Once again, the four-day show is set to provide higher education professionals with an opportunity to experience the latest and most groundbreaking technologies, and get a taste of how those technologies can be used to revolutionise learning.
The Technology in Higher Education Summit returns for Bett 2015, offering a space for visitors to share ideas, future gaze and streamline technology decision-making. It is also a chance for educators in HE to hear from their peers as they provide insight into technology enhancing student attainment, pedagogy, managing user expectations and investing in technology to reduce the operational costs of running an institution.
The programme of free-to-attend sessions runs throughout Bett, and here’s an idea of what visitors can expect this time around!
Toni Sant, education organiser, Wikimedia, Paul Clark, director of policy, Universities UK and Peter Tinson, executive director, UCISA will be running a seminar titled, ‘The changing landscape of technology in higher education’ on 21 January from 10:30 – 11:10. The session will include an overview of the current impact of technology in higher education, and balancing technology and pedagogy. It will also look at the future of the HE sector in the UK, and explore what’s next.
Also on 21 January, at 11:25 – 12:10, Andy Miah, chair in science communication and digital media, University of Salford, Santanu Vasant, educational technologist, City University and Rosie Miles, reader in English literature and pedagogy, University of Wolverhampton will be hosting a session on ‘Assessing the role of social media in higher education: #goodorbad’. This group of educators will discuss the advantages and disadvantages of incorporating social media in education, and how to overcome the challenges, as well as explaining the social media and strategy that is used in their institution.
On 22 January at 13:10 – 13:55 and new for Bett 2015, visitors are invited to a lunch and speed networking session. It offers HE professionals the chance to put questions to key thought-leaders and industry players for 3 minutes each; enabling visitors to take ideas from the summits and put them into action.
At 16:25 – 16:55 on 22 January, Helen Keegan, senior lecturer – interactive media & social technologies, University of Salford will present a case study on ‘Moving beyond traditional learning and assessment’. Visitors will have the opportunity to hear this academic’s journey to increasing student engagement and curiosity by including alternate reality in the course.
Oliver Turnbull, Pro-Vice Chancellor for teaching and learning, Bangor University will be speaking at 11:25 – 11:55 on 23 January. In his session, ‘Student satisfaction through technology (and other important things)’, Oliver will share the University’s journey on how its use of technology, statistics, tech-enabled polling, feedback tracking (and some old-fashioned interpersonal skills) has helped them progress from 68th to 7th in the annual National Student Survey.
To complement the Technology in HE Summit, hundreds of companies will be showcasing their products and services, here are just a few examples.
On stand F85, Tripleplay will be showcasing its new TripleShow Live Presenter, a high-quality lecture capture solution that enables any institution to record, stream and archive lectures or lessons simply and easily using a web browser for control. Harnessing the power of existing tried, tested and trusted technologies, TripleShow provides an even greater student and tutor experience at the lowest cost possible.
Integrating directly into the TripleChoice Media Portal, lectures can be quickly recorded, archived and streamed ready for access on any device on any network; with integration into Virtual Learning Environments (including Blackboard and Moodle) allowing the content to be provided to students in a familiar and simple manner.
WolfVision will be on stand F497 with its latest presentation technology solutions, including the VZ-9.4 Series Visualizers, and the VZ-C6 Ceiling Visualizer System. These easy-to-use systems enable flexible creation, display, recording and distribution of multimedia presentation content material. Both VZ-9.4 and VZ-C6 systems feature on-board HD video recording with audio, enabling the capture of complete multimedia presentations and lectures. Recordings are not limited to the Visualizer’s own camera, and external display material from connected devices can also be easily captured.
TOPdesk returns to Bett, on stand F403. The tool for IT, FM and HR will be available in its newest version, TOPdesk 5.5 which was released in November 2014. TOPdesk has long been at the forefront of service management software for HE, following collaborations with the Universities of Edinburgh, Abertay Dundee and St Andrews to create a service tailored to optimally support them.
TOPdesk 5 customers can download the newest version for free. Learn about the new features and request a free demonstration account by visiting the team on their stand!
Bett 2015 is free to attend and takes place from Wednesday 21 to Saturday 24 January 2015 at ExCeL London.
For more information or to register, please visit www.bettshow.com You can also follow the conversation on Twitter @Bett_Show.