The National School Boards Association (NSBA) recently announced its first Technology Innovation Showcase, which will help school board members realize the potential of new and innovative educational technology products for their schools.
The Technology Innovation Showcase is designed to show emerging companies that represent the diversity of new solutions in education, according to Ann Flynn, NSBA’s Director of Education Technology.
“The education market sector is experiencing rapid growth from investors and creative entrepreneurs, yet few of the nation’s 90,000 board members and their school districts are fully aware of the innovations enabled by technology that can transform old practices,” said Flynn. “NSBA wants to be a bridge between the entrepreneurial community and the nation’s decision-makers by encouraging districts to embrace a culture of innovation that is open to new approaches and looks to the Showcase examples as a way to ignite those conversations.”
The 2013 Technology Innovation Showcase includes the following companies:
- BloomBoard – Helping educators grow by providing a free platform to manage the entire feedback cycle for improving educator effectiveness (e.g.: observations, coaching, and individualized learning plans, etc.), connected to recommendations from an open marketplace of professional development resources.
- Guide K12 – Using the power of geovisual analytics, districts can look at student data in new ways for the purpose of forecasting, capacity planning, and boundary discussions and get immediate answers to “what if” questions.
- Nearpod – An all-in-one solution for the synchronized use of iPads (and other mobile devices) in the classroom that is helping redefine the traditional classroom lecture through interactive presentations and real-time assessments.
- TenMarks – An engaging web-based learning environment that super-charges math instruction by delivering contextual help, automatic interventions, real-time assessments, and a personalized curriculum for every student.
- VizZle® — District Edition / Monarch Teaching Technologies – Committed to providing technology-enhanced solutions that offer districts more effective, yet cost-efficient data-driven tools that support children with autism and other special learning needs.
- World Wide Workshop, Globaloria – A blended-learning platform with a results-proven curriculum and educator support system to teach youth to produce STEM games with industry-standard methods and tools to increase digital literacy and global citizenship skills, and promote engagement in STEM and Computing.
The 2013 class will be featured by NSBA in an exclusive Innovation Showcase Pavilion and Showcase session during the NSBA Annual Conference in San Diego, April 13-15, 2013. In addition, they will be featured in NSBA’s magazine for school leaders, American School Board Journal, and highlighted in a February 27th webinar hosted by NSBA’s Technology Leadership Network. Go to www.nsba.org/tln to register.
Submissions were solicited from start-up companies providing new approaches to challenges across the K-12 curriculum, administrative operations, and communication channels. Reviewers included educators from NSBA’s “20 to Watch”, a recognition program that honors emerging technology leaders.
TLN, launched in 1985 by NSBA and its state school boards associations, helps advance the wise use of technology in K-12 education to support learning, operations, and communications.
