Insights & Trends From Ed Tech Conference

DA editors attend many national and state conferences around the country to learn the latest about education and ed technology. In early February I spent time at the Texas Computer Education Association Annual Convention and Exposition learning about the latest trends in ed tech.

I interviewed several school administrators looking for affordable, innovative technology that they could implement in their districts. Network analyst Neil Bolton from Cedar Hill (Texas) Independent School District says, “I’m looking to update our network infrastructure to launch a BYOD initiative soon. It was helpful to see the different types of instruction you can do with BYOD.” TCEA Past President and IT director at Klein (Texas) Independent School District Candice Threadgil. “I always come away with a renewed spirit and tidbits of information I’ve never seen anywhere else before; it’s always a learning experience,” Threadgil says.

Here are some highlights from education technology vendors:

• HP rolls out 100 mobile thin client netbooks in Conroe (Texas) Independent School District in their new “web on wheels” program.
• MindPlay launches Virtual Reading Coach, which can help students increase their reading skills in 30 hours or less through differentiated instruction.
• Adobe Youth Voices Aspire Awards is now accepting entries for their global online media competition. Students can submit any of their digital work, including animation, a documentary or music videos. Applications are due by April 20. 
• Knovation, formerly netTrekker, releases iCurio, a digital curriculum content solution that delivers a comprehensive collection of 330,000 digital learning resources aligned to state and Common Core standards. 
• DimensionU, maker of multi-player education games, is getting students excited about math, encouraging families to collaborate with their student at home and putting the student in control.
• PresenceLearning proves to be an effective virtual speech language pathologist (SLP) as users make more progress than students working with traditional SLP. (Source: U.S. Department of Education)
• iParadigm’s Turnitin allows teachers to drag and drop comments to make grading papers easier, makes peer review anonymous and simple and matches translated text in eight languages.