Like many other people I have been reflecting upon BETT2010. Like many others I have commented that I feel this year’s show, although bigger than ever, seemed to lack much in the way of innovation. What I did like about this year’s BETT though was the involvement of practitioners, especially through the TeachMeet takeovers, which saw educationalists take over a company’s stand (with their consent) for about 15 mins and give a presentation on how they used ICT in their work, and also the evening events such as TEDxOrenda and TeachMeetBETT. Sadly I was unable to get to these evening events (I was due to attend the TEDx event but had troubles booking into my hotel and found myself delayed while booking into another hotel), nevertheless, I was able to follow these events via twitter.

Much credit must be given to people such as @tombarrett and @digitalmaverick for organising these events. I really hope they become an annual occurrence at future BETT exhibitions.

Although there was not much in the way of innovation on display at BETT, the event was still very much dominated by the Big Things. I noticed interactive wall displays that did not require a projector, 3D displays, and 3D projectors, a graffitti wall and lots of big video equipment. Most of the Big Players were also evident again this year; RM, Microsoft, Becta, Espresso, Adobe etc.. Which all gives the impression that big things are most important.

What seemed to be lacking though was much support for small or handheld devices. It does seem that the concept of handheld learning has still not been fully appreciated within the world of educational ICT, at least as far as the vendors and exhibitors at BETT are concerned. This was a disappointment as it suggests not only that the handheld learning world has even more to do before it becomes recognised but also that educational ICT is still dominated by massive infrastructure approaches to ICT. I’d hope that future years might see some change in this.

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