Link: News

• Published in: The Guardian (London)
• Main Author: Merlin John, Sean Dodson, Sarah Jewell and Irene Krechowiecka
• Format: Newspaper Article
• Language: English
• Published: London (UK) Guardian News & Media Limited 08.01.2008
• Subjects: Knight, Jim
• ISSN: 0261-3077

The Becta ICT Excellence awards for 2008, designed to reward schools for approaching ICT in outstanding and innovative ways, will be launched on the educational technology agency's website this month. "We can, and do, learn from the great practice that all the award-winners have shown," says Becta chief executive Stephen Crowne, who adds that the agency aims to work closely with past winners to pass on their best practice to other schools. Entry details will be available on Becta's stand at Bett (see also p16). Technology allowing two or more students to work simultaneously on a whiteboard will be launched at [Bett] by the whiteboard manufacturer, Promethean. Its product, Activarena, makes simultaneous group work on whiteboards possible for the first time, with one pen (the teacher's) acting as a "master" pen. It is only available for Promethean's Activboards and works with a range of software including the company's Activprimary and Activstudio. A broad-based ICT standards group has been set up to develop ground rules for software and digital content for schools and will be launched at Bett. Crispin Weston, founder member of the group known as the Suppliers Association for Learning Technology and Interoperability in Schools (Saltis), says: "If a school buys a new electrical appliance, they plug it in and it works - the software they buy should have that sort of plug-and-play capability in relation to their other software." s altis.org (Bett stand Q32)