There will be plenty of cutting-edge technology on display at Bett but innovation only becomes meaningful when it has an impact on teaching and learning - otherwise, it is just gadgetry. The best developments on view at the show will be those that are most closely allied to teachers' needs in the classroom.
The demand for personalised learning has prompted Promethean to create an interactive response system (IRS) which allows teachers to create differentiated sets of questions. Pupils can work through them at their own pace and automatically move up to the next level when one set has been successfully completed.
Alison Lydon, head of ICT at the Mary Erskine and Stewart's Melville junior school in Edinburgh, piloted the system with seven- and eight-year-old pupils: "The children loved it, the ease of use was staggering, and the teaching and learning potential was massive," she says. "Children could progress to harder questions when they were ready to, rather than when a teacher thought they should."
The data she collected helped her plan future lessons, she adds.
"I could see which pupils were on which level, the time it took each child to answer the questions and how many right and wrong answers each child made. I was also able to see which concepts were understood and which needed revising."
Elsewhere, educational computer and software supplier RM will again be hosting its Learning Spaces exhibition, which shows how technology, software and classroom design can be used to enhance both class-based and personalised learning. This year's theme is Healthy World and there will be various learning spaces on show.
There is increasing interest in classrooms around playful learning - the notion that games can help engage students in educational tasks, so much so, that they often do not realise that they are working.
Mangahigh.com will have five free maths games for teachers to use which include features designed for social gaming, such as profile pages and avatars which make them ideal for team games.
"The blend of gaming technology with the learning and re-enforcement of mathematical skills is quite superb," says Neil Bradford, deputy head at Featherstone high school in Ealing which has been trialling the games.
Ink.Learning is showing Primary Steps Maths and Primary Steps Phonics, two games that have 3D graphics and which can be used with a mouse, keyboard, interactive whiteboard or dance mat interface.
In Dundee, 37 primary schools have been using Primary Steps Phonics with a dance mat. Louise Henderson, education support officer at Dundee city council, says: "It's become an essential resource in our programme for active learning and a great way of learning phonics." The children find this way of learning very engaging, not to mention great fun, she adds.
DLK is launching a new suite of maths software with 3D graphics normally seen in action games. One of the suites, NumberWars, combines an action game with mathematical knowledge practice.
Other innovations to look out for at Bett include Semblio from Microsoft, a series of tools that enable teachers to create interactive lessons using a blend of audio, video and text, and also produce educational activities with Microsoft Office products.
And there are a number of new interactive whiteboard-related tools and packages to look out for. Smart Technologies' Mixed Reality uses a document camera that allows teachers to work with 2D and 3D objects and bring them to life on the whiteboard. There is also CM2 Max from Onfinity, a system that transforms a standard whiteboard or flat surface - such as a wall- into a high-resolution interactive whiteboard with a fast response. No devices have to be attached to the projection surface, making the system highly portable.
