BETT 2008 - the world's largest educational technology show.

It’s January, it's dark outside and it’s cold and wet so it must be time for BETT - the largest educational technology show in the world. The show is full of gadgets and software. Some of it is good, some of it is interesting, some of it is amazing and some of it is overpriced rubbish. I won’t highlight any of the overpriced rubbish, just the good, interesting and amazing.

The learner’s voice area of the show was in the good and interesting section. There were no sales reps trying to convince passers by that their e-learning solution would save the world, just learners demonstrating how technology can support and enhance learning in real life. They also showed visitors to the stand, including various education ministers and Bob Geldof, how to use some of the some of the gadgets and software.

The main types of gadget that seemed to dominate the show were portable devices and the most popular of these was the RM Asus Minibook. It’s a fully functional laptop the size of a book and priced at less than £200. It was so popular you had to queue up to try one. Having done so I’m in agreement with everyone else who saw it – I want one!

The One Laptop Per Child was also on show and I was reliably informed that the ‘Buy One Give One’ program is going to be extended to the UK by the Open Learning Centre.

There was also quite a bit of interest in using Sony PSPs for viewing and creating learning content as it can new include wi-fi, a web browser, an rss reader and a camera.

Turning Point, who make the voting system we have in LIS, are exploring making their software cross platform so that learners can use a laptop, mobile phone, PSP etc instead of just the clickers that come with the software. Learners will then be able to download the software for their device, connect to the wireless network and start voting. Watch this space.

Finally, by far the ‘coolest’ thing at the show (I’m not sure if you’re allowed to use the word ‘cool’ when you pass 18 but anyway) was reactable ‘a collaborative electronic music instrument with a tabletop tangible multi-touch interface’. It is designed to be intuitive with ‘zero manual, zero instructions’. Interestingly, one of the designers explained that they started by deciding what they wanted to do and then looked at how technology could help them achieve it. Sounds like technology last to me :-)

New Open Source Search Engine in Alpha

Wikia Search, a new open source search engine has been launched today, by the people who brought you Wikipedia. It will be a new concept in searching and although it is still in alpha (not even ready to be put into beta yet ...) it is hoped pregress will be reasonably speedy. If you would like to help visit their web site (link below ...) and sign yourself up !

Speaking to BBC Radio 4's PM programme, Jimmy Wales (founder of Wikipedia) said Wikia Search would be, "completely controlled by the community of users. So it's going to be similar to any wiki except people will be able to participate in the creation of search results".

Click here to view the full article on the BBC site.

If you would like to visit the alpha version of Wiki Search, just to have a look or to get involved in what might just be the future of internet searching, click here.