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Fifty of the best ed-tech products for schools
These 50 educational technology products and services are the winners of our 2012-13 Readers' Choice Awards
Techbooks (Discovery Education)
Discovery Education’s Techbooks are inquiry-based digital textbooks based on the “5E” model of instruction. Much more than just digitized versions of static textbooks, the Techbooks include videos, embedded assessments, and other interactive features that leverage the power of the internet, the company says.
“The online Science Techbook by Discovery Education has been adopted in our district as the core curriculum instructional material for our grade 6 students,” said Ed Short, elementary science resource teacher for Florida’s Brevard County Schools. “Our students are digital natives, and therefore they respond with great motivation and excitement when using an online program to learn science. … Components such as interactive glossaries, simulations, Science Sleuths, and Myth Busters support the many online video and reading passages.” Another reader, sixth-grade science teacher Sue Turpin of Indiana, said the Science Techbooks are “highly recommended by our science teachers.”
Time To Know is an innovative digital teaching and learning platform, designed specifically for one-to-one computing classrooms. It is currently available for fourth and fifth grade math and reading/language arts. Teachers can use the interactive curriculum and the digital teaching platform to manage all classroom activities and deliver a personalized learning experience for every student.
“We are using this product with second and fourth grade students,” said Chris Sosa, principal of Lee Elementary School in Grand Prairie, Texas. “Teachers are loving the results … and students are enjoying the learning that is occurring with the use of this technical opportunity. It is a great solution that helps many students with the intervention process.” Grand Prairie teacher Laura Perry added: “Students love the program, and we have seen an increase in student achievement on district assessments.”
TI-Nspire (Texas Instruments)
TI-Nspire is a whole family of handheld devices and software that can display math exercises in a more dynamic and interactive fashion, allowing students to manipulate the data and see what effect these changes have in real time.
“I’m using the TI-Nspire CX in my physics and mathematics classrooms. It has greatly enhanced my ability to do formative assessment, enabled the students to do hands-on inquiry into the mathematics, and expanded our data collection capabilities,” said Sean Bird, a teacher at Covenant Christian High School in Indiana. “We have collected and analyzed data for linear motion, rotational motion, force, temperature, magnetic field, sound, light, and more. The color and backlit screen has added to the engagement and ease-of-use of the device. It has also helped students make connections. This is the best tool for teaching and learning math and science that has ever come to my classroom.”
The ubermix is an all-free, specially built, Linux-based operating system designed by educators with the needs of education in mind. It takes all the complexity out of student devices by making them as reliable and easy-to-use as a cell phone, without sacrificing the power and capabilities of a full operating system, its creators say. With a turnkey, five-minute installation, 20-second quick recovery mechanism, and more than 60 free applications pre-installed, ubermix turns whatever hardware you have into a powerful device for learning.
“We presently use ubermix on about 3,500 netbooks at our school district,” said Jim Klein, director of information systems and technology for the Saugus Union School District in California. “The combination of low-cost hardware and reliable, free software has made one-to-one [computing] a practical reality for us, enabling us to transform the learning environment and engage our kids with social media tools. For us, netbooks running free software brings most—if not all—of the benefits of tablets to netbooks, without all the sacrifices.”
8 Responses to Fifty of the best ed-tech products for schools
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peejs66
July 24, 2012 at 12:16 am
DreamBox is thrilled to be included in eSchool News 50 Best Edtech Products for Schools. Thank you! We do want to correct the description of the underlying technology, though, because the intelligent adaptive learning platform evaluates much more than right and wrong answers. The engine evaluates the strategy used to solve the problem, the pace at which the student interacts with the software, the number of hints requested, and more. In fact, the adaptive learning engine collects, analyzes, and responds to about 48,000 pieces of data per hour, per student. The adaptivity is extraordinarily fine-grained.
tfrantz
July 24, 2012 at 3:01 pm
Thank you, eSchool News readers! Lightspeed Systems is honored to have My Big Campus recognized as one of the Top 50 Edtech Products. We encourage you to log on, create a free account, and start creating an engaging, collaborative learning experience for your students. See you around Campus!
britmullins
July 25, 2012 at 9:25 pm
Thank you! SoftChalk is proud to be one of the 50 Best Edtech Products for Schools. As readers of eSchoolNews and eCampusNews, as well as professionals with roots in higher education, we couldn’t be more honored. We know how hard it can be to find the right tools to meet the ever-changing needs of the higher ed classroom, and we’re proud to offer a content authoring solution that meets the mark!
zanepub
July 30, 2012 at 11:41 pm
Zane Education wants thank everyone that voted for them.
We appreciated being the only company selected for actually delivering K-12 curriculum content as opposed to the various platforms and support tools.
Using online video and the innovative use of subtitles (The Missing Piece) to enable all students to study a wide range of curriculum subjects AND improve their reading and literacy skills AT THE SAME TIME, is important to us and we appreciate the support of all those that share our belief in providing equal access for all students.
And for those of you in schools and classrooms that have yet to experience the benefits and positive results of Visual Learning in the classroom supported by online testing for each topic, the use of free Lesson Plans and the interactive study tools provided to help each student to fully explore each topic, you can view out free Curriculum Topic of the Day at the following link:
http://www.zaneeducation.com/Videos/freevideo.php
We believe that enabling each child to study at their own speed is key to helping each child achieve their greatest potential.
And thank you again!
cortboulanger
August 1, 2012 at 10:30 pm
Thanks to eSchool Media readers for including Middllebury Interactive Languages on this list. We are proud to be among the 50 products making a difference in our schools. But this is only possible working with our partners – teachers, administrators, parents and students – to provide access to superior world language instruction for all students.
We hope you’ll visit the Middlebury Interactive Facebook page to keep up to date on our activities. https://www.facebook.com/pages/Middlebury-Interactive-Languages/141015515949753
Thanks again.
presencelearning
August 7, 2012 at 6:49 pm
Thank you so much to eSchoolNews readers! PresenceLearning is honored to be chosen for this esteemed list of ed-tech solution providers. PresenceLearning (http://www.presencelearning.com) is the leading provider of live online speech therapy services to K-12 schools. We are delivering over 5,000 live sessions a month and helping kids master the language and speech skills they need for success in school and life. We are growing rapidly by helping school districts overcome critical shortages of SLPs and serve their special needs students better. See a video of a real online speech session at:
http://presencelearning.com/online-speech-therapy-videos
chris.buecksler@schoolwires.com
August 9, 2012 at 7:20 pm
Thank you eSchoolNews readers for selecting Centricity2 as a Top 50 Ed Tech Product for Schools. Schoolwires sincerely appreciates the selection and is proud to serve more than 10 million users with our website, content management and safe social learning solutions to drive engagement in the classroom and K-12 community.
angiecasteel89
August 14, 2012 at 5:24 pm
Scientific Minds is excited to be included in the Top 50 Ed Tech Products for Schools. Thank you to all who voted for us! At Scientific Minds, we take great pride in making quality, online products for grades K-12 that provide practical, easy-to-use solutions for classroom success. Both teachers and students benefit from the brain research used to develop our main product, the Science Starters, which deliver science content in small “chunks” accompanied by vivid, memorable images and graphics. We invite you to check out our new online professional development for elementary teachers at https://www.scientificminds.com/ProfessionalDevelopment.aspx.