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Mobile Apps for Education Grab Attention at Competition

• By Dian Schaffhauser
• 12/01/11

Footsteps2Brilliance's Early Learning Mobile Platform was named "most likely to succeed."

Two mobile applications took the top awards in the 2011 Software & Information Industry Association's latest education technology competition.

The SIIA's Innovation Incubator Program recognized Fluidity Software's FluidMath as the most innovative education product and Footsteps2Brilliance's Early Learning Mobile Platform as the "most likely to succeed." FluidMath is math software for tablet PCs and interactive whiteboards. Footsteps2Brilliance's product uses interactive e-books and games to help young children learn how to read.

The competition took place during the annual Ed Tech Business Forum, held in New York City. The Innovation Incubator Program connects developers of new technologies with people and companies that can work with them to further develop the products and services.

Other finalists included:

• Alelo, which showed its set of courses that use gaming to teach language and culture;
• ITWorx, which demonstrated Connected Learning Gateway, that combines teaching, learning, management, and administration tools into a social networking environment;
• Drawbridge, which presented Eli. One Writer, Many Reviewers, Better Writing, a Web service for improving writing by facilitating the review of assignments and their revisions by teachers and students;
• eSpark's eSpark Learning, which creates custom playlists of education apps on iPads for elementary students based on diagnostics or test scores;
• GeoDome's Immersive Learning Platform, an immersive environment for learning activities;
• App's School Mobile Application Builder and Manager Study, a Web-based mobile application builder that lets teachers and students build, self publish, and collaborate on apps;
• Techsmith's ScreenChomp, a free whiteboard for the iPad that lets the user write and draw with a finger;
• Seward's The First 4,000 Words Vocabulary Building Program, a Web-based program to teach students the 4,000 most frequently used English words; and
• MyTeachingVideo.com's Video Mentor, which provides teachers with a simple method to get constructive feedback on their classroom teaching.

"This year's lineup of Innovation Incubator participants was truly impressive, and it was extremely difficult to narrow the list down to two winners," said Karen Billings, vice president for SIIA's education division. "We are confident that all Innovation Incubator participants will make a positive, lasting impact on the ed tech industry."