Moovl – just add imagination

Although the BETT Show doesn’t take place until January, the BETT Awards process is well underway. BETT apparently stands for ‘British Education and Training Technology’, though these days everyone just uses the acronym.

BETT is the world’s leading educational information and communications technology (ICT) event, with over 20 years dedicated to showcasing the best in UK and international educational technology products, resources and best practice.

The BETT Awards are a joint effort with BESA - British Educational Suppliers Association and Becta  - British Educational Communications and Technology Agency (just let me know when the acronyms get too much). The awards are an annual scheme focussing on e-learning and other digital products specifically intended for the education marketplace.

The judging is in two main areas: a technical evaluation which focuses on the strength of the product architecture; and a ‘pedagogical’ evaluation, which includes an appraisal of design and educational effectiveness.

The awards have been running for several years now, but each year they grow in importance and popularity. For 2008 the awards are separated into 13 different categories:

1. Digital Content – Primary (Core Subjects)
2. Digital Content – Secondary (Core Subjects)
3. Digital Content – Primary (Other Subject Areas)
4. Digital Content – Secondary (Other Subject Areas)
5. Early Years Solutions
6. Special Educational Needs Solutions
7. Digital Content – Post-16 Education and Training
8. Primary and Secondary Hardware
9. Supporting Institutional Leadership and Management Solutions
10. E-Assessment for Learning
11. Creative and Constructive Tools
12. Learning Objects to Support Personalising Learning
13. Learning Objects Developed by Teachers (new category – see below)

You’ll be unsurprised to learn that we’ve decided to enter Moovl for an award in category 11. Creative and Constructive Tools, which is defined as:

Content-free tools that stimulate higher-order thinking skills and support analysis, hypotheses testing, modelling, decision-making, simulation and intellectual challenges for one or more curriculum areas.

The judging process is a long one, and we won’t know if we’ve made the shortlist until November. If we do make the shortlist then there’s a nail-biting wait until the 9th January when the winners are announced at the BETT Awards dinner.

On a related topic, I was intrigued to see that BETT have added a new category this year: Learning Objects Developed by Teachers, which is defined as:

Small pieces of learning developed in educational institutions and used by other teachers. The object should be 15-30 minutes in duration, covering no more than two learning objectives, with a focus on innovative design specifically for delivery on a learning platform. All products should demonstrate how they contribute to personalising learning.

I think the move to include teacher-created content is a good one, very much in line with the increasing prevalence of ‘user generated content’ in the education space. Platforms such as the TES Resource Bank and the US site TeachersPayTeachers are already facilitating the sharing and promotion of teacher-created materials, but the BETT Awards are taking this one step further with a focus not just on lesson plans/worksheets, but e-learning ‘objects’. It will be fascinating to see the shortlist for this category!