The internet of things shows great promise, but always-on mobile and smart devices can pose a risk to academic environments.

Delegates at the Bett show, held at Excel in East London this week, were given an ethical hacking demonstration from a security consultant showing how seemingly innocuous devices can be used by ne'er-do-wells.

Sam Robshaw, senior cyber security consultant at Blackberry, explained how a smart kettle could be leveraged to hack into an academic network.

He said that while some IoT devices took security seriously (he mentioned Hive from British Gas being particularly security-focused), some other devices weren't as security hardened.

In a demonstration, Robshaw set up a test network with a smart kettle on it. The kettle was easy to access and with some research, he could find a manual for the unit and a default password to access it. From there, he discovered the kettle used AT+ commands as well as Telnet, an old and unencrypted protocol. It wasn't long before the kettle revealed the password of the network he wanted to hack into in plain text. This part of the demo lasted no more than a minute, but he had managed to access an otherwise secured network.

Using network sniffing tools, Robshaw showed delegates that he could find out if a Windows server had ports 139 and 445 running. This was an indication that the SMB protocol was running. He fired up Metasploit, downloaded and ran EternalBlue to see if he could exploit the Wannacry vulnerability on the test server. A minute later, he showed delegates that he had access to a command shell on the demo Windows server. From here he showed he had system privileges and added himself as a user.

He showed that it was all too easy to then search through files on the server for information on exams, test results and papers.

He said that the aim of the demonstration was to encourage schools and colleges to not only update servers and other computers against exploits, such as Wannacry, but to also take into account the susceptibility of smart devices to allow attacks through poor security practices in IoT.

Main image credit: IT Pro

Microsoft has unveiled four new low-cost, ultra-robust Windows 10 PCs for schools at the BETT education show in London.

As well as offering all the features customers would expect from Windows 10 PCs, the Lenovo 100e, Lenovo 300e, Lenovo Classmate Leap T303 and Trigono V401 offer faster connectivity to the internet to super-charge students' studies.

The Intel Celeron Apollo Lake-powered Lenovo 100e sits at the bottom of the pricing scale, available from $189 (135), while the Classmate Leap T303 is available for $199. The $279 two-in-one Lenovo 300e and the Trigono V401 2-in-1, which starts at $299, are the pricier of the foursome.

"We know affordability is priority number one for many schools," said Yusuf Mehdi, corporate vice president of Windows and Devices Group at Microsoft.

"Shrinking budgets can sometimes force schools to choose devices with a stripped-down experience and a limited lifespan, and, over time, these devices cost schools more and do less to prepare students for the future.

Mehdi added: "Our new Windows 10 devices won't force schools to compromise on features, giving schools cutting-edge tools like touch, inking, and 3D as well as free accessibility technology like Learning Tools, which improve reading comprehension by 10 percentile points for students of all abilities."

All four new Windows 10 PCs offer enhanced features, just for the education sector, including a rugged design to ensure they can withstand the stresses and strains of multiple users, while all-day battery life means they'll stay juiced up throughout the school day.

Microsoft also explained they all support Intune for Education, which enables school IT staff to get them up and running fast at a much lower cost compared to Google's Management Console.

Information technology for education is in a period of considerable change. Just a few years ago, the focus was on-premise hardware and infrastructure. However, the attention has now shifted to cloud-based solutions, and at the forefront of this shift is European Electronique.

Over 30 years of business, 25 of which have been serving the educational market, European Electronique has watched and driven change in information technology for education. The company began by supplying printing solutions and maintenance services to commercial organisations, but has now evolved into an IT solutions provider working across education, public and commercial sectors with a significant focus on the cloud.

This is where European Electronique can help. Freedom is one of the key technologies the company offers to aid educational institutions with the transition to the cloud. A complete suite of ICT services that is delivered from and managed within the cloud, the provision can be entirely public or a balance between this and on-premises servers, creating a hybrid solution. The latter maximises the access potential from public provisions alongside the performance available from local, on-premises hardware. In all cases, choice and reliability are maximised, while cost is minimised.

A game-changing feature of Freedom is its ability to scale the number of users supported from a single school to a multi-academy trust. Traditional IT is primarily a capital expense but Freedom can balance capital and revenue spending for a smoother, more predictable cost. The service costs can even be tailored to fit entirely into a revenue budget, avoiding the irregular large expense of a capital project.

Freedom is also a modular system, enabling school IT administrators to choose to implement a part of or all of the platform. For starters, it provides secure critical backup and restore. Since the services are implemented using device-agnostic web technologies, all that's required is network connectivity and a web-capable device. The two main components of Freedom are Freedom Access, for creating a learning platform, and Freedom Services, which is all about creating a virtual network along cloud principles.

This can either be entirely devoid of local servers, or some traditional local services can be retained and blended into a seamless provision, in the hybrid case. This can even be a dynamic configuration where local services are moved into the cloud as the current hardware reaches end of life. In other words, implementing Freedom Services doesn't have to be a jolt to the regular activities of learning; the cloud can be phased in gradually, replacing existing services in a stepped process.

From a user perspective, one browser interface provides access to everything. A single password sign-on allows the user to check their email, access a flexible array of educational apps, and print with a single click. A cashless catering system and virtual online library are also available. Management systems for administrators and public cloud services can be included, and the whole interface is user-configurable.

Instead of having to administer multiple physical servers, each one for a subset of users, a single Freedom Virtual Data Centre server puts all user data in one place in the cloud. The Freedom Connector optimises bandwidth depending on the connection method being used. The Freedom Backup ensures client, server and applications are secured in the cloud, with an optional local cache for faster recovery.

For administrators, Freedom View provides monitoring and management facilities. Client devices can be configured, and operating systems and updates deployed from the cloud. Reports can be created on clients, servers and network infrastructure to provide a holistic view of system conditions. The management facilities include control over mobile devices, wireless access points and web and content filtering, as well as email security.

Shifting educational IT services to the cloud is a true revolution that's happening right now. Huge financial savings are available, as are predictable, scalable costs. But the benefits are much more than just a smaller IT outlay with business otherwise as usual. Distributed collaboration is built in, and new facilities can easily be rolled out to a cohort of students with just a few clicks. The Freedom platform from European Electronique provides the flexibility and control required for schools to take maximum advantage of what the cloud revolution has to offer, at the pace of adoption that fits their needs.

For more information, visit www.euroele.com or call 08453 458 340.

The trend is clear: educational IT services are moving to the cloud. There may only be a minority of UK schools and colleges that have currently moved over, but the shift is inexorable, because the benefits are clear and work on a number of levels - educational, operational and financial. C-Learning provides services to help support a school or college transition to the cloud, drawing on extensive UK and international experience focused entirely on education.

The most obvious benefit of moving to the cloud, particularly when taking the Google G Suite for Education approach, is the cost. In addition to G Suite for Education being free, the price of a Google Chromebook, from HP for example, is low enough that an entire student cohort can be equipped with one. There are many successful models of adoption across primary, secondary and independent schools and colleges. The use of a computer in school used to be confined to a dedicated IT room where screen time had to be booked. Teachers would have to shape their lessons around availability, and ensure they make use of the computer-room time that had been allotted.

But when every student has a device that can access online content and software with them at the times they need, then it's a complete game changer. The services available can be used when they fit the flow of teaching, rather than the other way around, which is a much more natural approach. Every student will have access to the tools to write and create presentations, for example, and can perform their own online research. Cloud-based tools are also naturally collaborative, since they're delivered from a shared space that all the users have in common. The ability to work together in this way is a fundamentally important skill for school students to learn.

A more tacit benefit from using cloud services in educational IT provision is that the students will become familiar with them. Since the cloud is becoming rapidly adopted in the commercial world, and is likely to be as dominant in this realm as it is becoming in education, it's important that the students learn about this mode of interaction with IT services. The skills they acquire accessing cloud services for education will prepare them for their future in the world of work.

The benefits for school and college IT organisation go well beyond mere cost savings, too, even if these are tremendously important in these times of tight budgets. Providing services via Google's G Suite for Education on Chromebooks means that a consistent set of applications and other online facilities can be delivered across an entire student population. There's no need to go from machine to machine to install new software and updates. Since every user gets their provision from the same cloud repository, they always have the latest versions of the software supplied by the school or college. Implementing new features will be equally uncomplicated.

This is why C-Learning promotes a "cloud-first" strategy to help schools and colleges make the transition, arguing that the switch to the cloud should be central to any development plan and planned IT upgrades. The company's G Suite for Education Accelerator service provides schools and colleges with assistance when setting up their cloud services to make sure they're using their services in the shortest time possible. One of the key ways this assistance is delivered is through professional development and training. C-Learning helps schools build internal expertise in G Suite and to understand the impact its usage will have on learning and teaching. C-Learning was one of the first companies to sell Chromebooks in the UK when they were launched, so they have been promoting early adoption since the beginning.

C-Learning is a relatively young company, founded in 2011, but has already developed an extensive UK and international network of partners, from whom advice can be drawn for the benefit of schools and colleges just starting out on the road to cloud adoption. C-Learning will put a headteacher or a college principal contemplating the cloud in touch with another that has already taken their school or college on the journey, so that they can learn from real experience on the "front line". The service that C-Learning provides isn't just for a brief time of initial transition, either. The company will constantly revisit a school or college provision to help them grow their cloud learning services as their needs develop, since more benefits from cloud services are arriving all the time.

Although Google Chromebooks have been a major enabler in this cloud revolution, the hardware is decreasingly important, and shouldn't be a hindrance to adoption. Where two-thirds of US schools use cloud-based IT services, in the UK it's more like one-third. So there's huge room for growth, but in the UK adoption has reached a point of critical mass. Schools are beginning to see the benefits of cloud technology to student literacy and numeracy levels. For this reason, the cloud is not merely a change in the structure of IT provision from on-premise to the cloud, but should be fully integrated into a shift in a school's or college's approach to education.

Cloud technologies promise a new era in digitally enabled learning, with reduced costs and an ever-expanding array of new tools for education. With its pure focus on and expertise in delivering the cloud for education, C-Learning is in an ideal position to help schools and colleges realise that promise - a safe and secure cloud-learning service tailored specifically for their current needs, but with room to grow as these needs develop over time.

Taking the leap from traditional on-premises IT to the cloud in the classroom can be a daunting prospect for schools. To make the process smoother, a school needs the assistance of a trusted and experienced guide. Getech Education has 30 years of history providing IT for learning environments, originally focusing on higher and further education, and supplying more than 20,000 devices a year and multiple support services into the UK education sector.

Four years ago, Getech developed a schools division with the aim of providing a more cost-effective and collaborative set of solutions for schools than would normally be available from traditional IT providers.

Getech developed solutions in addition to its infrastructure business (with broadband and Wi-Fi solutions), choosing to look at IT in the classroom through the lens of the teaching community. The company built its services - which include Google domain setup, Google licence provision, teacher training and support services, cloud filtering and e-safety - around the collaboration facilities and learning and teaching benefits that can be derived from Google's G Suite for Education and Chromebooks. The company also helps set up parental contribution systems, aiding the school/parent relationship. This teacher-led approach and schools-based service ethic led Google to appoint Getech with its highest accreditation as a UK Premier Education Partner.

Whatever a school was using before, Google makes it easy to import existing files. Support costs are drastically reduced and management is simplified, too. However, the benefits for learning and teaching are the most significant feature of a shift to a cloud-based system based on Google products. The anytime, anywhere aspect of the cloud opens up the potential of a 24-hours-a-day, seven-days-a-week educational experience.

Only about a third of schools have begun to take the step from on-premises IT to the cloud, so this is a potentially huge and fast growing area. Getech can draw on its knowledge of helping literally hundreds of schools "Go Google" to provide solutions that cover every aspect of a school's requirement.

Getech works with HP in particular here, because HP produces high-quality products for use with the Google ecosystem, which are competitively priced but also specifically tailored for education. Getech can collaborate with HP to create a complete solution for education, instead of just providing a competitively priced product.

To help with this holistic approach, Getech does a lot of work with schools that are contemplating a shift to the cloud so they fully understand why they're making the move and what the benefits could be. Getech will work with a school from this initial stage, through designing the solution and then implementation, as well as providing ongoing support once the system is in place. The cloud option is very far from being a fire-and-forget system that merely provides a solution for today's educational problems. Instead, it's a dynamic and growing provision that gains new features all the time. For example, in the week of the BETT education conference in January 2017, Google announced that an extra two million apps would be available on Chrome devices. G Suite for Education is constantly evolving and improving.

Getech aims to assist educational institutions to achieve the most with their IT investment - whether it's a small classroom deployment or a school-wide, one-to-one device rollout, while also reducing complexity. Although Chromebooks provide the lowest cost of entry, the browser-based G Suite for Education is device-agnostic, so it can run on a wide variety of operating systems, not just Chrome. This means a G Suite implementation can make use of existing school hardware. In fact, the relatively low requirements could mean that older hardware remains viable for longer, providing yet another example that moving educational IT services to the cloud can reduce costs.

That said, Getech still maintains a thriving hardware-supply business focused on everything for the classroom from broadband, Wi-Fi and multitouch displays, to student and teacher devices. The most popular devices from Getech are Chromebooks via its www.chromebooks4schools.com portal. With Chrome devices, the cost of management is greatly reduced using the Google Apps Admin Console, which requires a small one-off fee for the lifetime of each device. This allows all users to be managed centrally, including creating groups, control over access to online resources, preinstallation of apps, asset tracking and configuration of network access, as well as user features such as browser bookmarks.

Although capabilities like these are already available on-premises with traditional IT, the cloud-based G Suite for Education releases the locational ties. Wherever the user logs in, their customised user specific environment will follow - from website bookmarks to app suite, content, email and group membership. The student can sit down anywhere and continue where they left off, with everything they need right where they left it last. This releases them from the restrictions IT can place on activity, and allows the computer to become a fully integrated part of the educational process.

The transition to the cloud may have associated risks, not least from the change in IT management culture. But the benefits are clear and far-ranging. The cost savings can be significant; the shift to a device for every user promises a sea change in how IT is used in the classroom; and there's a wealth of software and content available through the G Suite for Education ecosystem. With the help of Getech Education, the move to the cloud can take advantage of all these positives while keeping the transformational pain to the minimum.

The switch from on-premises IT provision to the cloud has unleashed a host of positive developments in education. The reduced total cost of ownership is just the beginning. Rapid deployment of new teaching content and applications, as well as built-in collaboration with ubiquitous devices, can herald new ways of teaching and free the educational experience from being tied so closely to the classroom. But with great possibilities also come potential threats. An internet-connected device opens up an online world with many unwanted destinations alongside the amazing potential it provides.

This is why an experienced, specialist partner is imperative for any school. RM Education has been in the business for more than 40 years and, as with many companies that have addressed the education market for a long time, was originally focused on supplying hardware and infrastructure. The company has more recently refocused on the cloud and ceased producing computers, partnering with suppliers such as HP for the hardware side, since HP provides a full range of offerings for a cloud-based education service, including robust and durable Google Chromebooks. These devices are so reasonably priced that every student can potentially have one, and the school IT experience can extend well beyond the school walls.

RM has a specific service in its portfolio to combat the dangers found online when devices go outside the school premises, which can tailor the protection entirely to the user. Called RM Buzz, this integrates with G Suite for Education and Chrome devices to provide filtering that follows the user and their device wherever they go. Traditional on-premises IT protects students when they are physically within the confines of the school. A product such as RM SafetyNet can do a brilliant job of keeping students safe when they're logged in to a school's own IT system, but increasingly students are working at home or at other locations, where these protections can't be implemented with traditional IT.

In an ecosystem of Chromebooks, the educational IT provision can follow the students wherever they go, and with RM Buzz, so can the filtering that keeps their online experience safe. The level of filtering depends on the login details used, so can be tailored to the user rather than the device itself. Different levels of protection can be defined depending on the year group of the student in question, as well, with younger children facing more restrictions than older ones, for example.

The user database can be synchronised into RM Buzz from multiple sources, including RM Unify and G Suite for Education. The filtering can cover both website URLs and content, allowing the restriction of adult and extremist material. Time-based rules can be implemented, too, so that only educational destinations are available during school hours, but the restrictions are loosened when the student and device are at home. The level of centralised control means that IT staff don't need to waste time setting up protection on a device-by-device basis, so they can be released to perform other important tasks instead.

RM Buzz works seamlessly with RM Education's other products, including RM Unify and RM Integris. RM Unify provides single sign-on access to a suite of cloud-based applications and services, so that the system administrator can ensure students have everything they need for the assignments set by their teachers. Aiding this is RM Integris, a completely integrated management information system that brings attendance, behaviour, assessment, target setting and progress reports together into one place. It can be used for class groups and parental logins as well, so that parents can track their children's progress, keep abreast of their offspring's homework assignments, and provide funds for school meals and extras such as trips.

The RM Unify system provides a single Launch Pad to G Suite for Education, but also Microsoft Office 365 and other content, such as Encyclopaedia Britannica School. Students don't need to remember a host of login details for all the different services they can access through RM Unify. Once they've signed in to RM Unify, all these systems will be available, with Unify handling all the credentials required for each one. With a browser-based interface, RM Unify will work with the existing fixed school IT infrastructure, such as desktops in school computer rooms, but also mobile devices including Chromebooks and potentially even a student's own devices.

RM Buzz adds the extra security on the top. RM Unify gives school students what the school is providing for them such as software to use on assignments, content and resources, but it doesn't necessarily define what they can't do with their school-issued device. This is where RM Buzz enhances the system, ensuring everything they have access to with school devices is appropriate.

A free eight-week trial of RM Buzz is available at http://www.rm.com/products/online-safety-tools/rm-safetynet/buzz. The product is currently only compatible with Google devices, but will be rolled out for Windows devices in the near future. The benefits from moving school IT services over to the cloud are clear, and a significant percentage of schools have already made the switch. With RM Buzz from RM Education, those benefits can be had with the dangers kept at bay.

Picture: Bigstock

Schools don't have an easy job educating the future of Britain (when the future of Britain wants to faff about on their smartphones) on tight budgets with constant threat of government audit.

Technology is supposed to make that job easier such is the promise of many of the stands at BETT 2017, at Excel in London last week and in many ways it has, but the flood of devices across multiple platforms risks making the procurement and management too complex, let alone the added pain to teacher training.

Consider when you choose a smartphone or laptop. Not only must you find the option with the right hardware at the right price, but the platform you choose will inform your choices for years to come most Apple users stick to iPhones rather than considering an Android each and every upgrade cycle, and with good reason. Who wants to face a UI learning curve every two years, or rebuy apps you've already paid for?

Now spread that pain across an entire school. If you choose a Microsoft mix of tablets and laptops, good luck making use of those clever Android innovations; if you shell out for Chromebooks, Apple's education efforts are lost to you. And once you've bought into a platform, switching away from it is a challenging project. Most hardware upgrades are class by class, meaning that opting for a new platform will cause some students to be Apple and others to be on Android a mix that's a pain for corporate administrators with a well-staffed department, let alone understaffed schools on a tight budget.

That's true also for teacher training. Google, Microsoft and Apple each offer "badge" based training programmes, so teachers can learn the best way to use such ed tech in their classrooms, track their own progress, and prove their work to others but what happens if you move to another school that uses a different platform, or your own school switches to a new one? Time to start at the bottom, learning a new system from scratch.

HP's education business director, Neil Sawyer, suggested it's preferable to have a mix of tech, and it would indeed be good for children to see a variety of options, rather than be raised thinking Microsoft, Apple or Google were the only way to work, but as ideal as that vision may seem, that's a tough ask for school IT managers and teacher training.

And walking around the show floor at BETT, there's many more options to consider than laptops or mobile devices: what about smart boards or classroom displays, VR or AR headsets, 3D scanners and printers, and all the other gadgets and gizmos that promise to bring fun into the classroom and engage students?

Making the right choice is nigh on impossible. While the various innovations on show at BETT 2017 were encouraging and exciting imagine having AR, Minecraft and Lego robots in your classroom as a young student the flood of tech vying for a slice of teachers' attention and schools' budgets is surely overwhelming.

What's the answer? Bigger budgets for schools and more training time for teachers would be a grand solution, but reality suggests neither are likely. Shows like BETT 2017 can help, so long as educators manage to eschew shopping at the stands for the many informative hands-on workshops and case study seminars on offer, sharing knowledge, advice and best practice. Raspberry Pi's new magazine, Hello World, is a grand idea to let teachers and their colleagues learn about platforms and technology other than that in their own classrooms.

But the IT industry needs to do better, too. Improvement has been made in ease of management, led by Chromebooks, but that needs to be followed by simplified procurement, too. One easy win is longer trial times Microsoft offers teachers free trials of Minecraft as well as free student logins, in order to let them get to grips with the software before shelling out for it. Such trials are handy imagine buying a classroom's worth of licences for Minecraft only to find out students had moved on to Lego or another gaming trend.

Sorting the gems from the guff at a show as big as BETT isn't an easy task. The industry should do anything it can to make it easier for educators to make the right choice, regardless of platform or hardware, so schools can keep their focus where it should be, on students.

Minecraft in schools didn't come from students as you may expect, with children clamouring for a game to play in the classroom, but from teachers.

That's the story from Deirdre Quarnstrom, director of Minecraft Education, and Vu Bui, COO of Minecraft-maker Mojang, who spoke to IT Pro on the sidelines of education tech show BETT last week.

"There were some teachers who were playing who enjoyed games and they realised pretty quickly it could be used in their classrooms," said Quarnstrom. "They saw that it was easy to create anything you like and it encouraged iteration you could build something, and if you didn't like it, you could tear it right down and build it up again, which is exactly the behaviour they want to model in a learning environment."

"The original Minecraft versionwas designed by a 30-year-old guy who was making something for people like him," added Bui, "in the beginning, Minecraft really was a much older demographic." Younger users joined in as Mojang added console and mobile versions, he said.

"It was these teachers who were really into Minecraft originally who brought it into their classroom," he added, saying students likely hadn't heard of it then. "It was a game that started with an older audience, and that helped get it into education."

"Minecraft was developed as a game, and still is developed as a game," he added. "It just so happens that Minecraft is one of the most versatile games that exist, so it becomes its own platform, so you can do so many things with it. Using it in classrooms is natural because there's so much natural learning in Miencraft already."

Microsoft and education

Two years after Minecraft was bought by Microsoft for $2.5 billion, it's extended into classrooms via the official Minecraft Education Edition, which costs $5 per student but gives teachers extra resources.

"People weren't asking why should I do it [use Minecraft in the classroom]," she said. "They were saying how can I do it."

Microsoft has answered with a host of features and resources for teachers. "We've added some things to make it easier for schools to purchase and deploy in the school environment, thinking about considerations like security and privacy," she said. "So when you log into Minecraft in school you're using your school ID, which brings security as well as accountability if I start to destroy the house that you built, my name is right over my head, so everybody knows. That puts some accountability on me to think about my actions."

There are other features above and beyond the standard version of Minecraft, with recent additions including a new block type to be used as a border to separate groups of students and an in-game camera for snapping photos to share moments with teachers and parents. "Students can take a picture of what's happening, or take a selfie, and then save that in a portfolio," she said. "Those images are intended to capture some of those learning moments."

Alongside the in-game tools, Microsoft has produced support material for teachers, as "many of them are new to Minecraft and they don't play games", Quarnstrom said. Those tools include videos about how to get started, Twitter and Twitch feeds to ask questions and watch others play, more than a hundred lesson plans, and a tutorial world to help them get to grips with how the game works.

"Within 20 to 30 minutes you can get that experience and build up some confidence so you can come into your classroom and talk about how to make a pick axe, and know when to use a sword, and ... start to develop that fluency," she said. Teachers are given 25 free plays before purchase, so they can build confidence and skills before bringing the game into their classes.

Building teacher confidence is a key part to making the game work as a teaching tool, she stressed - though asking students for help is often a wise move, too. "Go out and ask your students some of the teachers with the best experiences have found students willing to give up a free period to teach them Minecraft," she added.

Hololens future?

What's next for Minecraft? Microsoft showed off the game in Hololens 18 months ago, and with more VR and AR headsets shifting into classrooms, the potential is clear. However, Bui said the game needs to work here and now.

"Right now we're focused on the technology that exists in classrooms and how we can be there now what the future holds, I wish I knew," he said.

Forget tablets, the big trend this year for education will be two-in-ones.

That's according to Neil Sawyer, head of HP's Education Business, who told IT Pro on the sidelines of BETT 2017 that convertible devices were the latest trend in schools - and made a host of other predictions for ed tech.

"There's big interest in the two-in-one form factor, quite a lot of growth with our product the Elite X2, similar to Microsoft's Surface form factor," he said.

"There's less of an interest in tablets today, I think that's fair to say, in schools and the broader market, but a huge interest in that convertible 2in1 market," he added. "There's a need for consumption and interactivity on the screen."

"I see two-in-ones and touchscreen as an area of continued growth, and that's where we're putting a lot of our own research and development into, because it's a big growth area," he added.

HP's rivals Acer, Asus and Dell are all launching two-in-one, touchscreen Chromebooks for the education market, though Sawyer stressed there's "always a buoyant need for core PCs and laptops" in schools.

Such Chromebooks will start to make more inroads into British classrooms, he predicted, saying: "[Google Chrome is] massive in the US, driven by online testing that's prevalent in the US education sector, where every child has got to have a device, because they have to be examined on that device through online testing."

"I see that as definitely something that will come to the UK education sector," he predicted, adding that HP and Google are working more closely together than ever before on education.

The right mix

Cloud-based systems - be they Chrome or Microsoft's Office 365 - are wise choices for schools, as it helps them avoid becoming stuck on one form factor of hardware if they pick up on the wrong tech trend, and lets them quickly update and roll out software, he said.

However, he advised schools against sticking to one system or hardware form factor, saying it's best to have a mix - even if that makes management a bit more complicated.

"Exposing children to as many different technology types is key," he said. "Vendors, HP included, have to understand what that technology is going to be used for, because the world of buying tens of laptops or tablets is disappearing," he said. "We need to make sure we do a better job of ensuring we're asking schools what are they using that technology for. There's a broader ranger of stuff around BETT, there's some amazing technologies."

Future of work

To understand what's the right technology for schools, educators need to consider the future of work. "The way we think about using technology in the workplace is not how technology will be used in schools and certainly not be how it's used in 15 years' time when those children are entering the workplace for the first time," Sawyer said.

"Schools need to understand what will be a key part of the workplace [of the future]," he added, suggesting virtual reality and 3D printers were safe bets to be big parts of work in the coming decades, arguing they aren't "gimmicks" and advising that "schools should back that type of stuff".

That said, he added that schools should keep teachers in mind as well as students, as they'll have a mix of tech abilities. For that reason, it's best to have a range of equipment that educators can use regardless of their own skills.

New schools

Choosing the right technology for schools is particularly challenging for those only now being built - it's hard to know what to pick for students who aren't yet in their desks.

While such schools have the benefit of being a "blank canvas" that can start from scratch building a technology system for students, it's not an easy decision to make.

"It's really important they make a good decision now as that will drive their IT strategy for the next 10 years," Sawyer said.

Put away the pencils and paper, it's time for Minecraft and Lego.

Older Brits may wonder at such modern educational tools or lament the lack of them during their own school days with the likes of Minecraft and Lego sweeping into schools ahead and ed tech companies pushing virtual reality and augmented reality.

Are such tools actually useful for students, or merely fun gimmicks that are easy for tech companies to sell? We asked experts at the BETT 2017 why the fun and games they're building into educational tech is valuable to students.

Caspar Thykier is the CEO of Zappar, which makes augmented reality tools for schools, bringing posters, student projects and books to life, with the app making photos move like "Harry Potter" style magic.

Bringing that joy and fun to school is key to student engagement, he argues particularly with the toughest students. "There's always a certain percentage of kids at school who have trouble with learning," he said, "and find it boring they're the difficult kids in class. Trying to get them to engage ... how do you increase active engagement?"

That's the value games such as Minecraft offer, said Deirdre Quarnstrom, director of Minecraft Education Edition but alongside the simple fun of the blocky game it also helps get students using technology and encourages creativity. "There's been such a focus on assessments and measurements the last few years that we see educators and industry leaders really wanting to incorporate creativity into the learning environment," she said.

Minecraft is ideal for learning because it lets students explore, build their own projects, and rebuild them if they make a mistake the first time, she said, showing off a model of the human eye built in the game. "Try something, if it doesn't work, you can try something else," she said, adding that's exactly what teachers want in a learning environment.

Vu Bui, COO of Mojang, agreed with his colleague. "Using it in classrooms is natural because there's so much natural learning in Minecraft already it completely makes sense," he said. "You can do anything in Minecraft."

It's not only computer games. HP this week announced a programme with Lego, looking to bring the toymakers' teaching tools into more schools. "They're brilliant at getting kids to work together in groups, to build things and automate them via a PC," said Neil Sawyer, HP's education business director, of Lego. "The ability to work in a group, to connect these objects to a PC and programme it... it's subtly teaching children the ability to programme," he said.

Saywer added that students should get to try as many different types of technology as possible, and games and toys were one way to do that. "Virtual reality think about that type of technology, or 3D printing, which is going to change the world, it really will," he said. "This isn't a gimmick. It's the next industrial revolution. And I think schools should back that kind of stuff."

Of course, fun at school is a good way to encourage enthusiasm in students whether they're adults or youngsters. Sawyer noted: "I'd love to be at school at the moment it's probably quite exciting."

Managing a range of tech for hundreds of students on a tight budget isn't an easy task, but IT suppliers are finally looking to make it easier on schools.

That follows Google's Chromebooks, which alongside being low cost are designed to be easily managed, with a refreshed OS every restart making administration easier for schools, especially those without a dedicated IT team.

With Chromebooks gaining in popularity particularly in American schools Microsoft has unveiled its own version, extending its Intune management system to education. Microsoft Intune for Education lets schools manage devices, settings and cloud-based applications while lower-cost Windows laptops from Acer, HP and more aim to counter Chromebooks on budget, allowing schools to stick with the Windows OS they're accustomed to using.

While Intune for Education may seem a simple response to Chromebooks' simplified management, Ian Fordham, director of education at Microsoft UK, said on the sidelines of BETT 2017 that the company was "less concerned with what others were doing and more responding to the grassroots, what the teachers and educators are looking for".

"From a usability perspective, it starts to integrate all the devices with an easy to use interface," he said, which is key as schools face a mix of devices, from mobiles to tablets and laptops and standard desktops. Fordham said the aim is to enable teachers to set up controls and manage devices in a few clicks via the dashboard and make initial deployment easy, particularly when paired with cloud tools such as Office 365.

"The technology now works... and now the usability point on the ground is really important," he said. "How do we make the lives of teachers and educators easier... something like Intune isn't like the Surface Studio, which is super cool, but it's probably more transformational as it takes a lot of the effort out."

The route to simplified technology for schools isn't only at the administration or management side, it's also about how IT suppliers attempt to sell their wares and services, noted HP's education business director, Neil Sawyer.

HP introduced a programme last year called HP for Education, which covered the costs of software for packages such as Frog, Lego and Microsoft, for schools that bought its hardware, simplifying licensing fees that pinned down schools' budgets eating up as much as a third of available funds. This year, it extended its education laptop and PC warranties to three years, in order to make it easier for schools to plan their hardware renewal cycles, as they can guarantee they'll not have to replace a device for three years.

"We have every confidence in the reliability of the product and schools need the reassurance that those devices are going to be covered... for the typical lifetime," Sawyer said at BETT 2017. "Those kind of initiatives are important for schools and colleges."

He added that IT suppliers need to be better partners to schools, helping them make the right decisions rather than simply trying to sell more products, which has led to "rampant" demand for trendy products such as tablets that only a few years on aren't as well used as hoped.

Now, when Sawyer visits schools, he sees himself as an adviser rather than someone there to "punt HP products". He added: "Vendors, HP included, have to understand what the technology is going to be used for... we need to do a better job of asking the schools what are they using that technology for."

Top-end educational tech shouldn't be limited to wealthy schools in developed countries it should be spread as widely as possible.

That's according to Gus Schmedlen, vice president for worldwide education at HP, speaking on the sidelines of BETT 2017, describing HP's Learning Studios project that sees the 3D scanning computer piloted in sixty schools in 15 countries around the world.

At the end of last year, HP announced plans to expand that to include six more in Lebanon for Syrian refugees. "Everybody gets the same kit, everybody gets the same lessons," he said. That kit includes a Sprout, 3D printer, PageWide printer, and ten client PCs. The aim of the project is to cultivate early adopters around the world, rather than simply testing them in HP labs, with third-party, independent researchers tracking the impact of such technology in the classroom.

So why extend the trial to refugees? "First Syrian refugees will hopefully feel less of an impact from the negative circumstances that they're under," he said. "We also know that there is a schism that has happened in their lives, and the first thing to go isn't water or food, it's education."

Inspiring both the students and their teachers to get back into education is key, but beyond benefiting younger people, the studios will also help their parents reskill to find work in the digital economy. "By day, these studios will be for primary and secondary students on the borderlands of Syria," Schmedlen said. "At night, it's going to be to reskill and skill up adults whose careers have been changed or impacted by conflict. We're hoping we can use this prototype, in partnership with the UN High Commission on Refugees, to create more and smarter aid for education in emergencies."

Of course, that doesn't require a 2,200 computer with 3D capabilities and much more. Why not supply more computers that are a little less high tech? "We had a choice to make: do we provide dumbed down equipment or dumbed down kit something different than students on the International Baccalaureate in the US are using and our answer was a profound no," he said, adding it was a deliberate decision. "We want to give them the exact same opportunity. We want to honour the intelligence and abilities of these students in the exact same way."

Plus, by keeping the project as part of the wider Learning Studios programme, it means the Syrian refugees can communicate to students in the other 60 studios what their life is like. "We want to show those 60 other learning sites what it's like to be a refugee and give those students hope of what it's like to be at these 60 other schools," he added.

The six most expensive words in education are: "We've always done it that way".

That's according to Abdul Chohan, director of development at Essa Academy, who opened Bett 2017 with a detailed look at rolling out Apple's devices and educational platform across his school - answering the most frequently asked question, how he paid for it.

But he argued that radically rethinking how technology is used in classrooms need not cost more, saying "we've always done it that way" are the "six most expensive words in education".

Chohan described the tech hell many teachers make do with, dubbing it the laptop trolley experience, wherein they wheel 30 laptops into the room, knowing full well some won't work and the logins will trip up students. "If my laptop trolley doesn't work, I'll print 30 sheets just in case," described Chohan.

It can be better, he believes. His school, Essa Academy in Bolton, draws 80% of its students from areas of deprivation, making innovation a difficult task. But several years back, he started what he called an "ambitious project".

Rather than renewing the laptop trolleys, Chohan bought mobile devices - at the time, iPod Touches, upgrading to iPads in 2010 - for every student, allowing them to email, take pictures and record voice, as well as use apps and ebooks. "We began to see the power of something simple and reliable," he said. "This thing became our digital pencil case."

The iPod Touches weren't only handed out to students. "Put that in the hands of our caretaker, and suddenly he can prioritise things," said Chohan. "He doesn't have to go to noticeboards to see what's next on his list."

But how does a school in a deprived area - let alone any other - afford a pricey tablet for every student? Apple's marketing team will love Chohan's maths: he says by year two the project was already saving the school money over laptop trolleys.

That's largely down to paper use. "If I take the amount of money to photocopy and print over three years... it's actually cheaper for me to buy an iPad, as long as I change my processes," he said. In 2010, the school spent 29,976 on photocopying. That fell to 13,200 a year later, and 9,240 in 2012.

There were other savings. The school was renovating at the time the project kicked off, and the switch to tablets saved infrastructure costs, including desks and cutting the number of photocopiers from nine to three.

There's still a computer lab with standard machines, "but you don't see computers everywhere," he said. That allows computing science to be taught on standard computers, though Chohan also sung the praises of programming apps such as Swift Playgrounds, which can be used on iOS.

Chohan also questioned the necessity of buying new textbooks every year, with his teachers producing some of their own educational materials. "We have the knowledge, we are teachers, we are curators of information - so we started this project of making our own textbooks," he said. They're now in Apple's bookstore and are available to download by other educators for free.

The digital books can also make use of 3D diagrams and video, particularly handy for Essa's many students who don't speak English as a first language, as they can repeat videos to hear a word or pause them to look that word up.

For schools that can't afford to immediately ditch the "laptop trolley model," Chohan points to schools that have slowly shifted away, buying tablets - Apple or otherwise - when budgets allow or when it's time to upgrade existing laptops.

Chohan countered questions that the setup he describes is too reliant on technology. "This is all about good teaching and creating the right environment in the classroom," he said. "There are definitely times you don't want students to use iPads or use technology, and that kind of discipline is needed."

Picture credit: Nicole Kobie

Teachers need more computing help in classrooms - and once again, the Raspberry Pi Foundation is to the rescue.

The maker of the cheap and cheerful eponymous computing board has helped to boost programming and computer science education by supplying the Raspberry Pi to students as well as via its 5,000 Code Clubs, which offer out-of-school help to interested students.

Now, the organisation shifting its focus to teachers, but rather than offer them their own version of the Pi, the computing foundation is hoping to spread best practices and help boost teachers' tech skills with a magazine, charmingly called Hello World.

The magazine is written by educators, and designed to help those with no tech experience gain the skills and confidence to use computers and technology in their classrooms. Hello World is available as a free download, or UK-based teachers can subscribe for 15 - but for the first year, BT has coughed up to cover the cost.

Philip Colligan, CEO of the Raspberry Pi Foundation, told attendees of Bett 2017 that the magazine would feature a wide range of computing science resources, not just material about using the Raspberry Pi.

Offering such help to teachers is important to further computer science education in the UK and boost its quality, according to Miles Berry, lecturer in computing education at the University of Roehampton.

Berry lamented that many schools don't offer computing science, which British schools added instead of ICT courses two years ago, saying there's a "postcode lottery" in computing education.

"Even within schools offering the exam, it's a mixed picture," he added, pointing out that the courses are much more likely to be taken up by male students and those from affluent backgrounds.

"I don't think that's right, I don't think that's fair," he told attendees. "My vision is every secondary school in the country offering that qualification so any child at any secondary school has that opportunity."

For that to work, "we need a great computing science teacher in each school," he said, noting there's more to teaching the subject than tech knowledge, but also access to relevant technology and solid pedagogical skills.

"This [the magazine] is an introductory thing, this is accessible for all educators; it isn't just for the geeky elite or those with a degree in computer science," Berry said. "It's by educators for educators."

You can download a copy of Hello World, or subscribe, here.

Google showed off a trio of new Chromebooks from Acer, Asus and Dell at Bett 2017 today, all featuring convertible designs, stylus support and USB charging that mark a shift in laptop form-factors for schools.

The Acer Chromebook Spin 11, Asus Chromebook C213 and Dell Chromebook 11 all eschew the classic clamshell design in favour of ruggedised, convertible touchscreen laptops that feature a low-cost stylus, USB C for easy and fast charging, and a camera in an odd spot - directly above the keyboard.

Acer Chromebook Spin 11

That camera is there at the request of teachers, who told Google that it's a pain to take photos with traditional clamshell Chromebooks, product manager Naveen Viswanatha said. Now that the devices can fold into a tablet, putting a camera in that position allows students to easily take pictures when the devices are folded into tablet mode while looking through the display.

The redesigned Chromebooks are the result of research and feedback from educators, he said, saying they take into account the need for more "versatile devices" and offer the ability to use Android apps.

Google said last year that it would start offering apps from its Google Play store on Chromebooks, but to fully use such applications devices need to be touchscreen, noted Viswanatha. Those apps are set to make their way onto Chromebooks this year, which Viswanatha said would be particularly handy for special education and STEM subjects, as the ability to use a stylus makes some subjects easier - it's tough to draw a diagram in your notes with a keyboard, he said.

The Wacom EMR stylus itself is notable, designed to look like a pencil because Google hopes they're treated like them. They're also designed to be cheap enough for students to lose -- because, as Viswanatha noted, they will - with the "smarts" embedded in the OS rather than the stylus itself.

The Acer Chromebook Spin 11 and Asus Chromebook C213 aren't due to arrive until late spring. The former features an 11.6in touchscreen and Intel Celeron quad-core or dual-core chip with either 4GB or 8GB of RAM and 32GB or 64GB of storage. The wide-angle camera above the keyboard is 5MP and 1MP above the display. The display itself is protected by Gorilla Glass 3, while the hinge offers a full 360-degree swivel for a variety of modes. Few details were immediately available for the Asus model; the Dell model will also run an Intel Celeron chip.

Prices weren't announced for the Acer or Asus model, but Viswanatha noted that they're priced for students, so the cost won't be "outrageous". The Dell Chromebook Convertible 11 will be available from 7 February and will cost $349 versus a non-convertible version for $219. UK prices weren't immediately available.

"This is the future of what we're doing for this year," Viswanatha said, predicting other manufacturers would release similar models later this year as well as tablets running Chrome OS.

Pictures: Nicole Kobie

For many school network managers and ICT co-ordinators, RM Education won't need any introduction. For over 40 years, the company has been creating innovative, award-winning products, solutions and services designed to meet the specific needs of education, working as a key partner for thousands of UK schools.

At Bett 2017, RM plans to showcase its full range of network solutions and cloud-based services, its school Management Information System and a compelling new security and online safety proposition, all reflecting its shift from a primarily hardware-focused company to the partner many schools across the UK trust for guidance and support in a fast-changing world.

"RM has been around for a long time, but up until about five years ago you might not have heard of us if you weren't a network manager," says Rebecca Wren, Marketing Brand Manager at RM.

"Our range of software and services has expanded significantly since then and we are now highly focussed on supporting and empowering not only Network Managers and technical staff but the wider Senior Leadership Team."

RM began selling computers in 1977, starting with the RML 380Z, and ceased production in 2013 to concentrate on the development of software and services. Yet while the company's products have changed, its focus hasn't.

"It's always been on education," says Wren. "Throughout the decades we've been operating, our sole focus has always been on supporting schools. Because of that, we know the education market inside out and understand the issues and challenges schools face, which puts us in a unique position to support them."

Today, RM provides schools with solutions in networking, cloud services, broadband connectivity and online safety, while still delivering laptops, desktops, tablets, and associated infrastructure from its partners into schools. On top of this, it provides the biggest online Schools Management Information System on the UK market RM Integris, as well as RM Unify; a single sign-on platform providing access to all the apps and services the school uses through one central console.

"We talk to schools about what their situation is and what their vision is, and run workshops where we'll go in and sit with the SLT, network manager and ICT co-ordinator to explore and identify what they really want to do," says Wren.

For RM, it can be a case of helping schools understand the options available, with all their pros and cons, or even showing them what more they can do with their existing infrastructure.

"We provide technology that makes a teacher's life easier. With budgets getting tighter and time getting shorter, the technology a school uses can really help them work more effectively, and we want to support that."

RM will make a Buzz at Bett

At this year's Bett, RM will be showcasing products and services across its range, covering everything from cloud services to RM Unify, RM Integris and more. As part of its focus on online safety, it will also be offering a free eight-week trial of a RM Buzz, a new device-specific internet-safety product where schools pay per device rather than for an overall licence.

RM Buzz is currently only available on Google devices, with plans to incorporate Windows devices in the near future. It will ultimately be device-specific, which will protect students wherever they go, giving them the freedom to work without limits.

Beyond Buzz, RM will also be looking to create and develop more working partnerships with schools.

"We know that budgets are getting smaller, and we want to help schools to use that money in the most efficient way they can. The vision and planning session is about finding out what schools want to achieve from their IT, and how they can get there."

Part of that is having frank discussions about cloud-based services and how these may or may not fit the school.

"We've got a lot of advice about moving to the cloud, and we're keen to talk about it at Bett. This is about helping customers think through their journey to the cloud and how they move there, if they decide it's the right step for their school."

As Bett veterans, the team at RM appreciate what an important show it is. "We've been going to Bett for 25 years and it's always been fantastic. It's busy, everyone's there and it's a chance to catch up with our customers and reach out to a wider audience. People want to leave Bett with lots of fresh ideas and we're confident we can help them do that."

Come and see RM at Bett on stand C190

To find out more about Buzz head over to the RM website.

With over 30 years in the business and a team of 170 experts, European Electronique is a leading player in the UK education market. At this year's Bett Show, the company is focusing on its Freedom Cloud and Infrastructure Solutions, Professional Services and the latest Classroom Solutions. This provides schools with everything they need to improve teaching and learning and to streamline financial and operational efficiency.

European Electronique works across multiple sectors as an IT solutions integrator, but under-18 education has always been a core part of the business. "We're multi-vendor and vendor agnostic," says Steve Hawkins, Sales Manager for Under 18 Education, "but we have a number of key partners, with HP being our biggest. We are a technical, delivery-based company with over 100 of our staff aimed at service delivery, whether that's implementation, training or project management."

For Hawkins, the company has two major strengths. First, it can handle all of a school's IT needs internally, from design and feasibility research through to implementation, managed services and ongoing support. Second, the whole approach gives schools real flexibility. "We're not driven by what vendors want us to do, or what people think is possible, or what is the norm," says Hawkins. "We speak to our customers, find out what problems or challenges they're facing, and help them overcome them. At the end of the day, it may sound simple, but deep understanding is what we're good at.'"

European Electronique aims to help schools adopt a long-term, strategic approach to technology, working with them to define requirements and objectives and then building solutions tailored for that school. "It's about joined-up thinking," Hawkins explains. "It's not about today's special offer, but about providing a complete end-to-end solution. There's nothing worse than selling the latest fad kit to a school, where no-one really knows how to use it. It won't be properly integrated and will end up in a cupboard. It's about providing the right service and the wraparound to give an end-to-end solution that extends to delivering the outcomes that were decided on together, right at the beginning." The company also understands that, while schools may be following the same curriculum and have broadly similar aims, each has unique needs. European Electronique's solutions put these front and centre.

The end-to-end approach

At this year's Bett Show, European Electronique will be showcasing products and services in three key areas -- Infrastructure, Professional Services and Classroom Solutions. The first covers everything from network infrastructure to mobility and cloud-based services, with an emphasis on the company's unique Freedom Cloud. This is a complete hosted infrastructure delivered as a managed service, giving schools the opportunity to pass over all the management of storage, data and connectivity to European Electronique. That in turn leaves them free to focus on the apps and services that can really make an impact on teaching and learning. Freedom also brings other cloud ecosystems under the one umbrella, so that schools can take what they want from G Suite for Education or Microsoft Office 365 for Education within one environment and one interface.

To make this even easier, Freedom incorporates a front-end, Freedom Access, which brings everything together in one school-specific web portal with single sign-on. Cloud-based services are not the only thing to benefit. "We've seen real use cases in education, where implementing single sign-on desktop allows schools to take advantage of products and services they're already subscribing to but aren't actually using," says Hawkins. "We've had great feedback from schools who have had a VLE for three or four years, but it's only after implementing single sign-on that teachers and students are starting to use it." Bringing apps and services into the platform, it seems, can help bring projects that have lost their impetus back online. What's more, embracing Freedom enables schools to make their IT services more accessible wherever and whenever their students want to learn. "It really is allowing learning beyond the school gates," Hawkins adds.

With the latest HP laptops, tablets and all-in-ones on the stand, including the innovative HP Sprout, European Electronique is hoping to showcase the full range of devices available for classroom use. The company won't just be talking about the devices, but about how mobile technology can have a real impact. "The biggest challenge in education is how to implement mobile technology, how to use it, and how to form the shift in teaching and learning so that people can take full advantage of it."

Helping schools streamline

One thing Hawkins expects to see at this year's Bett is less of a push on specific technologies and future trends, and more of a focus on cost-effective technology with demonstrable impact. "One of the biggest issues is always budget," he says, "even more so over the past couple of years with budget cuts. There's always a want and a need to streamline and reduce cost, and that's behind a lot of what we're doing on the infrastructure side." Meanwhile, European Electronique sees a lot of previous years' hype about connected classrooms becoming a reality, simply because all the back-end, cloud-based services are now so accessible and easy to use. Where the company can help is in bringing the technologies together. "It's all about integrating these services with proper training," Hawkins notes, explaining that it helps that "a lot of teachers are now effectively digital natives. They've grown up with this technology, they use it and they expect it to work in a school environment -- and the same definitely goes for the kids."

For European Electronique, Bett is a great opportunity to talk to teachers, ICT managers and senior leaders, but also a great way to take stock of where the technology is and where it's going. "With it being the biggest educational technology event in the world, it gives us the chance to be in the same place at the same time as all the biggest movers and shakers in the technology world," says Hawkins. Yet it's also about finding time to talk to schools. "We want to start conversations about using what's available, streamlining and building a sustainable infrastructure," says Hawkins. "It may sound a bit dull, but when it comes down to it, it really makes sense!"

Visit European Electronique on Stand C240 at Bett 2017.

Main image: Bigstock

Other pictures: European Electronique

One of the highlights of Bett 2017 looks to be a keynote speech by Sir Ken Robinson, taking place on 27 January in the Bett Arena. If you're familiar with Robinson's work, you'll know that he has a distinct ability to balance dry humour with a powerful message about the importance of creativity in education. If you've never come across him before, now is a great time to catch up on his past talks.

Robinson has had an illustrious career as an author, speaker and advisor to a range of government and non-government bodies. His main topic is the meeting point between education and the arts -- a subject he has amassed a great deal of experience on through professorial positions at universities and advisory roles at galleries including Los Angeles' Getty Museum.

Most people will know Robinson, however, because of his extremely popular TED Talks. His 2007 keynote -- "Do schools kill creativity?" -- is in fact TED's most-viewed talk of all time, with 11,454,271 views at the time of writing. If you've not seen it yet, it's well worth spending 20 minutes to watch.

In 2010, The Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures & Commerce (RSA) animated another speech by Robinson about the need to change education paradigms. Again, the focus here was on the necessity of updating our education systems, and combatting the growth of standardised testing.

Robinson has returned to TED a number of times, most notably in a 2010 talk entitled "Bring on the learning revolution!" and a 2013 talk titled "How to escape education's death valley". Both of these cover similar ground, but both press convincingly on the need to champion arts education in a 21st-century learning paradigm. They're well worth watching if you have a few spare minutes during your lunch break.

Twenty-minute talks are a good way to get a feel for Robinson's approach to education, but for a fuller account of his pedagogy, you'll want to read some of his books. His most recent publication is Creative Schools: Revolutionizing Education from the Ground Up, written with Lou Aronica. Another well-known book penned by Robinson is The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything, also in collaboration with Aronica. You can find links to both of these below.

Over the last five years, C-Learning has developed into one of the leading specialists on Cloud Learning Services based around the use of G Suite for Education and Google Chromebooks within the primary, secondary and FE education market. At Bett 2017, it's looking to spread the word about its cloud-first approach to education and what it can bring to schools and colleges.

The company launched in 2011, after a three-year research project with the Independent Schools Association focused on IT services within independent schools. At the time, small independents were looking for new approaches to support teaching and learning, but needed something extremely cost-effective, that required little or no on-site equipment and that could operate with minimal on-site support. Founder and Managing Director, Ian Nairn, led a team that looked at a range of different learning platforms, including products from Microsoft and Google before deciding, in Nairn's words, "that the set of services that most closely fitted the needs and aspirations of those schools was Google Apps for Education".

However, while schools were interested in exploring the potential of Google's cloud-based services, they still expressed a need for help in deployment, training and support. In response, Nairn and his team formed C-Learning as a cloud learning solutions and services business focused on the delivery of apps, training to make the most of them and - ultimately - the devices used to access them. When Chromebooks debuted in the UK in 2011, C-Learning became one of the first Google partners to sell them.

"We made a couple of decisions early on," says Nairn, "and one was that we would just deal with schools and colleges; we're a pure education business." C-Learning has resisted the temptation to move into other markets, like business or local government, because "we decided to go very deep, in terms of our expertise, and remain very focused. We're very much a networked partner business. We're very good at what we do. We don't do lots of things - we don't do the provision of internet or the provision of Wi-Fi or provide print - but in all the things we don't do, there's room for other partners to work alongside us. Whereas the things we do, we get people coming along to us and saying 'you've got great experience in this area, can you help us with this?'''

For Nairn, it's this depth of education-specific expertise that has become C-Learning's key strength; its experience makes it easy to relate new customers and their needs to those of existing customers, and even put schools and colleges in touch with similar customers who have had the same requirements and been through the same transformations.

"We've spent nearly 10 years working with schools and colleges, and we know them," says Nairn. "We know the people and we can connect one headteacher with another headteacher and say 'don't talk to me, don't talk to Google, just go and talk to a fellow headteacher, because you'll believe what they say.'" This approach has also won C-Learning business through referrals and a strong reputation, which sees its Bett presence buzzing with interest every year.

Showcasing cloud-first

This year, C-Learning isn't focusing on products as much as on the whole philosophy of the cloud-first mindset. In terms of cloud take-up, Nairn feels that the UK and Europe lag behind the US, where 67% of schools fully or partially consume IT services through the cloud - a figure that's expected to rise to 74% in the next two years.

Nairn wants to see more schools and colleges reducing their dependence on on-premise technology and focusing on the cloud instead. "Normal market tipping points are between 15 and 20% - the point at which everyone knows someone who's made the move. From the point of view of schools and colleges in the UK going down the cloud route, we're not far away from that."

"We have a story to tell, which says that if you're a headteacher in a school or college, then you need to be thinking cloud-first," says Nairn. Why? First, he feels it's important that young people get to grips with cloud-based services, arguing that they "need to be ready with a set of skills around collaboration and communication, about team-working, problem-solving and critical thinking... you can't have a situation where they go through school or college not using these tools."

Second, he believes that the cloud is where the real innovation is happening, giving schools in challenging areas opportunity to improve their numeracy and literacy levels and outstanding schools the chance to drive attainment further.

"There are now great resources and evidence on how to use Chromebooks, G Suite and products like Read&Write from Texthelp - cloud-based products that in 12 months can take your students, especially boys, from below the national average to above the national average," he explains.

That's partly why C-Learning is so keen to reach out to headteachers and the senior leadership team at this year's Bett. "They cannot delegate the decision-making on IT to network managers and ICT co-ordinators," Nairn says. "It's too important for the school or college." In this respect, C-Learning hopes to provide more schools and colleges with a trusted source of advice on how to move cloud-wards.

And what's important about Bett to C-Learning? "It's to do with the relationships we have with our partners," Nairn explains. "We want to make sure we're supporting them at Bett because they support us throughout the entire year... With HP specifically, it's all about the cloud and Chrome, VR and immersive education, like the HP Sprout."

"These companies are important," he believes, "because they have the reach and research to invest in these technologies ahead of the curve. For a company like C-Learning, as a cloud-learning architect and solutions provider, it's vital that we look down the track towards 2018, 2019 and beyond, because otherwise why should schools and colleges come to us to help them plan for their future?"

For nearly 30 years, Getech Education has supplied computers and technology services to the UK education market, beginning with universities and colleges but more recently moving into schools. At Bett 2017, the company aims to expose more schools to its vision for under-18 education, based on Chromebooks, Android tablets, G Suite and managed services. It's a holistic approach that doesn't focus purely on technology, but on how to make it work within the school's existing pedagogy and methods.

Getech is a hybrid enterprise, with one half a distribution business specialising in thin-client computing -- a field in which it's the UK market leader -- and the other half working in education. Approaching 100 staff, its core activities originally centred on the higher education (HE) market, working with the majority of the UK's biggest universities as part of the National Desktop and Notebook Agreement procurement framework, supplying over 20,000 devices into HE establishments every year.

"We didn't want to be just another product supplier"

Four years ago, Getech decided to take its expertise into UK schools. "What we did, having reviewed the market, was to look at the most appropriate technologies to break into that space," says Richard Maclean, Google Education sales manager. "We didn't want to be just another product supplier."

Getech looked at UK schools, their educational objectives and the rapid growth of Google Apps within the US education market before opting to specialise in Google Apps for Education, Android tablets, web-based apps and Google Chromebooks. As Maclean says, "We'd seen the impact on teaching and learning and also the relatively low cost of delivery and execution."

Getech covers the whole extent of the deployment, from broadband and network infrastructure (it works with Schools Broadband and is a BT distributor), to Wi-Fi and on-premises web filtering, to software, services and the devices themselves. However, what's more interesting is the way Getech provides this. "We have a very clear take-on process where we try and establish what the school's teaching and learning objectives are, then work with the school back from that point to look at the most appropriate type of deployment to meet those objectives. We're not about trying to push technology into classrooms, but about finding the best way of integrating it."

To this end, Getech offers a four-week pilot scheme with a class-set of 30 devices, in order to look at how the school could benefit from using Google's apps and services in the classroom, and it provides a consultant to show teachers how to get the best from the technology. The idea is to hammer home the point that, say, Chromebooks aren't just a cheap laptop alternative. "Rather than look at it as a pure substitution decision, we're looking at getting the best from these devices in terms of opening up new resources to both teachers and students."

Once the project is go, Getech also provides Teaching Planning Workshops, focused on the senior leadership team. This produces a 12- to 18-month roadmap with additional workshops that help teachers integrate the new devices into lesson plans. "We try to show them methods to bring the technology in," says Maclean, "so that they're comfortable with it in the classroom and don't see it as an obstacle to what they've traditionally delivered."

The emphasis is always on not imposing new methodologies on teachers, but making the tech work within the way they already teach. "Most teachers will give you a look skywards when there's news of another IT project coming down the line," Maclean explains, "so for us it's more about asking them: how can we make your life easier by saving time, speeding up processes or adding activities - maybe looking at flipped learning or at a different method of delivery?"

With comprehensive configuration pre-delivery and an optional managed service, where the company manages the school's Google domain on its behalf, Getech's happy to take the hard work out of a Chromebook deployment. "When you get a Chromebook from us, you literally get it out of the box and hand it out," says Maclean.

At Bett, Getech will be focusing its energies on the actual teaching and learning impacts of G Suite and Chrome, running a series of short 20- to 30-minute sessions that look at a variety of different subjects, from the cost-benefits of 1:1 schemes to the steps schools need to take to adopt flipped learning. The company will also be running separate sessions on best practice for implementing G Suite in schools, based on findings from its own experience, plus sessions on working with Chromebooks and multi-touch classroom displays, to help teachers using Chromebooks within a connected classroom.

Elsewhere at Bett, Maclean expects to see a little less discussion about the various pros and cons of G Suite and rival services, like Office 365 for Education, and more about total cost of ownership (TCO). "Chrome saves a lot of money in a lot of areas, and that seems to be one of the driving factors," he says. "The teaching and learning impact is clearly at the centre of everything, but with the current pressure on budgets, Chrome is coming to the surface in a lot more conversation about cost savings." Chromebooks aren't just cheap to acquire, he believes, but cheaper and easier to manage, and as a bonus can free up IT teams from management and housekeeping to work on projects that could have a bigger positive impact on teaching and learning. With Chromebooks available through Getech with HP's HP Subscription leasing scheme, they're well within the reach of every school.

Getting the best from Bett

For Getech, Bett is a unique and hugely valuable event. "It generates a lot of potential opportunities for us that then keep us busy for the rest of the year," says Maclean. "We do monthly events and co-ordinate our own events, but nothing really matches Bett." It's also a great opportunity to work with key partners like HP. "It's a valuable way of working with our partners to develop relationships with schools," says Maclean. "Because it's spread over a four-day period, you genuinely do get the opportunity to get some really good conversations going."

Sometimes, the sheer size and scope of the show can be a challenge, both for exhibitors and for schools. "There are so many things on show that you can go into Bett with a few ideas and come out with a whole lot more," Maclean notes, explaining that this can unsettle even those schools that had a strategy nailed down. This doesn't have to be the case, however. "If you do your homework in advance and make sure you're speaking to the people that you want to see, then there's a lot of value to be had from being there."

The government will champion better use of data in schools in order to track pupils' progress, Education Secretary Nicky Morgan said today.

Such a move would also improve communication between schools and the Department for Education (DfE), she told delegates at the BETT show in London.

"It is too often difficult to get data out of education systems," Morgan said in her keynote speech. "Systems need to talk to each other."

To this end, the DfE plans to pilot common data standards for school data sharing, with Morgan saying these systems need to improve to support data collection and exchange.

While other speakers at the show promoted technology as a way to let children remember fewer facts, or recommended radical changes to traditional education in favour of a computer-centric curriculum, the Education Secretary took a differing view.

"We see technology as an aide and not a replacement for excellent teaching," she told delegates, adding that technology would need to be "evidence-based and outcome driven" in order to get government backing.

"Every young innovator should have access to the technology they need," Morgan continued. "All our children should learn the benefits of technology."

Contrary to others, Morgan saw "teachers as our most valuable resource for the highest quality education" and the government will focus on developing top talent to teach computer science. These teachers would need to work with employers to upskill people for the future.

While she said access to the internet and search engines were "no substitute for knowledge", Morgan did promote the use of technology to cut down on paperwork. "Online and computerised testing could minimise teacher workload," she said.

Picture courtesy of Number 10

Current teaching methods are "obsolete", and pupils' education should instead focus on technology, according to an expert.

Rather than teaching reading, writing and arithmetic, schools must focus on teaching children about "comprehension, communication and computation," said Newcastle University's Professor Sugata Mitra at the BETT technology show in London today.

He claimed schools still have an environment that produces workers fit for the offices of 100 years ago where most people worked in isolation from each other.

Saying the working environment is now more about using technology and collaboration, Mitra accused schools of having failed to reflect these changes.

"Old teaching methods are obsolete and everyone accepts it is a problem," he told delegates, adding that children can even learn by themselves, without needing a teacher to direct their efforts.

In 1999, Mitra devised a "hole-in-the-wall" computer for children living in a nearby slum in India to use. Without adult guidance, the children quickly learned how to use the computer, get on the internet and develop analytical skills to start learning by themselves.

But soon after, he realised that some form of adult supervision was necessary and could improve results. But rather than use a teacher, volunteers, not necessarily familiar with the subjects that the children were learning about, could be used to provide "admiration" of the children's efforts.

He dubbed this a "granny cloud" because these adults could phone in via Skype video to be a presence without having to be there in person.

These supervisors led to further refinements that Mitra dubbed "self-organised learning environments. "The process of self-organised learning can by helped by an adult that admires the process," he said.

Mitra added that schools' current assessment system to examine pupils' achievements looks "for identical responses from learners".

"Open-ended questions cannot be asked in such assessments, we need a new assessment system," said Mitra.

He added that children ask why they cannot use their smartphones and tablets inside exam rooms, and warned that a fair evaluation of such a new assessment "is not possible by human examiners".

"More research on automated and continuous evaluation if open-ended questions and tasks is needed," he said, claiming schools must be redesigned to help children enjoy learning.

"Schools and teachers should exist in physical and virtual environments," he added. "Not all teachers need to be human."

Much-maligned ICT classes in school are set for the scrapheap, after education secretary Michael Gove announced plans for the existing curriculum to be canned.

The changes would allow schools to create their own curricula based around computer science to equip pupils with the IT skills employers are looking for, Gove announced at the BETT conference today in London.

Gove's plans for the reformation of IT education have come after heavy criticism of the current curriculum.

Last year, Google chairman Eric Schmidt claimed the education system was not inspiring enough kids to learn science, maths or engineering skills, hindering the chances of producing a future digital genius.

Technology in schools will no longer be micro-managed by Whitehall.

Others, including the British Computer Society, have claimed the current curriculum is dull, whilst others have derided it as harmful and irrelevant.

The number of students opting to take ICT GCSE and A-level courses has also dwindled in recent years.

"As the chairman of Google, Eric Schmidt, recently lamented, we in England have allowed our education system to ignore our great heritage and we are paying the price for it," Gove said. "Our school system has not prepared children for this new world.

"Technology in schools will no longer be micro-managed by Whitehall. By withdrawing the Programme of Study, we're giving teachers freedom over what and how to teach, revolutionising ICT as we know it.

"Universities, businesses and others will have the opportunity to devise new courses and exams. In particular, we want to see universities and businesses create new high-quality Computer Science GCSEs, and develop curricula encouraging schools to make use of the brilliant Computer Science content available on the web."

A consultation on withdrawing the statutory Programme of Study from September 2012 will begin next week.

The devolving of control over schools falls in line with Gove's other decisions in education and the Conservative's Big Society ideology. The education secretary has been a big supporter of parent-run schools in recent months, which could be set up in shops and houses, according to reports.

Positive reaction

There has already been a response from the education community. Pearson, the education company that owns the Edexcel exam board, today announced plans to pilot a 'Next Generation' Computing Science GCSE from September 2012.

The organisation said it was working with some of the world's leading tech companies to draw up a course design.

Pearson said it will also be reviewing its existing Edexcel GCSE ICT qualifications, as well as its BTEC and DIDA courses in ICT to see what changes could be made in light of the Government's loosening of control.

"In the age of the laptop and the smartphone, it should be obvious to all of us in education that young people want to be able to develop their own software, write their own programmes and turn those ideas into great technology companies," said president of Pearson UK Rod Bristow.

"We need to give them the basics to go on and study computing and get jobs in the technology sector."

Awarding body OCR is showing off its own Cambridge Nationals in ICT qualifications for 14 to 16 year olds at the BETT conference.

Due to be launched in in schools and colleges for teaching from September 2012, the Cambridge Nationals are designed to build "depth and breadth of understanding of ICT systems," whilst introducing programming and coding.

Initial reaction to the Government's announcement from the tech sector has been positive.

"It is essential to the future of the British economy that we address the shortcomings in ICT education and help school children and students to maximise their potential failure to do this will result in a detrimental skills shortage for IT in the very near future," said Phil Smith CEO Cisco UK and Ireland.

Samsung has used this week's BETT conference to make a play for the education market, launching a range of new products aimed at the classroom.

Although the company showcased a number of new netbooks and laptops, the centre of attention was the TX100, a device capable of being both a netbook and tablet.

Running Microsoft's Windows 7 operating system and featuring an Intel Atom processor, the TX100 has a 10.1in touchscreen to use in tablet form. This slides up to reveal a keyboard, turning the device into an easy to use netbook.

Darren Matthews, general manager of Samsung's computing division, said: "We're committed to improving and diversifying learning experiences through technology and are constantly looking for ways to develop our technology for use in the classroom."

"The TX100 in particular we see as an exciting prospect for education due to its portability and ability to perform as a netbook or tablet."

There was more on offer to teachers and their pupils than just this one device though.

With a focus on durability and lightness, the ZX310 was made from duralumin and had a "SuperBright Plus display," which Samsung claimed to be twice as bright as others on offer.

The R Series range of notebooks focus on speedy start-up, with the bold claim that all the range power up within three seconds. It also features automatic backup, meaning whether pupils remember to save or not, work won't be lost.

The NB30 Touch and NB30 Plus are all about battery life, with claims they last for up to 11 hours and 14 hours respectively. They also feature a seal designed to protect the device if any liquid is spilt on it a common hazard when dealing with small children and have touchscreen-enabled displays for a more interactive feel.

The final model on offer, the SF310, is designed for the "style conscious student" rather than those who need durability, with a focus on a streamlined design with a scratch resistant chassis.

"The computing range has devices designed to suit different ages, student needs, and education environments," added Matthews.

The educational technology sector is worth hundreds of millions to the UK - and it's had a recent boost by the start up of a new programme that will see computers and broadband given to students of low-income families.

We spoke with Niel McLean, an executive director at government education body Becta, on the sidelines of tech show BETT this week for his thoughts on the Home Access Programme, gadgets for kids, and open source in schools.

The big news this week is the Home Access Programme, which will see the Government fund free computers and laptops for students from low-income families. While it's being talked about a lot this week, it was announced years ago and was trialled this year so it feels like it's been going on a long time.

You're absolutely right, it's had a history. It's actually good, because often when government does things it doesn't have the time to trial pilot and all those sorts of things, so it's incredibly reassuring that we did spend the time piloting in Suffolk and Oldham and things like that before going national. We've gone national now and we've sent out about 20,000 applications in two days. So it's really started.

For us it's part of a bigger picture. Basically, one side there's schools, on the other there's children and families. And there's things that connect them. And what we're trying to do is say if we've got technology in the home, and we've got the right technology the learning platform in the schools. [This] means that this school can extend it's offer beyond the school day, and you get the right connection between them, because the learning platform allows communication, you get exciting things happening in schools.

It's part of a big push about how schools use the technology to engage parents, particularly in their kid's learning [and] how they extend the offer beyond the school day. We've seen a bit of that [during] the [recent] snow, where schools have been able to carry on operating even when they're closed, because they've got a learning platform, their learning resources are on there and parents can log in and kids can log in.

It's part of a bigger picture. It isn't just putting computers into homes. So when you say the "next step," for us very much the next stage is making sure we get the maximum benefit out of what's actually quite a big investment.

It's about supporting a family to learn with us.

What about training for parents? It's one thing to get computers into homes, but if the reason parents haven't bought computers is because they're scared or intimidated by them, what support will there be for them?

You're absolutely right. It's not just financial barriers that prevent people from getting on with technology.

On the "techie-techie" side, that's a supplier responsibility. That's part of the deal when you purchase this from the approved suppliers, the suppliers pick up all the "techie-techie" bit.

We're partnering with people like the UK Online Centres, My Guide, Online Basics, which is a new online course to support basic ICT skills. We've agreed with the suppliers that [on] all the machines that people buy with their grant card, the first thing you hit [on the internet] is a home page, which directs you straight away to these areas of support.

So you can find out where your local UK Online Centre is and you can start looking at online materials or go to the UK Online Centre and get the training and the support you need.

We've [also] included a specific set of training materials around internet safety as part of the standard offer. So not only are machines all set up so they're safe out of the box with the parental controls and all those things, but there's a set of materials that a children's charity produced that we funded that talk you through the issues of internet safety.

That's the other concern that parents have got. Yes it's cost, but it's also "Am I skilled enough?" and "Am I safe?" So we're trying to hit all three of those in the programme.

There's been some criticism especially lately from TalkTalk that it seems kind of strange to be investing all this money and then turning around and taxing people with broadband lines in order to fund broadband going everywhere. TalkTalk described it as "muddled thinking." Does that seem like "muddled thinking" to you?

Not really. What they're doing is they're confusing two things, and I can see why they're doing it, because it's easy to confuse it.

There's one issue, which is about the basic infrastructure - the roads - and that's part of Digital Britain, and there are things that you have to do that this programme won't solve.

For instance, if you're in a blackspot and you can't get connectivity, home access won't help you. All it does is give you a grant to purchase something. It might present a more compelling case for some providers to move into the spaces for the "not-spots". But one of the bits is dealing with the roads, and one of the bits is dealing with the low income families, ensuring they've actually got cars to drive on those roads.

So they're not contradictory. They're quite different sorts of things. You have to make sure you've got roads, but at the same time you don't want to leave a particular group of people not able to use them.

I wouldn't have made the connection in they way they've made the connection. Because if you've got broadband and you build the system, you still have a bunch of people who still haven't got a computer to access it.

So this is about getting technology into homes for students, but a lot of teachers complain that they don't have enough technology in classrooms. What's being done to address that?

There is still the Harnessing Technology grant within the school. Budgets are always tight, but there is still money going into schools for technology.

I think the number of schools saying they need more money for technology is dropping. We've got pretty good ratios in many schools now.

Some schools might be facing refresh issues, and that kind of thing, but in general, we've got I can't remember what the actual figure is one of the best computer-to-pupil ratios in the world.

I think it's always a bit of a tension between the school and the home. If you'd have asked me when I was a teacher not necessarily about the IT stuff, but in general if I could fix everything that needed to be fixed about a kid's life in the classroom, I would have said no. I wanted books in the homes of kids, wanted parents reading to their kids, to actually help me in the classroom - more than more books in the classroom would have done, to be honest.

That's the kind of big thing that the government is sort of recognising: how well kids do at school is affected profoundly by their home circumstances. In a strange way, this is helping teachers.

So you when you were a teacher, you would have liked to have had parents sitting down with their kids and reading to them? So not much has changed. But does having a computer really change whether parents are getting involved or not?

Interestingly, yeah.

One of the interesting things around the pilot, because it was branded so heavily around education, [is that] it's stimulated different behaviours in the homes of people who have got grants than was the norm.

I'll give you one concrete fact about this, because we did an evaluation of the pilot. We compared low income families who'd already got computers - because there are some who've got them - with people from low income families who hadn't got them and got something through the scheme.

The people who got something through the scheme were spending, on average, an hour or more doing homework online or on the computer than the people who got technology through another route. Because they hadn't made the connection they bought it as an entertainment device, or a social networking device or whatever.

... [Now] we're giving advice to parents, and about the safeguarding of children, asking parents to talk to children, not to check up on them, but to create a dialogue, we saw those sorts of things happening in the pilot. So I'm pretty optimistic about that.

[Historically] when they come home it's the classic thing. The parent says "what did you do at school today?" and the kid just grunts.

[Now] they can show them. They can go to the learning platform in the school or to the school website and they can show them. And kids do. They don't do this meta-cognition, "let me articulate the model of learning I've been employing today at school" kind of thing, but they will show you a bit of art work they did, or something, if it's up on the school network. So you do get that parental engagement piece.

If schools put information about kids their grades, whatever that gets parents hooked. And parents like it. We did a survey and something like 80 per cent of parents say they'd like to know more about what goes on in school and would like us to use electronic means to tell them, because they're busy.

Have you checked out the stands here at the BETT show? Have you seen any cool pieces of tech that you would like to see in classrooms?"

What I think's really exciting is some of the things people are looking at around safe social networking, where the school acts as a hub for kids talking to kids. So it's not just spiking out from the home to wherever.

I think that's a powerful thing. Learning is a social enterprise. There's a great story one that a departmental official said that when he saw his own child doing his maths homework at home while at the same time on a social networking site talking to another kid in another village about their maths homework, and they were helping each other with it. He thought, "wow, this is something completely different".

The other really exciting things aren't really part of this programme just yet, because they haven't been worked through in the right kind of way gesture recognition, that kind of thing. You still can't do your history essay by dragging your finger across a screen. We're still keyboard bound with some of the things.

There are several stalls with very, very high tech things, such as 3D projectors. Most businesses don't have access to that yet there are schools that are actually using it. Do you worry that you're going to have these schools that are really really good with tech, and then others that are still trying to get computers to their students?

I think that would be a concern. I think that's why you need Becta, an agency advising people on how to manage your technology. We produce tools that help people work out where they are compared to other schools, what they need to be thinking about next.

Because you're right, a small primary school, where everybody's busy and everybody's teaching, doesn't have the head room to think about all of this. It's not that they can't manage their budget, it's when do they find time to think about it?

So another part of our role is showing people what can be done, which is why we run things like our reward schemes, why we have next generation learning charter schools, which is all around that, helping schools develop their vision and plan more effectively, and think creatively about this.

You will see things that astonish you in primary schools. You'll see kids learning about the heart with a 3D pulsating heart in the middle of the room. It's astonishing.

That's interesting, because one of the criticisms we've heard about Becta is that the supplier lists and recommendations are too prescriptive...

It's interesting this kind of stuff. If I can say what I think our role in it is it depends on the case sometimes we produce lists because Let me wind back. We can't be prescriptive, because we have no power to prescribe. Schools can buy what they like from whoever they like.

Occasionally what we do is see schools are buying whiteboards, or something like that, and then we go out to the market, set a specification for whiteboards, and if a company fits that specification we'll set up a framework contract for schools. Some schools take it up - most do - it's usually good value for money because we're working across the piece.

But often the claims about it being over prescriptive are a misunderstanding, because we simply don't have the power to say "you can only buy this."

We'd like to think that the things that we put on our frameworks are good, but there are other sorts of issues that apply, because it's public money which often steers us away from the more cutting edge and innovative stuff, because it's unproven. I can understand a lot of suppliers are frustrated about that, but there isn't any real way around that.

There are a whole lot of other things, like being EU compliant, which we know a lot of suppliers don't like. But it's just the way the world works, I'm afraid.

We try to go for as much choice as possible, and we try to refresh some of these lists as often as possible. But there will always be a tension, and there will always be some suppliers thinking "we've just got a great new product, but we're too small to get involved with all this and we're not on your list." I can see why they might be frustrated by that. But hopefully they can see that when you're talking about big amounts of government money, that's just the way it's going to be.

If schools want to take a punt on this new, untested thing, they're free to do that.

Following from that, Becta seems like it's been a lot more open to open source technology lately. How will that take shape in the future, and do you see many schools going down that road?

A few years ago, we said that schools should be looking at open source. We want to see a mix, because we're agnostic, but open source is certainly a credible alternative.

Now, we'd be wary about anything that put an additional technical burden on schools. Some of the things where it really works, like in higher education where they've gone heavily for open source, they've also got people who are developing the open source products and sharing and that sort of thing. That would be a minority sport in the average primary school. The average primary school needs a lot of support around any product.

One of the things we'd like to see is people supporting open source in schools so that it's less dependent on the enthusiasms of the particular teacher. We're seeing people starting to do that but at the same time we've got to recognise where the world is. There are habits out there that are going to take a time to change, and that's just the facts of life.

You've seen a lot of schools. What do the most successful ones have in common?

The first thing that they're doing is there school leadership and their governors have developed a vision for what they want their school to be doing with technology, they're not just buying stuff.

If you were to give me only 10 minutes in a school, and I wanted to guess how good the ICT was, I would not go to where the technology is, I'd go to the head office - the deputy head office, the senior management team - and ask them a few questions. And that's no different from any other organisation.

The second thing and again, I'm not going to talk about technology is the best schools have got a really clear focus on how they want kids to learn. Do they want their kids to learn collaboratively, individually, at home? They've got a view of learning, if that makes sense. And then what they've done is they've bought the technology that works with that.

There are other factors. They've professionalised their technical support, by either doing it in-house professionally and properly, or buying a service that does it. So there are a few features like that.

What else is there? When they do their curriculum plans, right at the outset they're thinking about how they could use technology. They're engaging parents, trying to engage parents by having after school sessions where they learn about technology.

It's those sort of attributes. It isn't that they've got some sort of technology like 3D or handhelds or whatever. They tend not to be the things that predict the difference. It tends to be the human behaviour, planning, that kind of thing that makes the difference.

There are other things, like teachers' own access to technology. It's no good parents being able to access the school after hours if teachers can't.

It's systematic, a vision - it isn't that they've gone for a particular technology or technical route. That might turn out to be the case down the line, but that isn't the case at the moment, it's more about the people things.

Who needs books and pencils when you've got netbooks, video conferencing and instant feedback handsets?

That's the vision of many tech firms, including Dell, which unveiled its vision of the Connected Classroom of the future at the BETT educational technology show in London this week.

Watch the video to see Dell's manager for public sector in Europe James Quarles explain his company's vision for the classrooms of the future.

Students should have their very own computers in the classroom, rather than just have access in a lab, according to research.

The Intel-sponsored study showed 70 per cent of the 2,700 European teachers surveyed would like students to have their own personal computer for schoolwork in class - but only about three per cent do.

Such a set up would change the way computing is taught, claims Intel's general manager for emerging markets at Lila Ibrahim, speaking to IT PRO ahead of her talk today at BETT in London.

"Over three quarters felt students should have their own personal PC - for learning with tech instead of learning about it," she explained.

"One of the things that's changed in the past few years is that students went from English class to the computer lab, to learn how to use a computer... now, it's about how to enhance or complement that English class or other classes," she said.

The research also found that 98 per cent of teachers see computers as "critical" to getting students prepared for the modern workforce, while three-quarters think such tech helps them better tailor studies to the ability level of individual students. Another 79 per cent think the use of computers increases students' interest in learning.

"Technology allows more personalised teaching for students," said Ibrahim.

However, teachers aren't getting what they want, with 31 per cent saying they need more cash for computers, and 76 per cent hoping their government will offer more funding.

Read on for more from this year's BETT educational technology show in London.

Forget pencils and paper, today's kids have much more interesting learning tools in their classrooms: 3D projectors, fingerprint scanners, ruggedised notebooks, Lego-based robots and more.

All this was on show at the BETT educational technology show at Olympia in London.

Stand after stand displayed the all-important back-end tech as well as tried-and-tested school-friendly gadgets like netbooks and interactive whiteboards, but there was plenty of room at the massive show for some more unique - and brightly coloured - devices too.

IT PRO uncovered the new USB-based NComputing system, 3D projectors, do-it-yourself robots and more. Click through the photo gallery for pictures and details.

Are you attending BETT this week? Have you stumbled across any great tech? Let us know at comments@itpro.co.uk.

Giving laptops and broadband to students of low income families can help boost grades and the economy too, a government minister has claimed.

Speaking at the BETT educational tech conference today in London, minister of state for schools and learning Vern Coaker defended the government's 300 million Home Access programme, which looks to get a laptop and broadband in the homes of all students.

The programme has been slammed by ISP TalkTalk, which noted the government is paying for broadband connections for low-income families at the same time its trying to introduce a tax on broadband lines.

"We have to remember students only spend 15 per cent of their time at school," he said, later adding: "Denying them that tech at home can have a serious effect on their attainment."

He claimed an "impressive" 12,000-family trial of the Home Access Programme lead to a two grade improvement on GCSEs for participating students, after they increased their study time by an average of an hour per week over students who already had a laptops.

Coaker noted there would be three million more science, math and tech jobs by 2017, saying that students would need high tech tools to be ready for the workforce.

"I believe this has to start in our schools. We need to prepare our future workforce for our future workplace," Coaker said.

Important for industry, too

Supporting the educational technology sector could boost the UK economy, Coaker added.

"Technology is becoming an industry and one that our economy relies upon," Coaker said, describing companies as "more than just suppliers," but as stakeholders in educational development.

"From a government prospective, the high investment we have made over past decade has been both a success in supporting educational improvement and supporting the industry, as is evident here at BETT."

Coaker claimed that educational exports were on the rise for the UK, with British companies exhibiting at the show contributing 250 million in exports, and employing 25,000 people.

Technology in schools can be a "trojan horse" to families sneaking knowledge and services into the homes of those who would not otherwise receive them, according to the education minister.

In a speech at the education and tech show BETT in London yesterday, Jim Knight said many parents see technology as a way of improving their children's lives, but it could also help them. "Technology can be a Trojan horse for those parents, bringing knowledge, learning, and useful services direct into people's homes," he said.

"So when we talk about education, we can't just be thinking about school," he added.

Knight warned that such opportunities needed to be open to every child and family or the UK risked widening the gap between wealthier families and the poor. Knight said the government's 300 million Home Access programme, which aims to ensure all students have a computer with broadband access, will likely kick off by the end of the year following a trial next month.

Calling on industry to support the programme, Knight said Microsoft had "risen to the challenge" and signed up to help fund a foundation to support home access. "So I repeat the challenge to others - I hope other industry leaders will respond to this move and join in."

Knight also said that the digital communications and technology secotors were worth 52 billion a year in the UK making those areas increasingly important during a recession.

"As we seek stability and we look to future growth from the current financial climate, Britain must continue to lead the way in innovation and technology, by nurturing those industries, and the skills and talent which support them," he told attendees of the show.

The minister claimed UK schools have been making progress with IT, saying 99 per cent have broadband, half have interactive whiteboards, and the computer-to-student ratio has improved to 1:3 from 1:19 a decade ago.

It should come as no surprise that the latest Classmate PC from Intel is the darling of the BETT tech and education show in London this week.

Not only is it the only big hardware announcement of the 25th BETT, but it combines two popular tech stories: netbooks and touchscreen.

The next-gen Classmate PC refocuses netbooks on the education market, where the idea originated after the Asus Eee PC targeted the education market following the bright idea of a cheap and cheerful device for kids from One Laptop Per Child.

While Asus and OLPC are both planning touchscreen versions of their devices, NEC will beat them to the punch in the UK, launching its version of the Classmate PC called the Otomo this week. Other versions of the new generation of the Classmate will also be sold through different vendors.

All versions of the Classmate will feature the same hardware specs 1.6GHz Atom N270 processor, 1GB RAM, and a 60GB hard drive or 16GB flash drive so it's the operating system and the software, as well as the services offered by the vendor, that will be the differentiators in the long-run.

Indeed, NEC will be shipping its Otomo to schools alongside a system for teachers to monitor what their students are viewing on the device. Other firms have also partnered with Intel, including EasyBits, which is offering a kid-friendly skin of the Microsoft Windows operating system. Educational computing firm Fizzbook will also offer a version of the new Classmate PC, and told IT PRO it expects to ship the device for about 320 retail.

Click here for photos of the Otomo Classmate PC, and some of it's competitors.

Intel's second-generation Classmate netbook is heading to the UK, courtesy of NEC.

The machine will be rebranded the Otomo, but otherwise follow the reference specification seen in the devices displayed at Intel's booth at the Consumer Electronic Show.

The standout feature of the design is an 8.9in 1,024 x 600 touchscreen display that can swivel flat, turning the netbook into a tablet.

The Classmate is aimed at education and has been developed with a number of child-friendly features, including a reinforced frame, water-resistant keyboard and palm rejection technology that means users can rest on the screen while writing without it being registered as an input.

An inbuilt accelerometer will automatically lock the hard drive when the device is dropped, preventing damage. There's also a sensor that will switch the netbook from portrait to landscape depending on orientation.

Beneath the hood, the Classmate is fairly standard netbook fare, powered by the ubiquitous 1.6GHz Atom N270 processor, 1GB RAM and a 60GB hard drive, or 16GB flash drive. Alongside the Wi-Fi connection, there's also a SD slot, two USB ports and a VGA video output.

Though it runs Windows XP, Intel has overlaid the operating system with a customised touchscreen interface featuring large, friendly icons.

NEC is also touting the remote management software that allows teachers to update students' machines from their own desk. The netbook can be set to run only between certain hours, and anti-theft technology means that should the netbook not connect to the school server at specific times it will shutdown.

NEC will unveiling the Otomo at the BETT education conference. Pricing and release dates have yet to be revealed.