2006 Winners Announced: Top Portals and Applications in Education Technology

The nation’s top K-12 and higher education Web portals and applications have been evaluated and ranked by the Center for Digital Education (www.centerdigitaled.com), the leading source for analysis, trends and data about technology’s use in Education.

The Center’s 2006 Best of the Web competition evaluates higher education, K-12, state and local Web sites on their innovation, Web-based delivery of public services, efficiency, economy, and functionality.

The Center’s Digital Education Achievement Awards program broadens its scope to include submissions of cutting-edge ed-tech applications from around the world.

“There were some great technology innovations this year.” said Marina Leight, vice president of education, for the Center for Digital Education “The K-12 Web sites are maturing and now becoming representative of facilitating information, communication and learning resources for students, parents and teachers.”

On progress in the higher education area Leight added, “In higher education, colleges and universities are responding to student demand and expectation for technology via their Web sites, the range of services and information offered is growing exponentially year after year.”

2006 BEST OF THE WEB AWARDS:

K-12 State Web site Category:

Winner:

IDEAL:

Integrated Data to Enhance Arizona's Learning


K-12 District Web site Category:

Winner:

Rockwood School District, Missouri

Finalists:

Howell Township Public Schools, New Jersey

McAllen Independent School District, Texas

Richland School District Two, South Carolina


Higher Education Web site Category:

Winner:

South Seattle Community College, Washington

Finalist:

Carson-Newman College, Tennessee

2006 DIGITAL EDUCATION ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS:

Teacher-Focused category:

Winners:

Broward Enterprise Education Portal, School Board of Broward County, Florida

Protein Folding Research, Pande Research group of Stanford University, California

The Lost Museum: Exploring Antebellum U.S. Life and Culture, Center for Media and Learning, Graduate Center, CUNY


Administrator-Focused category:

Winner:

Substitute Employees, NYC Department of Education


Student-Focused category:

Winners:

DC OneApp, District of Columbia

The Groundwater Story, King County Water and Land Resources Division, Groundwater Protection Program, Seattle Public Schools, Water Tenders and Renton, Washington

Honorable Mentions:

Panther Den Online/D2L, South Florida Community College

Pinion Post, Sawnee Elementary School, Cumming, Georgia

Student-Focused/Student Design category:

Winners:

Extreme Cuisine, NYC Public School 56 Queens
Kids Can Dance, NYC Public School 56 Queens

Honorable Mentions:

Learn About Native Americans, Arlington Heights School District 25, Illinois

Step Into The Future Aboard the ISS, NYC Public School 56 Queens


Integrated Multi-Focus category:

Winner:

My VCCS, Virginia Community College System

Honorable Mentions:

Extended Learning Institute Distance Learning Program, Northern Virginia Community College

FCUSD eNews, Folsom Cordova Unified School District, California

This year’s BOW and DEAA programs were sponsored by SMART Technologies (www.smarttech.com) and Smead Software (www.smeadsoftware.com).

For more information on the awards programs please contact Janet Grenslitt at 916.932.1363 or jgrenslitt@centerdigitalgov.com

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