School leaders are facing greater challenges today than ever before. Schools need to attract, retain, and motivate the best teachers, compete for students in an increasingly competitive market, and provide extraordinary learning within today’s budget realities. Furthermore, all of this needs to be achieved whilst empowering students to shape their own learning journey, preparing them for success in the modern digital world and keeping their parents updated on their progress and challenges. Schools need to juggle all of these issues while, above all, ensuring that each student reaches their full potential.

Students using mobile phones in the classroom has always been considered an element of distraction. There are many schools that don't allow mobile phones, and students believe that it's an odd rule. Yes, there was a time when there were no smartphones, and mobile phones were used only for calling and texting purposes. But in the digital era, things have changed: mobile phones are used as a mode of uncovering information quickly. Smartphones have the technology to function as a personal computer in your hand. This can help students stay connected with technology and the internet, meaning many sources of information are easily accessible and instant. Still, it has been a topic of debate whether mobile phones in the classroom are friend or foe.

Sorry, not sorry – this mostly involves letting them use their phones in class.

I am finding it increasingly so bizarre that phones are not utilised in education more often. And, yes, there is something to be said for having a bit of a digital detox, but phones are an inherent part of everyday life: why are we excluding them from this part?

Robots are flexible learning tools that are making their mark in primary and secondary classrooms everywhere. From mechanics and electronics, to programming and even teamwork, here are seven robots loved by students and teachers alike.

It should come as no surprise to anyone that there is a massive skills shortage in STEM. Unfortunately, another common issue that you often hear about is the lack of females studying and working in computing and technology. In fact, females working in some areas of technology, such as data science, are sometimes referred to as unicorns because of how rare they can be in that area.

I get the same question almost every day.

“How do you support teachers with technology in their classroom?”

Much has been written about the future workplace. What will it look like? What sort of jobs will there be? Will there still be a 9-5 office culture? Will automation mean fewer jobs?

The UK government has been quiet on education technology for many years, but the wait looks to be finally over. They’ve released a 48-page edtech strategy to “build a vibrant edtech sector” that drives efficiencies and improves educational outcomes.

We all know that teacher and senior leader workload reduction is top of the national agenda, but the real challenge is how to achieve this. One man who’s decided to face the issue head-on is Simon Hickton, Managing Director of Cornerstones – a primary curriculum provider used by 2000+ schools in the UK and internationally. A self-professed ‘doer’, former headteacher Simon was keen to create an innovative, easy-to-use curriculum tool that could help leaders and teachers design and implement a whole-school curriculum at the click of a few buttons.

• Held in Abu Dhabi in partnership with the Abu Dhabi Department of Education and Knowledge (ADEK)
• More than 3,000 attendees, and 100 exhibitors expected to participate
• Awards to be presented under categories of collaboration, game changer, innovation, and leadership

Abu Dhabi, March 3 rd 2019: Under the patronage of H.H. Sheikh Hazza bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Vice Chairman of the Abu Dhabi Executive Council, Bett Middle East & Africa (MEA) is back with a two-day education technology summit and expo in partnership with Abu Dhabi Department for Education and Knowledge (ADEK) and in collaboration with their Worldwide Partner Microsoft. The event will be held on 22 and 23rd of April 2019 and will be hosted at Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Center “ADNEC”. After a successful event last year which saw a 45% year on year growth of visitors, and more than 60 exhibitors and 150 speakers representing 36 countries, this year the theme of the event is ‘Building a successful change culture to meet the evolving needs of 21st-century citizens’.