Industry Summit News 
Ed Tech Industry Summit Guest Blog: Seismic Changes in Education
Wed, 23 May 2012 15:56
Recently, I attended the SIIA Ed Tech Industry Summit in San Francisco, CA, the nation’s leading education technology conference. Leaders of edtech companies came from around the country – and the world – to network, attend keynote speeches, participate in panel discussions and focus groups, and enjoy the annual CODIE Awards. The theme of this year’s conference was Bridging K-12 and Postsecondary, so the agenda addressed transitioning and leveraging edtech businesses from one marketplace to another.
One particular panel discussion that caught my attention was entitled, Adapting to the Seismic Change in Education Culture. The write up in the SIIA program read:
It’s not just about digital transformation. From teacher accountability and superintendent turnover to funding and standards — all areas across both K-12 and Higher Ed education are experiencing transformational changes in the culture of education. This is beyond a trend. Tweaking our business models and product offerings won’t be good enough to survive. How should businesses adapt to the huge shifts in education culture? Listen to a panel of industry gurus on how successful businesses recreate themselves in times of great change.
Moderator:
Randy Wilhelm, Chief Executive Officer, Knovation (formerly netTrekker)
Panelists:
Farb Nivi, Founder, Grockit
Justin Serrano, President, Kaplan K12 and College Prep, Kaplan K12 Learning Services
David Straus, Vice President Product, Kno, Inc.
The panel discussion was a guided Q & A session, and below you’ll find a summary of some of the most salient points that were made during the one-hour discussion:
What’s the key to adapting to seismic change?
Straus: Two important elements to successful adaption are: 1) Evolution, not revolution; and 2) To think international, not just domestically.
Which education trend will have the greatest impact on K-20 education in the next three years?
Straus: Mobile, because of its portability, intimate user experience, and the increased touch environment.
Serrano: As things get cheaper, that will determine which trend is most impactful. I agree with Straus – mobile will have a huge impact due to its portability.
Nivi: Social learning – peers teaching peers – will have a huge impact. For example, real-time chat rooms are changing the way test prep is done. However, I also think that a variety of trends will be impactful, including mobile, print to digital, etc. It’s important to give people options, because determining which tool is the right one, depends on the particular person, school, etc. In general, we should be trying to find ways to amplify the ways people can connect with each other. In a world where the rate of technological change is affecting our lives more than anything else, if we don’t embed technology in education, then we’re not preparing children for the world.
Which one group/thing will be most responsible for transforming K-20 education?
Serrano: The government. The government is not going to inspire transformation, but it’s the group that has to give it permission to happen. But it’s also important to remember that technology is not necessary to fix education; many charter schools are successful without using technology. But like it or not, the government is going to play a huge role.
Straus: Companies and systems need to provide a compelling argument to help students engage. However, it’s the government that will be most responsible for transforming K-20 education.
Nivi: I think students should be the answer. When I was growing up, the best technology was at school. Today, schools are technology prisons where you’re not allowed to bring anything in. Until schools are technology meccas and not technology prisons, we’re not going to get change.
Which organizations/conferences do you believe will help shape or address K-20 trends?
Nivi: ASU SkySong, because moving big things in a short amount of time will most likely occur here.
Who will benefit the most from the changes taking place in education?
Serrano: This question assumes that the changes are positive. But to answer it, I think the students will benefit most.
Straus: Teachers. The role of the teacher is going to improve and transform into that of a facilitator.
Where will the fastest evolution in education occur?
Seranno: This question is asking about speed, and to address that point, the evolution of education will happen fastest wherever you have a more focused and centralized vision.
Nivi: The fastest growth will occur in other countries, because the stakes are higher. Internationally, there is more competition. Other countries leapfrogged the table phone and went straight to the cell phone. They leapfrogged the desktop and laptop and went straight to the tablet. When it comes to technology and education, other countries have the incentives and are not tied to any existing models. Because of this, they will be able to take advantage of new technology.
When they took the movie “High School Musical” to China and wanted to remake the movie for a Chinese audience, they encountered a major problem in the storyline. In the Chinese culture, the athletes are the losers and the smart students are the cool kids, so they had to flip the story line. The reason I share this story is because we need to change the culture of the U.S. As adults and leaders, we need to be examples of lifelong learners.
It was a great discussion, wouldn’t you say? And one we need to be having more often – not just at edtech conferences, but at the federal and state levels of government, lecture halls of universities, local school board meetings, teacher gatherings, classrooms, and homes. There’s no denying that technology is changing, and will continue to change, the way we think about education – both in regards to the content and the delivery of information. However, in order to successfully adapt to these changes, we need to make it a priority to reflect on our current state of education and think about how what we’re doing now, both individually and collectively, will impact the future.
Beyond that, we should continue having open discussions, such as this one undertaken by Nivi, Serrano, and Straus at the SIIA EdTech Summit, addressing the current state of education and looking ahead to what’s to come. These conversations need to occur at all levels of society and involve a variety of key players, including the government, education companies, universities, employers, school leaders, teachers, students, and parents. In this manner, we can be assured that the future roadmap of education will be the result of a collective effort and represent a shared decision for how we should adapt and move forward with education in America.
Mandela Schumacher-Hodge is a former middle school teacher and doctoral student at UCLA. She is currently the co-founder & chief operation officer of DemoLesson, an innovative online hiring platform for teachers. In her spare time, Mandela loves to exercise, spend quality time with family and friends, and search for new adventures and experiences.
An Honor to Present Education Awards to Industry Veterans
Thu, 17 May 2012 02:19
Presenting this year’s education awards during the recent Ed Tech Industry Summit in San Francisco was very special for me personally. It was great to be up on stage with two very key people in our industry as we honored them with SIIA’s education awards. We presented Charles Blaschke with the Ed Tech Impact Award, an honor we started just four years ago. We then presented Dr. Patrick Suppes with a Lifetime Achievement Award, the first time this award has been given at the Summit.
Each of these awards were given after reviewing quite a list of candidates. Our education technology industry has a growing number of veterans who have contributed ideas, products, and services for some decades– and some for over 50 years!
Our Ed Tech Impact Award went to Charles Blaschke, Founder and President of Education TURNKEY Systems, Inc., an education industry veteran whose work goes back over four decades. He is president of his Washington D.C.-based firm, where he provides data and analysis about Federal funding policies and K-12 technology spending, including Title I, IDEA/Special Ed, the new ARRA stimulus funding, and other related Federal programs.
Many of those in the audience raised their hands when he asked if any were or had been his clients. I raised my hand, remembering how I would get his monthly reports that my company had subscribed to. I would then share those reports with our sales reps who were always interested in Charles’s specific state-by-state funding information.
It’s become a tradition for the new Ed Tech Impact honoree to receive the award from the last recipient. The first awardee, Ellen Bialo (IESD), presented it to Tom Greaves (The Greaves Group) two years ago and Tom presented it to Kathy Hurley (Pearson) last year. This year Kathy, now with the Pearson Foundation presented it to Charles Blaschke, this year’s awardee and her husband!
For the Lifetime Achievement Award, we chose Dr. Patrick Suppes, now the Lucie Stern Professor of Philosophy Emeritus at Stanford University. Suppes began conducting research using computers to teach students in the 1960s and even though he recently turned 90 years old, he is still doing online instructional development! He founded Computer Curriculum Corporation (CCC) in 1967, and served as CEO for many years, while maintaining a large class schedule at Stanford University.
We were lucky to have Ron Fortune, a colleague and CEO at CCC, introduce Dr. Suppes by providing background information about his 50+ years of experience in education technology. Dr. Suppes accepted the award from SIIA President, Ken Wasch, and gave very insightful comments about how far we’ve come – and haven’t come – in our industry. He pondered on the effects of cross-age tutoring via online, as well as the opportunities with voice recognition technologies. After his award, many in the audience came up to congratulate him and request pictures; some were SIIA members who had worked at CCC at the same time as Suppes and Fortune.
Few attendees with start-ups and early stage companies attending this year’s Ed Tech Industry Summit likely knew either of these men – or were aware of their work – before we presented them with the awards. Jenny House, President of RedRock Reports who sponsored the awards luncheon, remarked afterwards that the audience at the Summit luncheon was ‘getting older and – at the same time – younger’.
But we also agreed that whether young and old, the audience really appreciated the accomplishments and contributions the two awardees have made to our industry. It was truly an honor to introduce Patrick Suppes and Charles Blaschke to everyone in the audience, but in particular, to those very young companies who will grow and advance the use of technology in K-20 education.
Karen Billings is Vice President for the Education Division at SIIA.
SIIA Honors Education Industry Veterans with Prestigious Awards
Fri, 11 May 2012 00:35
SIIA’s Education Division this week honored Dr. Patrick Suppes, Lucie Stern Professor of Philosophy Emeritus at Stanford University, with its first-ever Lifetime Achievement Award. SIIA also presented the Ed Tech Impact Award to Charles Blaschke, Founder and President of Education TURNKEY Systems, Inc. In addition, the Education Division honored long-standing members of the Division during the recent Ed Tech Industry Summit (ETIS) in San Francisco.
During a special awards ceremony, SIIA President Ken Wasch and SIIA Vice President for Education Karen Billings presented Suppes with the award, which highlighted his accomplishments and contributions to the education technology industry. Suppes began conducting experiments using computers to teach students in the 1960s and led the charge of online instructional development. Computer Curriculum Corporation, the company he founded in 1967, is now part of Pearson Education Technologies. Among countless other awards, he received the National Medal of Science in 1990. With 50 years of experience in education technology at Stanford, Suppes is now Lucie Stern Professor of Philosophy Emeritus, and is Director and Faculty Advisor at Stanford’s Education Program for Gifted Youth.
In addition, SIIA presented the Ed Tech Impact Award to Charles Blaschke, Founder and President of Education TURNKEY Systems, Inc., a 40-year-old Washington D.C.-based firm which provides data and analysis about Federal funding policies and K-12 technology spending, including Title I, IDEA/Special Ed, the new ARRA stimulus funding, and other related Federal programs. Among many other contributions to education and technology, Blaschke developed one of the first two IEP special education administrative systems and co-authored the first Title I Policy Manual.
Several companies also were recognized by SIIA for helping support the ed tech industry through their long-standing membership of the association. Member companies recognized at the awards luncheon for attaining long-term membership levels included:
25 years of membership
Interactive Education Systems Design, Inc. (IESD)
20 years of membership
o Adobe
15 years of membership
o Texas Instruments Education Technology Group
10 years of membership
o Headsprout, Inc.
o CyberSmart! Education Company
o Apple Education
o Knovation/netTrekker/Thinkronize
Laura Greenback is Communications Director at SIIA.
SIIA Announces Top Innovators in Education Technology
Wed, 09 May 2012 15:50
SIIA’s Education Division recognized three ed tech solutions yesterday with five awards for their originality, innovation, and industry promise.
During SIIA’s bi-annual Innovation Incubator program held in connection with this week’s SIIA Ed Tech Industry Summit, Language Express and Filament Games were voted by 350 conference attendees as being the Most Likely to Succeed (first place and runner-up, respectively). Filament Games and Language Express were also voted as the Most Innovative (first place and runner-up, respectively.)
The Innovation Incubator Program supports innovation in the education technology industry by raising the profile of promising new technologies while connecting these innovators with captains of industry for mentorship, expert advice, investment opportunities, and partnerships to support growth.
Overall, 73 applicants were assessed for the Innovation Incubator program on a broad range of criteria, including the education focus, end-user impact, market need for the innovation, representation of K-12/postsecondary market levels, and the level of originality and innovation. Ten finalists and two alternates were selected for the program and their participation was subsidized by program lead and co-sponsors Blackboard Partnerships and Texthelp Systems.
In addition to the recognitions announced above, Blackboard Partnerships™ continued its tradition of identifying the Innovation Incubator most aligned with their own initiatives, providing Smart Science Education Inc. with a complimentary year-long membership as a Blackboard Building Blocks™ partner in the Blackboard Partnerships program. Among the many benefits, partners have access to the thousands of clients using the Blackboard Learn™ platform. Program membership also includes a developer copy of the Blackboard Learn software, a product listing on the Blackboard Extensions online directory, personalized guidance and mentorship on the partnership, and participation at members-only events.
Karen Billings is Vice President for the Education Division at SIIA.
SIIA Announces CODiE Award Winners for Education Technology Industry
Tue, 08 May 2012 13:01
Last night, SIIA announced the winners of the 2012 CODiE Awards in education technology during a reception and dinner at SIIA’s annual Ed Tech Industry Summit. Overall, 29 winners were recognized for their products and services deployed specifically for the education technology market.
All of the education technology nominated products and services were first reviewed by a group of tech-savvy educators from across the nation, whose evaluations determined 128 finalists. SIIA members then reviewed these finalists and voted to select 29 CODiE Award winners, listed here by category, company, and product/service:
Best Classroom Management System:
Wowzers, Wowzers
Best Corporate Learning/Workforce Development Solution:
G-Cube Solutions, DBS Bank – Induction Program
Best Cross-Curricular Solution:
Gaggle, Gaggle
Best Education Community Solution:
ClassLink, Inc., ClassLink LaunchPad Virtual Desktop
Best Education Game or Simulation (tie):
Smarty Ants, Inc. Smarty Ants
Sokikom, Sokikom
Best Education Reference Solution:
ABC-CLIO, World Religions: Belief, Culture, and Controversy
Best Educational Use of a Device-Specific Application:
The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., Everyday Mathematics – ePlanner Deluxe with ePresentations and eToolkit
Best Educational Use of a Mobile Device:
BrainPOP, BrainPOP Featured Movie App
Best Instructional Solution for Special Needs Students:
Rethink Autism, Inc., Rethink Autism Website
Best Instructional Solution in Other Curriculum Areas
Learning.com, Digital Literacy Solution
Best K-12 Course or Learning Management Solution
McGraw-Hill Education, Networks: A Social Studies Learning System
Best K-12 Enterprise Solution:
My Learning Plan Inc., MyLearningPlan Enterprise Solution
Best K-12 Instructional Solution:
ExploreLearning.com, ExploreLearning Reflex
Best Mathematics Instructional Solution:
Apangea Learning, Inc., Apangea Math
Best Postsecondary Course or Learning Management System:
Blackboard Inc., Blackboard Learn, Release 9.1, Service Pack 6
Best Postsecondary Enterprise Solution
McGraw-Hill, Tegrity Campus (Lecture Capture Service)
Best Postsecondary Instructional Solution
Pearson, CourseConnect
Best Professional Learning Solution for Education:
School Improvement Network, PD 360 (version 5.0)
Best Reading/English Instructional Solution:
ePALS, Inc., In2Books
Best Science/Health Instructional Solution:
Discovery Education, Discovery Education Science Techbook
Best Social Sciences Instructional Solution:
TCI, TCI
Best Student Assessment Solution:
Archipelago Learning, Study Island Version 5.0
Best Virtual School Solution for Students:
Adaptive Curriculum, Adaptive Curriculum
Three top winners were also chosen during the awards ceremony:
Best K-12 Solution:
Wowzers, Wowzers
Best Postsecondary Solution:
McGraw-Hill, Tegrity Campus (Lecture Capture Service)
Best Education Solution (three-way tie):
BrainPOP, BrainPOP Featured Movie App
Learning.com, Digital Literacy Solution
Discovery Education, Discovery Education Science Techbook
Karen Billings is Vice President for the Education Division at SIIA.
Kentucky’s Implementation of Common Core State Standards Demonstrates Key Role of Technology
Thu, 19 Apr 2012 16:25
Kentucky was the first state to adopt the Common Core State Standards and has become a pioneer in implementation. Cindy Parker, a representative from the Kentucky Board of Education spoke recently at a National Adolescent Literacy Council event about the challenges and solutions to implementing the Common Core Standards. Kentucky began to implement CCSS for the 2010-2011 school year with very little funding support from state legislature. Educational technology has helped Kentucky by providing new and innovative methods for professional development, curriculum dissemination and teacher support.
A robust teacher training online platform was created to update teachers on the best practices for implementing the new standards. Lack of funding for traditional development methods created unique challenges that were overcome by implementing more flexible and easily accessed digital tools to support Kentucky’s educators.
Examples include:
- iTunesU is used for podcasts and webinars for professional development of teachers. A monthly webinar with the state’s Education Commissioner and the district Superintendents has been established to create better communication.
- Race to the Top funding was used to create “Literacy Central,” a website designed to aid teachers in professional learning. Videos, lesson plans, and forums are contained on the website and act as guideposts for teachers.
- The Continuous Instructional Improvement Technology System (CIITS) was created in partnership with Pearson Schoolnet. This was designed as a one stop online platform for teachers to access CCSS literacy plans. Modules within the site provide analysis of CCSS requirements and how to incorporate those into day to day classroom activities. Professional growth plans and consolidated professional development resources are also included.
The implementation of the CCSS in Kentucky led to not only classroom technology upgrades and changes, but also important changes in professional development. As new content and new guidelines were introduced, Kentucky reacted by creating technologically savvy teacher training. The important role of technology and digital learning, both for curriculum as well as for professional development, is clear.
SIIA’s recent CCSS webinar and Ed Tech Government Forum session are available to SIIA members seeking additional information about how they can support education’s needs with CCSS aligned content, technologies and resources. Further reading can also be found in Ed Week’s recent article.
Lindsay Harman is Market and Policy Analyst for the SIIA Education Division.
SIIA Announces Top Innovators in Education Technology
Wed, 18 Apr 2012 20:10
SIIA today announced 10 qualifiers and two alternates for its Innovation Incubator Program, which connects developers of promising new technologies with industry leaders, potential investors, and established companies seeking partnerships or acquisition candidates. The qualifiers will provide brief presentations of their innovative products during the Ed Tech Industry Summit (ETIS) Innovation Incubator Business Profiles Presentations, and participate in the ETIS Innovation Showcase and Opening Reception on Sunday, May 6.
After the initial presentations, Summit attendees will select six finalists to present again at a lunch session on Monday, May 7. Following this second round of presentations, attendees will choose the Innovation Incubator “Most Innovative” and “Most Likely to Succeed” award winners and first runners-up. Winners will be announced during the Education Technology Awards Luncheon on Tuesday, May 8, where the Blackboard Partnership award will also be announced.
Seventy-three applicants were assessed for the program on a broad range of criteria, including the education focus, end user impact and market need for the innovation, representation of K-12/postsecondary market levels, and the level of originality and innovation.
Finalists:
3D GameLab
3D GameLab is a Software as a Service (SaaS) based personal learning platform. 3D GameLab uses game mechanics (such as experience points, badges, awards, and rankings) and a quest-based learning approach involving user choice to promote ongoing engagement and improved learning outcomes.
Game-enhanced Interactive Science
Filament Games has developed a suite of digital games (Crazy Plant Shop, You Make Me Sick, and Cell Command) designed to promote scientific literacy and increase students’ interest in pursuing careers in the sciences. They are created to be used in inclusive science classrooms with a diverse range of students using the Universal Design for Learning framework, which is strategically aligned to key state standards and formulated to integrate seamlessly with existing curricula.
GuideK12 – Geovisual Analytics for Education
GuideK12 is a powerful web-based Geovisual Analytic tool that helps school districts solve critical educational challenges. As a disruptive technology, GuideK12 links student data to household information for the purpose of improving learning, forecasting, capacity planning, and optimizing district resources. Providing insight traditionally reserved for demographers, GuideK12 excels at simplifying complex three-dimensional information and visually displaying the results with a few clicks.
Prelude To Learning
Prelude is a group learning game for young and old alike. It fosters 21st century skills like empathy, creativity, collaboration, and diversity appreciation, and reduces conditions for bullying and disengagement. Its current version is a blended learning model, and an all-digital version is planned for virtual teams, distance education, and home schooling. Prelude uniquely integrates several tools: character assessment, EQ training, team building, and diversity training.
Pocket Literacy Coach
Pocket Literacy Coach helps parents be more involved in their childrens’ learning by delivering mobile content to parents’ cell phones. It provides a SMS-based parent curriculum for parents to build developmentally appropriate skills with their children at home. Its mobile video platform allows teachers to send secure, private mobile video memos to parents, and allows parents to be peer mentors by demonstrating positive parenting to help child development.
PossibilityU
PossibilityU is a platform solution for democratizing college admissions using 21st century technology. It helps students get into the right college using unique and innovative technology, big data, personalized curriculum, and one-to-one coaching. Its primarily goals are to improve admission outcomes for individuals, families and schools to increase the amount of college admission and financial aid support for students in under-resourced schools.
Smart Science Education
Smart Science® Education provides the only real online science labs with interactive data collection anywhere. With almost 4 million labs delivered, the patented technology delivers a superior science lab experience, as proven in many schools. It’s embedded in a full learning scaffold with online lab reports, assessments, and supporting materials.
TeachMe
TeachMe allows special education teachers and clinical professionals to record skills acquisition and behavior management student data during or after a session using any Smartphone or Wi-Fi enabled device. TeachMe contains a class of Common Core State Standard curriculum templates and provides a behavior tracking program that meets a States QA requirements. It records data both in a one-on-one and group setting for multiple programs for each student, enabling administrators to receive timely, reliable data and avoid audit risks.
The Language Express
The Language Express plans to build interactive multimedia products to teach social and life skills to 3- to 21-year-olds. Its first product, The Social Express, is a high-quality animated interactive program featuring original characters. It uses a unique video modeling concept to help students learn the basic first steps to social interaction.
Twisted Physics
Twisted Physics (TP) is an adventure game that teaches physics. Using a principal based approach to learning within a game, TP engages the student in an adventure through Physics that is comprehensive in its treatment of the subject matter, engaging for the student learner, and robust for the teacher. Suitable for any student who knows Algebra 1, TP brings students to the AP Physics B level by seamlessly integrating learning into the game.
Alternates:
Educurious
Educurious develops high school blended learning and project-based core curriculum that connects students to real issues they care about, equipping them with lifelong learning skills for success. Its social media web platform fosters collaboration among students, teachers and a global network of real-world experts through standards-aligned lessons, multimedia elements, gaming, badges, and technology-rich assessments to support trajectories toward mastery and personalized learning pathways.
KEEN 5X
In their efforts to teach curriculum and achieve measurable results, teachers face student disengagement and disruptive behavior daily. Keen 5x turns this negative classroom energy into positive productivity. Rooted in neuroscience, Keen5x is a series five of cognitive-kinesthetic teaching strategies that are easy to learn, effective immediately, and require no other materials or planning. They create full and positive student participation in any subject and in any grade.
The SIIA Innovation Incubator program is made possible through support from its lead sponsor, Blackboard Partnerships, and co-sponsor, Texthelp Systems.
Karen Billings is Vice President for the Education Division at SIIA.
Ed Tech Industry Summit to Focus on “Bridging K-12 and Postsecondary”
Fri, 13 Apr 2012 15:11
The ninth annual Ed Tech Industry Summit (ETIS), to be held May 6-8 at The Palace Hotel in San Francisco, will focus on “Bridging K-12 and Postsecondary.” The summit will feature topics on transitioning and leveraging edtech businesses from one marketplace to another. Conference attendees will have the opportunity to participate in sessions and speed networking, attend the Innovation Incubator Program Presentations and CODiE Awards Presentations, and meet the honorees of the 2012 Ed Tech Impact and Ed Tech Lifetime Achievement Awards.
During the conference, industry leaders will provide strategies, case studies, and success stories about best business practices on topics within the following tracks:
- Gaming for Learning: Educator Feedback Forum; Online Games; Gaming and Research; Revenue Models for Education Games
- Mobile Learning: Making Products Mobile; Mobile Markets: From 1:1 Programs to BYOD; Increasing Student Achievement
- eBooks and eTextBooks: Developing eBooks and eTextBooks; Sales and Marketing Landscape; eBook ROI
- Global Opportunities: Go Global, Think Local; Doing Business Overseas; International Success Stories
- Hot Topics: Social Media Marketing; Cloud Computing; Effectively Communicating the Power of Ed Tech; EdTech Funding
SIIA recently announced workshops that will enable attendees to dig deeper into topics:
- Games and Learning: A Voice of the Educator Feedback Forum
- Doing Business in Malaysia: a NextGen eContent Workshop for Ed Tech Companies
- Building a New Evidence Framework for Innovation and Excellence in Education -
- U.S. Department of Education Focus
- Media & Message Training Bootcamp
- Shared Learning Infrastructure Workshop
In addition to the conference sessions, ETIS will feature two keynote presentations to further explore bridging K-12 and Postsecondary. The opening keynote will be presented by Ronald G. Dunn, President and Chief Executive Officer of Cengage Learning. He began this role in July 2007 when Thomson Learning, was acquired by Apax Partners and OMERS Capital Partners. Previously, he served as Chief Executive Officer of the Academic and International Group of Thomson Learning.
Tom Luna, Superintendent of Public Instruction for the Idaho State Department of Education, will deliver the second keynote presentation on Tuesday, May 8. In 2011, he worked with Idaho’s governor to pass one of the most comprehensive education reform packages in the nation to make every classroom a 21st Century Classroom, ensure every student has access to a highly effective teacher every year in school, and give parents immediate access to understandable information about their child’s school and district.
Karen Billings is Vice President for the Education Division at SIIA.
SIIA Releases 2012 Guide to the E-rate Program
Wed, 11 Apr 2012 17:38
SIIA today released an updated guide to the E-rate program in partnership with Funds For Learning. The guide will help companies navigate the complex E-rate program during a time when technology use in schools is evolving rapidly, and E-rate demand is outpacing available funding nearly two to one.
Using E-rate funds, libraries and public and private schools receive a 20-90 percent discount for telecommunications services, Internet access, and internal connections technology. Between 1998 and 2010, over $59 billion in E-rate funding has been requested.
The SIIA E-rate Guide will help software and technology companies – and their education customers – manage changes to this ever-evolving program. The Guide provides background information on E-rate rules and eligible services opportunities for software publishers, as well as an analysis of both the current E-rate market and how E-rate funds affect school technology purchases.
Since its inception in 1998, the E-rate program has helped close the digital divide, especially for students in high-poverty and rural communities.. However, while demand for E-rate funds has increased by 108 percent from $2.36 billion in 1998 to $4.65 billion in 2011, the available funding has remained nearly the same at $2.25 billion plus inflation starting in 2010.
Now, more than ever, it is vital for software and technology companies to understand the nuances of the E-rate program. SIIA remains focused on helping schools and libraries access needed technologies through the E-rate, and will continue to work with education, government, and industry leaders to support the stability and growth of the E-rate program.
GUIDE: SIIA’s “Guide to the E-rate” is available in SIIA’s eStore for free to SIIA members and for a fee to other software and technology companies. The Executive Summary is available for free to everyone. Visit http://www.siia.net/estore/.
WEBINAR: SIIA, in partnership with SellingtoSchools.com, will host a free webinar on April 26, 3-4 p.m. EST, providing all software and technology companies with an update on the E-rate program and an overview of the SIIA Guide. Visit http://siia.net/events/.
Mark Schneiderman is Senior Director of Education Policy at SIIA.
SIIA Announces Finalists for 2012 CODiE Awards in Ed Tech
Mon, 19 Mar 2012 19:09
SIIA today announced the finalists for its 27th annual CODiE Awards in education technology categories. The winners will be announced on Monday, May 7, at the CODiE Awards Reception and Dinner held each year in conjunction with the Ed Tech Industry Summit.
This year, for the first time, all nominated products were reviewed solely by educators, who evaluated products through live demonstrations, trial access, and supplementary documentation. Educators selected the 128 product finalists in 23 categories (see the full list).
This year’s highlights include:
• The Best K-12 Instructional Solution category had the highest number of nominations.
• The Best Educational Use of a Mobile Device category had the second highest number of nominations, with nearly double the submissions from the 2011 CODiE Awards.
• Pearson had 11 product finalists, the highest number of any company.
“We’re thrilled to see so many excellent educational technology products making it to this year’s finalist round,” said Karen Billings, vice president of the SIIA Education Division. “We look forward to honoring the winners at our awards dinner in May.”
SIIA members will now select the winners from among the finalists during the SIIA member voting phase of the program from March 26-April 13. SIIA members include software, digital content, and other technology companies that address education needs, as well as the financial and other professional services providers who support the industry. As such, the CODiE Awards are the industry’s only peer-reviewed awards program.
The CODiE Awards, originally called the Excellence in Software Awards, were established in 1986 by the Software Publishers Association (SPA), now SIIA. The original awards program was created so pioneers of the then-nascent software industry could evaluate and honor each other’s work. Today, the CODiE Awards continue to showcase the software and information industry’s finest products and services, and to honor excellence in corporate achievement.
Laura Greenback is Communications Director at SIIA.
