Page 7 - THE Journal, October 2017

FEATURE | Best of Ed Tech
ICE AWARDS
BY DAVID NAGEL
A RECORD NUMBER OF EDUCATORS weighed in on their favorite technologies in our third-annual Readers’ Choice Awards. And they were clear about who their favorites were.
Top Overall Technologies
Google (Platinum award) was the absolute winner overall. In an open-ended question ask- ing for educators’ favorite technologies currently in use at their schools, respondents over- whelmingly chose Google’s G Suite for Education as the top overall pick. But Google also gets honorable mention for Chromebooks (powered by Google’s Chrome OS), which came in fourth place. Between its G Suite and Chrome OS-powered devices, Google more than doubled the next-highest competitor — quite an improvement from last year, when Google software tied with Apple for first place, and Chromebooks were down in sixth.
Meanwhile last year’s first place winner, Apple, hung on to second place with its iPad (Gold award).
Lexia Learning maintained its third-place spot from last year in this category (Silver award).
Breaking it down by technology type, the top overall categories were:
Platinum: Mobile devices, led by Chromebooks and iPads.
Gold: Interactive whiteboards/displays/projectors. While no individual brand came
close to making the top 3, this category was cited by quite a few educators as a favorite technology.
Silver: (TIE): E-learning/learning management systems and reading software. Reading software was led by Lexia Learning’s Core5; a number of e-learning systems and LMSes were cited by educators, including Google Classroom, Moodle, Canvas and Blackboard Learn.
Top Technologies Adopted in the Last Year
We also asked educators to name their favorite technologies adopted by their schools in the last year.
Last year’s Platinum winner, Lexia Learning, took first place again this year. Readers cited its power for individualized learning, its ability to assess individual students’ ability, improvements it’s brought to students’ reading skills (including ELL students) and its abil- ity to engage students.
Google took second and third place in this category. Chromebooks (Gold award) specifi- cally came in second, with educators citing the equity the devices bring to their students in
accessing the internet and important software tools. Google’s G Suite for Education took the Silver award, with Classroom (one component of G Suite) cited frequently by educators as a powerful addition to their toolchest.
The top product categories picked by readers were:
Platinum: Mobile devices (led by Google Chromebooks and Apple iPads)
Gold: Reading software (Led by Lexia)
Silver: Learning management systems (led by Instructure Canvas and Schoology)
2017
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