Looking back at Education Week in Madrid at SIMO event

One of the most significant education fairs of last fall is over, but we’re still in a good mood and grateful for all the contacts we established and the teachers we got to speak with. Here’s a short recap of what was going on at the event.

Last November, IFEMA partnered with the SIMO trade show to bring us one of Spain’s biggest education-oriented gatherings of professionals and institutions. SIMO Education is Europe’s leading educational technology and innovation expo, with annual event editions in Madrid. The event was organized to make schools and teachers aware of a technological tool that facilitates technology-based learning, which will help develop skills that prepare students for the digitalized world.

Principals, teachers, and students were the ones who mostly stopped by our booth to check what we had to offer. They were particularly interested in the fact that Blocksi covers every role in the educational support system, from the IT sector to parents. With our classroom management system, content filtering, and student safety solutions, schools can organize their digital environment better and keep students’ engagement high.

Different options such as admin, delegate, or teacher dashboards cater to the daily functionalities that students and staff require. Thanks to them, admins and delegates can monitor and filter allowed content in schools and take care of the student’s overall well-being, while teachers can monitor every student’s device in class. 

Even though only a few parents visited the SIMO event, teachers and other visitors were pleasantly surprised by the parent dashboard and features. They were impressed by the parent dashboard because it gives extra security to schools and parents to manage children’s devices anywhere, anytime.

Content filtering and Student Safety

The two most significant things that stood out to visitors at the SIMO event were our Content filtering and Student Safety solutions.

Content filtering is one of the essential solutions Blocksi has to offer. It was also among the most interesting to our booth’s visitors at the SIMO event. Content filtering allows schools and teachers to customize the internet and create filters and policies to meet their specific needs and goals. This solution helps them keep students on track and eliminate unnecessary distractions by blocking or allowing different content on their school devices. 

Since content filtering and student safety are intertwined, teachers were also greatly interested in student safety. The student safety solution complements content filtering by further identifying dangerous activities among students. Student safety is AI-powered scanning of harmful content in students’ Google workspaces. It detects self-harm, cyberbullying, threats, violence, and more, thus helping schools prevent harmful behavior.

Why is content filtering so crucial for schools?

For schools and teachers, the ever-increasing use of technology can provide a variety of new issues, including managing devices and assuring online safety. 

Filtering solutions should do more than just block and allow websites; they should give admins the tools they need to effectively handle the complexity of technology in the classroom and offer the safest online learning environment.

Not only that, filtering content in schools can improve pedagogy, it is usually easy to set up, and most importantly, it makes learning fun and safe. If you want more in-depth information aboutcontent filtering benefits, look at this article.

Where to Next?

Besides meeting wonderful people, we also got to see beautiful Madrid and check out the Museo del Jamón and the famous El Mercado de San Miguel. 

This year we will hopefully continue in the same energy, visiting other cities and, most importantly, visiting other EdTech events, such as TCEA 2023 in Texas, and MECA in Mississippi. 

We plan on exploring the EdTech market for more helpful advice on K-12 education in the 21st-century digital environment. Be sure to check us on LinkedIn and Twitter for more EdTech events in the future.