Buckingham (2007): Chapter 1
After reading this it is interesting to find both the negative and positive aspects of BETT. The initial aim of setting up BETT is inspiring. as it was initially set up as a prospect for businesses. However, as time has gone by, companies started to invest a lot more money in to educational funds and resources.
Education has come so far since the start of BETT. So many technological advances have been introduced to help and assist SEN and EAL children by using technology to support them. Companies are investing money day in, day out to fund and initiate these technological advances in schools with new updated software and hardware.
Buckingham highlights, ‘There are no problems at BETT, only solutions, end to end solutions and many more”. However, when reflecting up on the reading I see several disadvantages with BETT. Schools are limited to certain amount of ICT budget and it is difficult for them to spend it on the right equipment. However, BETT has become increasingly commercialised and equipment costs a lot more. How do schools decide what to sped their budget on? Do the products really benefit the students or is the market open for business prospect alone?
Just how the health system has become marketised, it seems that the education system is slowly seeing a shift towards privatisation. Examples like the BETT show demonstrate that the market is only open to school which have the most funding and organisations which are most likely invest most in to companies. When visiting the BETT show myself, it felt as though businesses were driven with making sales. Of course, it is a sales convention and a lot of time will be spent on pushing for these items, however, marketising education is certainly not the step forward.