Monday, June 2, 2008

New and Notable in Ed Tech


Meris Stansbury at eSchool News reports on the new educational technologies featured by the Software and Information Industry Association (SIIA) at its 2008 Ed Tech Industry Summit last week. Ten technologies were chosen for SIIA's Innovation Working Group which gives developers additional exposure for their products and gives them chances to network with other ed-tech developers and executives.

Of the ten technologies chosen and two semi-finalists, many hold great promise for middle school. These include:
  • Blue Nose Edutainment--this website "uses music, film, and sports" to motivate sixth to twelfth grade students to read and write, including chances to submit their own lyrics or interpretations of lyrics to win prizes.
  • Education Clip Library--this online collection of video clips selected and "contextualized by education experts" is aimed at students aged 3-19 and says it covers all academic areas.
  • MaestroReading.com--at this site, reading and literacy development is mixed with social networking.
  • GenYES--this is an online curriculum that teaches students in grades 4-12 about technology with real-world examples and contexts.
  • TutorVista--this program offers personalized tutoring in math, English, science and other subjects from highly-trained tutors who are available anytime.
You can find more information on each of these programs at their respective websites. Check out the eSchool News article for other programs of note. Many of the winners are aimed at differentiated or personalized learning. How might you use these with your middle schoolers? Do any of these fill a need or multiple needs or are they cherries on top, nice to have but not essential?

SOURCE: "Summit showcases ed-tech 'up-and-comers' " 03/29/08
photo courtesy of pasotraspaso, used under this Creative Commons license

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