SIIA is pleased to find and support innovation in the education industry with our Innovation Incubator Program. For the fifth time, the program highlights new companies and products poised to change the market.
SIIA is proud to announce the pre-revenue companies, non-profit groups, R&D agencies & academic institutions selected to participate in this year’s Ed Tech Business Forum. All applicants were reviewed by SIIA's Innovation Working Group, the Forum's Steering Committee, and SIIA’s Education Board, then selected to participate in the Ed Tech Business Forum. The Innovation program is partially funded by the Forum's Innovation Incubator Sponsors: Blackboard, Spectrum K12 School Solutions and TextHelp
2009 Innovation Incubator Participants are:
BigUniverse.com
Anil Hemrajani, CEO & Founder, Big Universe, Inc.
BigUniverse.com is an award-winning literacy website for grades K-8. This engaging web 2.0 community uses beautiful picture books to deliver leveled reading, assessments, and writing development, while providing an anywhere-anytime, standards-based, education resource that connects teachers, students and parents.
Cents City
Felix Lloyd, Founder and CEO, Skill-Life, Inc.
CentsCity is a dynamic platform that uses online games, easy-to-use administrative features, and real-world rewards to build tweens' (ages 8-14) financial literacy. With 81% of youth playing online games (Source: Pew Internet & American Life Project), CentsCity is a timely solution for an overwhelming majority of adults very interested in teaching their children financial skills.
Engaged Minds
Christoph, Knoess, Founder and President, Engaged Minds, Inc.
Engaged Minds helps higher ed institutions and K-12 districts retain their students until graduationas well as the revenues associated with these students. The solution is unique in that it not only identifies at-risk students - it also manages the support interventions with an enterprise-wide collaboration platform and it provides senior executives with analytical tools and dashboards
Flat World Knowledge
Jeff Shelstad, Founder and CEO, Flat World Knowledge
Flat World Knowledge is a new, innovative publisher of high-quality college level textbooks and ancillaries. Our web-hosted books are published open and free, thereby transferring 100% control of content to the faculty member and 100% control of consumption to the student.
The JASON Project
Caleb Schultz, President, The JASON Project, National Geographic Society
The JASON Project’s revolutionary approach to science education inspires and motivates students and teachers by connecting them with great explorers and great events from leading organizations. JASON uses rich technologies – including computer games, videos, live interactivity and social networking – to embed its partners’ cutting-edge research in rigorous curricula available in print and online.
KidsWrite
Joshua Friedman, CEO KidsWrite
KidsWrite combines the power of the social web, the advent of the digital press and the proven pedagogical value of project-based collaborative learning, by leveraging the oldest educational technology in the world—the book--in the most innovative and exciting ways. As a publishing company and community for kids, our classroom-based book authoring programs help students learn and improve their ELA skills and technology and project management proficiencies.
Livescribe Pulse Smartpen
Gina Pucci, Account Executive, A&R Edelman for Livescribe Inc.
The Livescribe Pulse smartpen is a computer in a pen that captures handwritten notes and simultaneously records and links the audio it “hears” to the notes. By tapping on the notes with the smartpen, users can hear the conversation play back from that exact moment in which they wrote or drew a particular word or doodle.
Prazas Live
Raj Valli, Founder, Coaxis Services Inc
PrazAs Live is a patent pending & innovative touch based e-learning platform
that provides a comprehensive suite of resources for real time and context based learning, publishing and collaboration. It integrates with existing e-learning technologies and infrastructure and removes barriers to collaborations which were until now limited by point and click technologies
SMALLab
Dr. Mina Johnson, Arizona State University
SMALLab (Situated Multimedia Arts Learning Lab) is a virtual learning environment where K-12 students interact kinesthetically with visual and sonic media. We have demonstrated significant learning gains in this environment for math, language arts, physics and chemistry --- and more content is on the way!
Waterford Assessment of Core Skills™ (WACS)
Hailey Kuhn, VP of Business Development, Waterford Institute
Waterford Assessment of Core Skills™ (WACS) introduces a revolutionary approach to testing our youngest learners—one tailored to their unique needs, while ensuring in-depth, accurate, real-time results. Based on 5 years of research and validated by more than 12,000 students nationwide, WACS is fun for students, easy for teachers, and hassle-free for administrators.
The Alternates Are:
KBTeachers.com
Christophe T. Popper, KnowledgeBears.com, Inc.
www.KBTeachers.com offers a variety of innovative teaching tools and resources including 1000's of quality printable pages, worksheets and lesson plans. Using modern designs, a simple navigation system and cutting edge technology, KBTeachers also provides K12 educators and parents with “make-your-own” alphabet pages, dynamic math generators and other customizable teaching materials.
Schools on Facebook
Michael Staton, CEO Inigral
Schools on Facebook is the market leading Lifecycle Engagement Platform, a white-label social network supporting the entire student lifecycle from first recruitment touch through to alumni involvement and giving. It is on the forefront of leveraging social networking to enhance programs for Admissions, Orientation, Student Affairs and Services, and Alumni Development. It shows promise to impact yield, retention, persistence, involvement, and giving.
