I am still getting ready for a trip to London. This is the week of BETT and Learning Technology. I will also get a look at EXCEL with a show in place ahead of IPEX next year. Thing is, still no idea what the news focus is and why this week is an event. I think of it as the end of the Winterlude but several things are still missing.

No news on Michael Gove. Last year I thought some of his ideas had potential. The web and mobile devices could relate to formal learning. Freeing up the content might help. But there is nothing much on what happened since and no information yet on whether he or anyone from UK government will be there. I may have missed it, please add a comment if you know. There may be a formal course in computer science but the blogs I can find don't suggest there will be much on digital literacy in video or music. Maybe wrong so will look out for links during the week.

http://vyagers.com/2013/01/13/why-computer-science-should-get-core-status-in-the-english-baccalaureate/

There will be something about games from Microsoft

http://www.innovatemyschool.com/blog/item/452-microsoft-promote-games-based-learning-at-bett-2013.html

so alternative tablets will be there by implication.

I have yet to see anything about BIS or MOOCS. I think a lot of the technology that universities describe as a MOOC has already been in use in the sort of context connected to Learning Technologies. Especially so for video and games. When Futurelearn was announced last year there was an encouraging quote from David Willetts

David Willetts, universities and science minister, said it was important for the UK to be at the forefront of developments in education technology.
"Moocs present an opportunity for us to widen access to, and meet the global demand for, higher education. This is growing rapidly in emerging economies like Brazil, India and China.
"Futurelearn has the potential to put the UK at the heart of the technology-for-learning agenda by revolutionising conventional models of formal education.
"New online delivery tools will also create incredible opportunities for UK entrepreneurs to reach world markets by harnessing technology and innovation in the field of education."

http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?storycode=422137

So will there be any announcements during the week? My guess is that both BETT and Learning Technologies will continue as international events with much of UK education not paying much attention.

Meanwhile via LinkedIn

http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20130126183946-212158738-is-your-college-going-out-of-business

Is your college going out of business? Mark Cuban

When I look at the university and college systems around the country I see the newspaper industry.

The newspaper industry was once deemed indestructable. Then this thing called the internet came along and took away their classified business. The problem wasn't really that their classifieds disappeared. It was more that they had accumulated a ton of debt and had over invested in physical plant and assets that could not adapt to the new digital world.

Why in the world are schools building new buildings? What is required in a business school classroom that is any different than the classroom for psychology or sociology or english or any other number of classes? A new library, seriously? What is worse is that schools are taking on debt to pay for this new construction.

You know what? He may have a point.