welcome – and the beer!

Below are the slides from my talk entitled ‘Free stuff doesn’t have to be pants!

A lady from IRIS Connect was videoing it – if it gets published, I’ll upload the link! UPDATE – blog post with link

And look!  Just found this photo on Flickr that was taken during my presentation – you can see my legs just under the banner!

From Foto’s Frans Peeters on Flickr

BETT seems ages ago – but it’s only a month.

Next week I will be mostly in London. And I’m very excited! There are lots of reasons and over the next few posts, I’ll tell you why!

1. Teachmeet Takeover

BETT is really a huge trade show with people wanting you to buy their products to use in your educational setting. This year, educators are taking over stands for half hour slots to share what they’ve done in their classrooms with free stuff. When I say ‘takeover’, the stand owners – including Scholastic, BrainPopUK, Adobe and NetIntelligence – have donated time so it’s not an aggressive thing, and that’s great as our ideas have probably got nothing to do with what their stand is showcasing.

I’ve volunteered to speak at 10.30 on Friday on the Rising Stars stand on ‘Ideas for tools in language learning including Voki, Wallwisher, Voicethread, Storybird‘. I’ll try to remember to record it – it’s about time for another episode of Lisibo talks!

Andrea from Rising Stars sounds lovely and has promised me a strong coffee before hand. Might need one afterwards too!

Here’s a link to the whole programme. If you’re at BETT, why not pop along to one or two sessions. There’s a goody bag worth £300 for people who participate and fill in some ideas they’ve gained from the experience so it’s worth it!

So that’s reason one why I’m excited about BETT.