Didacta, Hanover
Educational toy?
I am at Didacta, the big German Education trade fare, this week. having been at shows from Arabia to the UK it is obvious that there are huge opposites. First, the British education market and the German Education market are poles apart. Here, in Didacta, there are stand after stand of educational engineering products on offer. Structures, mechanics, electronics, all have their own specialised tools and toys. In the UK one can only such things tucked away among the smaller stands as if Britain is embarrassed to admit to teaching such practical subjects. And then there is the contrast with the old and the new technology in education. The lions share of space is taken up by the huge book publishers that make the German curriculum texts. Each of the publisher stands are a small village in their own right, while the new technology like software and computers are just plain 20 square meter stands - obviously technology is still nowhere near a power in education here (or anywhere else for that matter). Whatever one may say about the rest of society - the computer revolution has still not even scratched the surface of education.
And finally the picture on the right is an example of a little German humour, placed prominently in one of the display cases of a manufacturer of medical models of human body.
