Today the head of ICT and myself went along to the BETT exhibition in Olympia which apparently is the world’s largest educational technology event. Yes, yes, jokes aside about neeky tech teachers it was really inspiring. Highlights included:

1. Getting to play with Microsoft Surface- is the world of Minority Reports and Quantum of Solace really that close?

2. Falling in love with Promethean Interactive Whiteboard (IWB) systems all over again.

3. Activexpression whole class voting systems- how I would cherish these in my classroom. You put a question/puzzle/quiz on the IWB and each student has this mobile-phone type device where they can vote for which is the correct answer. It's non-judegemental (although you can, as always, collect and analyse each student's response), interactive, competitve, kinesthetic and I love the fun idea of it.

4. Movable IWB so that young students (and short teachers) can actually reach it to interact with it!!!!!

5. Extra special jigsaw style computer desks for classrooms with everything bar the VDU, keyboard and mouse hidden (locked) away. No more turning each other's computers off and losing work. No more computers blowing hot air into the back of another computer and overheating (each other and the room). And, the monitors can be lowered down into the desk for those times when you don't want to use a computer at all. No more fighting with students who just want to play games on the Internet and not do the work you want them to do!! (don't we all)

Aahhh, all these wonderful gadgets. But I'm a girl of simple tastes and all I'd really like is if some one would just fix my darn IWB once and for all so that I can actually use it. (It hasn't worked since Nov 07). And this, my friends, is the real problem with all the new technology; when it doesn't work, and you personally can't fix it, you are forced to go back to the old chalk and talk.