Page 4 - Winter 2025

people working in education to have a say in, and Most of the audience then appeared to support
BETT 2025
Bett 2025 is the world’s largest event dedicated
to the application of technology in education,
otherwise known as ‘edtech’. It takes place each
year in different locations across the globe,
including the UK, Brazil and Asia, and this year it
celebrated its fortieth anniversary.
This year’s UK event took place at the ExCel Exhibition
Centre in London from the 22nd. to 24th. January and
involved around 600 exhibitors spread across two
halls and seven dedicated zones as follows:
• Global Showcase (23 exhibitors)
• Equipment and Hardware (157 exhibitors)
• Start-up Zone (46 exhibitors)
• Education Show (18 exhibitors)
• Ahead Zone (30 exhibitors)
• Management Solutions (91 exhibitors)
• Teaching and Learning Tech (211 exhibitors)
Collectively the event united over 30,000 educators,
policymakers and edtech supporters from 129
countries. Key features included a dedicated Esports
zone, a Teaching and Learning Theatre and a Tech
in Action Theatre, whilst new for 2025 were the Bett
Big Assembly, where students and teachers explored
gaming tech evolution and career pathways in an
interactive format, and the Fishbowl Experience,
which encouraged audience participation on hot
topics.
Another new feature was the Live Classroom,
designed to bring real-world teaching to life on
the show floor in conjunction with the EdTech Hubs
Programme, showcasing the power of technology
to inspire, engage and elevate education for all
learners. Participating schools included Ribblesdale
4 5
School in Clitheroe, Leo Academy Trust and The
Pioneer School.
Here, teachers narrated a 25-minute lesson,
providing insights into their methods and tech
choices, after which a panel discussion enabled
educators to share the rationale behind the tools
and strategies used and discuss how they address
diverse learner needs.
Education Today (January 2025) incorporates an
eight-page supplement dedicated to Bett, which
includes details of the Bett 2025 shortlisted Awards
Finalists, ViewSonic in partnership with Jesus College
Oxford, and Lapsafe®, shortlisted for the Ahead by
Bett Further and Higher Education and Technology
Award.
A companion supplement, entitled ‘Innovate and
Collaborate’ is published in Teach Secondary, which
focuses on the speakers Rose Luckin, University
College London Professor and Founder of Educate
Ventures, and Kelly Hannaghan, Mental Health and
Wellbeing Consultant and Director of Mind Work
Matters.
Rose Luckin notably gave three presentations all with
an emphasis on AI:
• ‘AI-powered pedagogical Transformation:
Visions of the Classroom’
• ‘AI: Learn fast, act more slowly’
• ‘AI: Data and Employability’
In these she identifies ‘lots of enthusiasm across the
English education system around AI’, but accepts
that it is ‘incredibly difficult to leverage it’. She argues
that ‘a lot of what will happen in the classrooms
of the future depends on how people react to
the technology’ and therefore it is ‘essential for
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knowledge of, how this technology is going to be
used’.
She says:1
“ We need to help students learn how to use the
technology appropriately.
With some consumer AI tools we’re being told
they’re going to make our lives “effortless”. As an
educator that is not a message I’m comfortable
with, because learning isn’t effortless. And that’s a
really important argument for why educators need
to be part of the conversation, because we don’t
want lots of technologies appearing on the market
that are all about persuading learners that they
don’t need to work hard any more”.
Should Mobile Phones be banned in Schools?
This question was one of the hot topics that
was covered in the Fishbowl programme, with
viewpoints expressed both for and against.
A case was presented by one educational
establishment where a year ago children were not
allowed access to the internet and this resulted
in “an incredible transformation”. In particular
safeguarding issues dropped by 80 per cent, whilst
behaviour in class improved with fewer distractions
with a corresponding improvement in attendance.
Later in the discussion it was accepted that ‘banning’
was in fact a very emotive word. The question was
then asked whether the issue really was about
smartphones or whether it was more accurately
about content. The audience’s attention was then
directed to the “huge numbers” who were accessing
games that were not age appropriate.
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the idea of a ban in schools, but there followed a
counter-argument which spoke of “an epidemic of
hysteria” in which the banning of phones was “not a
magic bullet solution”.
It was then argued that what was perceived as being
a phone issue was really a cultural issue. Students
in the audience were invited to participate in the
discussion and here there was strong support for
the use of mobile phones, for example to check
the timings of transport and to give information to
parents, but not in the classroom.
There was some concern about the “significant
harm” that can result from mobile phone use,
particularly with regard to its coercive effects. There
was a viewpoint that suggested that we were now
“on the cusp of turning the tide”. How this would be
done was not entirely clear, but a role for the Online
Safety Act was proposed.
As the discussion progressed the prevailing opinion
arose that there was a definite need to make
learning more engaging, and that learning to
manage the technology was a priority. Unfortunately,
however, many parents do not have the time to
manage the technology, with one arguing that “we
cannot expect children to behave perfectly when
we’re using phones so much”.
The conclusion was that the debate was one
that crosses right through education with putting
children first being the top priority - using the correct
technology at the correct time.
Classroom Live: Ribblesdale School
As previously mentioned, Ribblesdale School was
one of three schools that took part in the Classroom
Live demonstrations.
Led by Assistant Headteacher Lee Small, and
presented by Subject Lead for History, Caroline
Fletcher, this presentation used EdTech to bring
history to life. In this case the subject was First World
War trench warfare and the enablers were One Note
and Microsoft Forms with the aid of Mentimeter.
To begin Microsoft Forms presented ten questions
to check the learning achieved in the previous
lesson. This was used to identify any gaps in
learning, providing instant feedback that identified
gaps in knowledge concerning the organisation
of trenches and four students who had apparently
not understood what a dug out was. This was then
rectified.
One Note and Microsoft Forms were highlighted for
their ability to aid collaboration across departments
and reduce teacher workload. A multiple input
method is used for creation of content and by flicking
directly onto a student’s One Note the teacher was
able to quickly identify any misconceptions rather
than leaving it to chance to intervene. It can be dealt
with on the spot.