Academic Technology news and updates
This page contains updates about new technologies or developments in current technologies and information about TEL events that you might find useful.
The BETT (British Educational Training and Technology) show
BETT is primarily aimed at the school sector rather than the university sector which limited the usefulness for us as a centre but did give some ideas about the current technology trends in schools:
- Interactive surfaces – this included floors and bespoke tables, not just whiteboards
- Data security, access and management – this is a recurring trend although we are guided by central University on this
- Learning management systems particularly in relation to online assessment – again this is a recurring trend although not particularly relevant to us as we are a Moodle/Tabula institution
- Virtual reality and augmented reality – this is really starting to gain traction and more generally sees a trend towards creating interactive content – something that I am keen to promote
- Online safeguarding – another recurring trend and something that has been coming up in the schools visits I have been undertaking (see below)
- Coding – yet another recurring trend
There was a heavy focus on Google Classroom and Microsoft Campus; both pushing hard to provide complete learning solutions for schools. This again is something I am seeing on my school visits and something that I am investigating further.