xThink at BETT^* 2008, the salt in the soup...

Live report from xThink's stand in London

In January 2008 there was a huge event. The name of the event was BETT. It was already the 23rd time that the exhibition opened its gates and over 30,000 visitors attended the world’s greatest trade show for education technologies.

We presented our software MathJournal there at a pretty small stand and had great audience. So, what is so special about that? The main topics were personal learning software and learning platforms.

So what made us so successful there? After all, xThink deals with an old topic at BETT shows, pen input. This topic is already implemented for years because nearly 80% of British schools already work with electronic whiteboards and other countries are not far away from this amount.

So what made MathJournal so special there? The answer is simple: alongside the main topics of the show there was a special excitement to see something only dreamed about come alive. Educators who have worked with electronic whiteboards for years already are hungry for new tools that increase the power of the whiteboard medium. MathJournal satisfies that hunger!

For nearly all visitors, MathJournal was the first application that they saw that is able to handle math on the whiteboard in a very fast, convenient and intuitive way. What we showed them was an empty sheet of paper on the whiteboard (the MathJournal workspace) and we just started writing with the digital pen. MathJournal solved the math problem that we were writing on the screen, without the restriction of the keyboard.

Imagine that! The teacher can be teacher again, drawing and writing in freehand; no longer restricted to boxes and special shapes and odd keyboard strokes. The board is now the gateway to freedom in teaching math. That is our job at xThink. That is what we have achieved.We are the salt that makes the soup delicious. We were the last tiny piece that completes the puzzle for whiteboard applications in the classroom.

In the end xThink was kind of an insider’s secret at the BETT show. A huge part of the audience at our little stand was sent from the big stands of the electronic whiteboards manufacturers.

They know… xThink MathJournal is the salt in their soup!

*BETT is the world's leading educational information and communications technology (ICT) event, with over 20 years dedicated to showcasing the best in UK and international educational technology products, resources and best practice.