All quiet on the home front

Released 13/01/2010

Home access is very exciting, but

Despite a smattering of snow in West London, BETT 2010 is off to a busy start. Queues and crowds are slightly less than in previous years, but excitement levels are high. The usual round of demonstrations, announcements and seminars is well underway including the Ministerial address which tradtionally 'opens' the show (though some of us have been here since 8.30 enjoying press breakfasts and interviewing exhibitors).

To my shame, this is the first year I have managed to actually attend the Minister's address and I was rather looking forward to it. But it has left me a little dissapointed.

Vernon Coaker's key messages focused around the importance of using technology to develop a highly skilled workforce for the economy of the future; the valuable contribution made to the British economy by the education ICT industry; and a reiteration of the details, aims and scope of the Home Access scheme.

Access to a laptop at home can improve a child's GCSE results by 2 grades, we were toldwe watched video starring an exceptionally sweet child, and who thanked 'whoever has given me this laptop' reassured us of the positive impact the Home Access scheme can have. It willalso benefit parents, we found out, opening doors to training and jobs, for example.

All of which is wonderful, but haven't we heard it before? Not just on Monday when Gordon Brown officially launched the scheme, but on many occasions over thew last few months when various developments were trumpeted by the DCSF, BEcta or commercial partners joining the scheme.

So instead I am returning to the exhibition halls where I hope to find, among the excitable pupils and inquisitive educators, the chirpy salespeople and harrassed press officers, something truly new and exciting. Isn't that what BETT is supposed to be about?

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