BETT 2016

Dear Anh and Adele,

I filled in your survey last week and wanted to expand on a couple of ideas that could make a big difference for students, teachers and BETT in general.   There is a whole free infrastructure via #dlchat and #openbadges for encouraging the wider skill set required by youngsters today and also giving them the accreditation to show that they have the skills.  It should not just be about the hardware…

May I also mention the spark that has prompted me to contact you.  At the weekend, my eye caught a request from @Bett_show for me to host #BETTchat and I thought of the interest that there is before an annual show , but how it tails off after.   I would like to offer a couple of suggestions for how you could generate interest throughout the year amongst students… and hence teachers…

The last three years I have taken digital leaders to BETT to present and on #dlchat we have started calling it DL Friday. I would suggest making Friday a student-focused day, ask them what *they* think and give opportunities at the arena and for companies to celebrate *their achievement*.   Teachers do most of what they do for the students, and if you make students the focus, teachers will follow, and be positive

Idea 1 – continue with a student debate in the morning. Thank you for giving Lady Lumley students the opportunity this year to be in the main arena.  However, how about planning for a range of ages and for younger students to prepare their answers and present them first.  @L_S_Stone actually has Infant Digital Leaders… But certainly primary / secondary / and even a couple of university students talking about the sort of progression to look for… I would love to come next year and be in the audience to see @clcsimon’s digital leaders as the secondary representatives – as long as they take the train…

Idea 2 – there is a free open badge framework for digital leader accreditation.   Why not have a presentation session in the afternoon for both showing what digital leaders have done (there are currently two different levels so you could have primary and KS3 secondary) and presenting awards.   The #openbadge framework can be used throughout the year if we know in advance that there will be awards… You could identify next year’s presenters from the crop of awards in the previous year

Idea 3 – encourage commercial providers to focus their efforts for making it student centred on the Friday.  In our #dlchat plenary about BETT we were saying that we thought there were less students the last couple of years.  Teachers have an awful lot on their plates at the moment and the encouragement for bringing students on a particular day for awards would make a big difference.

I think you may already be thinking along these lines (I know Mark Chambers asked for some information from me) so I would be happy to talk further if these things would be of interest to you, and to involve people like @clcsimon and @SheliBB.

Kind regards

Chris

Chris Sharples

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Head of ICT / ICT Consultant

Lady Lumley’s School

www.ladylumleys.n-yorks.sch.uk

Email: csharples@gr8ict.com
Blog: www.gr8ict.com

Twitter: gr8ict