If you're looking for new technology that will help you improve assessments, communicate with students through social media or intelligently filter online content, you'll find it in the 10 Innovation Incubator Program finalists.
Out of 28 applicants, the Software & Information Industry Association chose the top education tools for its contest finals based on how mobile and global they are, as well as how they match up to the association's Vision K-20 Benchmarks. The program gives developers an opportunity to ask for advice, as well as find potential partners, financial backers and companies to acquire them. Academic and non-profit institutions, pre-revenue and early-stage companies, and long-standing companies with newly developed technologies can apply for the competition.
The association will showcase the technology at the annual Ed Tech Industry Summit May 23-25 in San Francisco, but you can preview them here.
EdTech Systems provides instructional content and grade-specific assessments that meet the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) National Educational Technology Standards, as well as the standards of 12 states that mandate technology literacy testing. As for reporting that information, educators can pull up a student answer or performance report, a class list report, a student progress report and a district item report, among others, with Buildmytest.
In popular learning management systems, ConnectYard integrates Facebook, Twitter, text messaging and e-mail in one thread so students and instructors can talk through a tool they already use, whenever they want to use it. And in case you're already thinking about whether you have to friend them on Facebook to do this, you don't. The subscription includes Learning Centers, which offers office hours, a searchable knowledge base and popular questions.
If you want to make textbooks interactive, you can add audio or video, as well as new content with editing tools in the DynamicBooks online platform. You start with textbook content that you like, rearrange it to fit your syllabus, and add links, video, audio and text files. And if you want to really customize it, edit math equations, create custom graphs and change text.
In schools where every one of the more than 60 students has a laptop, this platform supports storage and delivery of content and applications, plus management of student laptops.
The online language course includes more than 160 hours of beginner and intermediate level lessons. It also connects members throughout the world who speak different languages. To help students through the lessons, Livemocha includes competitions, a language buddy system and community encouragement.
This online virtual math tutor teaches kids ages 5 to 13 through more than 1,200 interactive math animations, which are aligned to U.S. national and state standards. Students answer questions before they start so that the Math-Whizz can assess how they are doing in different areas. The tutor provides personal learning plans and assesses students constantly.
On the go, you can create flash cards, study guides and quizzes for your students with the mobile education platform mobl21 from Emantras Inc. You can also manage your content, users and groups, and who you share with. Then you can publish what you've created to mobile devices including iPhones, iPod Touches, desktop widgets, social widgets such as Twitter, or cell phones. Individual teachers and students can use it, but it can also be scaled to the institutional level.
This feature for Lightspeed's Web Access Manager provides intelligent filtering of online content. Curriculum directors and teachers share videos, websites, documents and other content on the platform, and they're considered safe unless someone flags them. As for IT directors, they know exactly who shared inappropriate content based on the user login information. They also can still use their existing computer user groups, policies and reports.
From Turning Technologies, the bundle allows district administrators to analyze student test scores. When teachers ask questions during class, they can examine the results once the kids answer the questions using student response devices.
This tool delivers K-12 content in reading, math, language arts and science on students' mobile devices. Developed by Impact Education, SkillsTutor Mobile also provides formative assessments, individual instruction and accountability reporting to teachers and administrators.
