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Schools throughout the country are experiencing the same teacher-driven adoption of technology tools. Internet-savvy teachers are increasingly finding tools to use in the classroom on their own, and lower business-startup costs mean the tools are more readily available. In response, many education companies are changing how they market and sell their products. Nationwide sales teams and central-office visits are giving way to word-of-mouth and sophisticated business-intelligence software as preferred methods for pushing adoption. Companies offer free products to teachers with the goal of influencing districtwide purchases of more-robust versions-known as the "freemium" pricing model. But in most sectors of the existing K-12 system-with its various stakeholders, budgetary restrictions, and procurement regulations- the so-called "consumerization" of education faces many barriers, experts say, making it difficult to find the right balance between selling directly to teachers and addressing the needs of central-office administrators.

"..enabling and empowering others to solve their own problems is the best way to ensure successful projects, whether for a new product, a marketing campaign, training program or any other kind of project. Creating this sense of ownership and empowerment is also the best way to keep people (yourself included) engaged and growing." Good advice for product design and task design...

Breakthrough product innovations of 2009 - tools, gadgets and toys.

An interesting product for reading and comprehension. Tim McEwen, chairman, chief executive officer, and president of Archipelago Learning. "Once children learn how to read, it's important to keep them engaged in and enlightened by reading. This product offers teachers a way to do this by leveraging a channel that already appeals to them - social networks and virtual worlds. If we can relate the core principles we're hoping students will learn to the areas that already interest them, then we create a mutually beneficial and relatable teaching environment."

A new proposal calls for a Consumer Reports-like rating body to evaluate new digital learning tools. Ed tech innovators like the idea in theory but they worry that it won't work in practice.

Funny, I was just talking with someone about this very idea the other day. We absolutely need something like this and my guess is that we will have a few competitors, at least early on, for the top ed tech review site. I think there is space for both an organization that specializes and for a yelp like site that essentially crowd sources the reviews. It will be tough to keep up, but think of how many products and areas Consumer Reports deals with- we can do this, and need to do this, for ed tech to get used wisely in our schools.

With regards to e-learning, I think inevitably some company or organization will provide ratings of the quality of online degree programs and learning tools. Whether this is Consumer Reports or US World & News Report or some new player (investment opportunity?), the need for objective assessments of digital learning tools is definitely needed. The Benchmarking e-learning wiki is interesting http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benchmarking_e-learning

Rupangi posted some educational tools for educators below in his link, so here is another post that shows some productivity tools from the student-side.

In this feature, Apple profiles HOW their products are used in a variety of educational settings. It's one of the least 'promotion-based' sites I've seen from Apple in awhile... Typically, I'm cynical when a company "profiles" its own products; however, this one is done fairly well. This site could be a helpful model when attempting to demonstrate functional use of a product, highlighting the ends, not the means...

Thanks for sharing this link! I know that there are some schools which have bought iPads and then didn't know what they were going to do with them. This community obviously had a clear idea of how to use them, what problems they were going to solve and how to assess their outcomes. Nice!

This is discussed in the Productivity section of the NETP

Arizona is taking an interesting view on seat-time http://news.yahoo.com/high-school-less-four-years-070000848.html Hundreds of schools in Arizona are being given the chance to opt into an initiative called Move On When Ready where students are allowed to graduate after their sophomore year based on proving academic achievement. Some are arguing that it is the same option as getting a G.E.D. after one turns 16 but I would argue that there is a negative connotation to having a G.E.D. versus a high school diploma and that this program provides a way for students to achieve a diploma without "putting in" four years of high school seat-time.

Seems like a cool and useful product for teachers: aggregating the data gathered by the many apps and ed tech tools teachers use in the classroom in a single platform, with data visualization support

The Univ of Pittsburg is becoming an ed tech incubator.  They're starting with two products:  SWord a cloud-based peer review program and CE Agent a smart phone app that manages nurses' continuing ed credits.

Ted talks are interesting and useful at times in the classroom but will students automatically make connections to class content?  This annotating tool enables either instructors or students to make explicit connections or commentary and share the end product.  

Schools manager, product management, and curriculum design positions available

Opinion article from Reynol Junco at Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet and Society on why most educational technology startups aren't that great...they don't base their products on research, proven pedagogy, or work with educators.

It does seem like there is a shift going on right now- more educators on start up teams and more interest in developing innovations from the educators themselves. That being said, the market continues to get flooded. I think in the long run this will be very good for teaching and learning, but I would not want to be an investor in this space.

I think that is great that more educators are getting on the teams...but yeah, there are a lot of very fragmented / disperse initiatives that make it hard to tell what will succeed or catch on.

This is a good example of how a product is trying to make you feel more immersed by placing virtual objects in the real world instead of a completely virtual world.

This could possibly put the 'fun' back in 'functional' - if students are operating within the "real world" on sincere applications, they may generalize their skills better. I'm all for perceiving my world in 50% cartoon ;o)

UbiSlate, another version of Aakash tablet to be introduced next month ($50 approx) while OLPC XO-3 is yet to arrive. This indian company DataWind plans to roll out similar projects in Brazil, Egypt, Panama, Thailand and Turkey. With more roll out, the product may get even cheaper.

A former Apple interface designer critiques Microsoft's 'Productivity Future Vision (2011)' video that has been spreading on the web (and a couple of you have shared here on Diigo).  The Apple guru's biggest gripe? Microsoft portrays a future dominated by single finger interaction with touch-enabled devices. But we are already seeing more elaborate Human-Computer interaction involving more of  our bodies and communication modes-- full body (Kinect, Microsoft), and voice & hearing (Siri, Apple). Mr. Victor says that Microsoft's vision wasn't as revolutionary as it seems.

I agree with the author on Microsoft's lack of vision about future technologies (which I also ranted about on facebook). At the same time, we have to note that Microsoft currently has devices that enable 'full body' communication and Apple does not. And their latest wonder 'Siri' was acquired, not developed internally. I respect Apple for their innovations but we haven't seen any 'vision' from Apple yet and I am curious to know what they might be thinking.

Here is a list of finalists and winners in a number of different categories from product or service to presentation solutions. This is only the list, but searching on their name will give more information. Pearson's Online Learning Exchange (born from my Science Business Unit) was a finalist for new product or service. Enjoy!

An update on the happenings (and future) of the $35 Aakash tablet, and the fast-growing demand for the upcoming Rasperry Pi minimalist computer intended for education and mass-production

"The advent of this so-called "lousy product" - the MOOC - may be triggering a change, however. Indeed, recent survey evidence suggests that the acceptance of online learning among certain constituencies may be plateauing. Is it possible that a backlash against MOOCs could even precipitate a decline in the broader acceptance of online learning?"

The Edutainment Era: Debunking Myths and Sharing Less "Developers and others in the video game industry often attribute the failure of the "edutainment" industry in the 1990′s either to a lack of market demand or the difficulty of creating great products. In reality neither of these assertions is correct."