BETT 2011 Day 1

So BETT is here again. So what if anything grabbed my attention.

I'll be honest only 1 thing really turned my head, but I had a plan today to check out the various 'iPad' like devives out their on the market. I'll come on to the 3 I found in a moment.

Firstly 2simple was in force as normal showing off their new 2Start English and Mash2web. I popped along but was alos due to speak about some of the 2DIY work I had done. Check out the 2simple blog for that later.

Next up - and this links to some of the great presentations I saw this Sunday and Monday at the Learning Without Frontiers Conference. (Blog spot on that to come!)

I Can Animate that great bit of Mac (and PC) software is avaible for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Looks great and easy to use. Use other apps to mix it up and add sound and other effects.

On to some Tablets - Now I saw 3 which where insteresting and something that I can only describe as a PC DS.

The Libretto is made by Toshiba and runs Windows 7 - It has 2 touch screen and closes up like a DS - looked amasing but the £800 price was a bit much.

Next was a Slate called the Filo 1000 (I hope thats spelt right) It is a Android tablet running 2.2. Looks nice and didn't have a bad response time for the screen. A newer version is coming soon. I'm gonna get one on aproval soon so watch this space. I was told these where aboud the £300 price point.



Next tablet was one from RM called the RM Slate 100 - Running Windows 7. Nice weight and price at £400. Again getting one on aproval soon.

The final slate was from Avantis called the LearnPad. This was £295 and was also running Andorid 2.2, but it had a overlay which locked the system down so make it more child/school friendly. This slate had the best hardware and screen is was very responsive. Again 'hopefully' will get one on approval.

I suppose the question what about apple - yep I am, but all the above devices run flash so lots of the content us teachers like will work on them.

Finally my final head truing find and it was on an Interactive Whiteboard! I was wandering past the Smart stand and saw 3D objects being manipulated on a slide. Interesting. Thats me rotating a object from the Google 3d warehouse. (Where you get your models for Google SketchUp) I was stuck by the ability to rotate a model of a Viking Longboat for children to study. Also if you have a Smart Document Camera, you will be able to use that AR cube to turn and intearct with the object on the board. Nice! This will be in a later update of Smart Notebook this summer!

Now onward to Day 2.