15 Cool Tech Tools For Education Market Differentiation

Tools For Schools

The education market is growing rapidly, especially with Common Core initiatives telling schools to pick up the pace with technology. While Chromebooks have been getting a lot of attention as a classroom-friendly solution, they aren't the only cool technology available for schools. From 3-D visualization technology to using big data to prevent school tragedies to easy mobile solutions for campus engagement, there's a lot of options out there to help schools step ahead in technology.

Take a look at 15 cool technologies for education on display at the Campus Technology 2014 event in Boston.

SentiMentor

With all the tragic news around school shootings and troubled students dropping out of school, Nth-Degree Analytics has developed a tool to help schools identify problems and discover campus trends.

SentiMentor identifies Twitter accounts of students and uses realtime analytics to track posts and highlight those students with Tweets about topics such as violence, attrition, depression, or alcohol and drugs. The program then graphs the data so the school can match themselves against benchmarks or flag individuals with concerning trends. At the event, SentiMentor demonstrated how the program was able to flag a student who Tweeted multiple times about killing students, but also how the graphs were able to flag a trend of heightened alcohol and drug activity on campus. The company said it plans to expand to other social networks soon.

Watchitoo

Wachitoo Class Interact is trying to reinvent the classroom experience for online classes. The program allows for 25 participants to stream into the video classroom through their webcams, and then participate via text, video chat and polls.

Wachitoo said that the program helps create active participants, instead of passive students watching a traditional lecture video. Teachers can single out students for presentation, record the presentation, build breakout sessions, and share graphics and whiteboards through the platform.

The 3-D Classroom

Swedish company Sensavis is breaking into the U.S. with its 3-D Classroom, which uses interactive 3-D technology to build a 3-D classroom environment. The goal of the product is to help teachers explain complicated topics to students in an easy-to-understand way.

The product's current content includes geography, chemistry, physics, mathematics and biology. Using the product, teachers can navigate students through a 3-D model of the human heart, or show the inner workings of a cell, or demonstrate tricky physics concepts, instead of using only pictures or diagrams in a textbook. Sensavis said that the product is mostly geared toward K-12 environments, but it has seen some traction in medical and nursing schools as well.

Modo Labs

As more and more colleges look to build mobile apps and mobile-enabled websites to tailor to the needs of a Millennial generation, Modo Labs provides a suite of solutions for campuses looking to make the transition.

Built on the Kurogo Open Source Mobile Platform, Modo Labs can present any data on all types of devices. For example, Modo Labs helped California State University at Northridge develop and launch a mobile app that allowed students to change their class schedules, locate professors, gain access to course assignments and navigate their way around campus. CSUN said it plans to add more capabilities soon, such as dining menus, bill payments, social media, news and more.

Campus Eye

Campus Eye provides a mobile app for students to report security and maintenance needs. For security, students can use the app to report a possible security threat, such as a suspicious individual lurking around campus.

They also can report maintenance issues through the app, including a GPS location, description and photograph of the problem. Campus officials can then use the Campus Eye dashboard to delegate the tasks to police, campus security, maintenance staff or any other appropriate person. The staff can print out the requests or text them to their staff on the go for mobile access.

Collegis Education

Collegis Education's Virtual Career Center helps colleges build supplemental career services. The Virtual Career Center connects both current students and alumni with tools they need to advance or jump into a career.

What makes the Virtual Career Center different than other products out there is that it uses a game-based system to provide career tools, which the company said is more rewarding and engaging than other methods. The game places users in the employer's shoes, having them choose best resumes, skills and interviews from candidates to better learn what employers are looking for. The program helps them learn skills in assessment, resume building, social media and more.

Regent Education

As financial aid gets more complicated, a simple spreadsheet method just won't cut it anymore. Regent Education is working to simplify the financial aid management and enrollment for schools with its Regent 8 software solution.

It is particularly useful for schools that have nontraditional enrollment models, such as nonterm and competency models. The end-to-end solution helps automate the financial aid process, cutting down the estimated award time down to 15 minutes or less, instead of days or weeks. The Software-as-a-Service solution also helps schools stay up-to-date with compliance issues and federal regulations.

Utelogy

As more schools look to enable "smart classrooms," Utelogy is working to make it more affordable for them to do so, with one school even saving more than $40,000 per classroom over competitive technology.

The Utelogy solution is a pure software that helps schools and businesses manage their AV, videoconferencing, applications and more using the equipment the schools already have on-site. The system centralizes AV control on the school's server, which makes it easy to update the software and configure rooms.

MagiCard

In business since 1993, MagiCard claims to be one of the pioneers in ID printing.

For schools, ID printing can be used to create student IDs, including those with magnetic stripes or chips. What makes MagiCard a little different is its enhanced security options, and included patented technology for HoloKote watermarks at no extra cost. The printers are available through distribution, the company said.

Chalk & Wire

Chalk & Wire uses data and analytics to build what it calls a next-generation platform for higher education assessment. Schools can use the data and insights to make improvements to their student, teacher and administrative programs with measurable success.

The differentiating piece of the Chalk & Wire solution, the company said, is that it is completely integrated, where other solutions might be pieced together. In addition to internal improvements, the analysis can be used for accreditation reports and strategic planning.

Respondus

The Respondus suite of software helps create and manage assessments, facilitate studying for students, and add security for both proctored and nonproctored exams.

The company also has a bank of assessments from leading textbooks, so teachers can pull content to create online assessments and learning activities. This sort of solution will become more and more important as education organizations embrace online alternatives or supplements to the physical classroom.

ProctorFree

ProctorFree offers an affordable solution for online exam proctoring. The solution uses students' webcams and microphones to proctor their exams and prevent any cheating.

Teachers can enable certain parameters for students during exams, such as open-book or certain allowed websites, and then view video and audio within minutes of completion to make sure limitations were followed. To make the program work, all students need is an Internet connection.

GradesFirst

For schools looking to boost retention and outcomes, GradesFirst is a good option. The program helps the school flag students who are at risk and then monitor them for improvements after interventions are taken.

The software solution uses analytics to flag the students and then streamlines the improvements process with advising management and tutor facilitation. GradesFirst also helps advisers communicate with their at-risk students through text and other communications.

OrgSync

OrgSync helps colleges and other organizations build a community through its cloud-based platform, connecting students to departments and programs they need.

Internally, it can help departments and faculty communicate better and facilitate reporting. With a variety of functions, OrgSync helps schools facilitate events, student groups, communication, payments, reports, forms and more under a single Software-as-a-Service solution.

Ipevo

Ipevo offers a full line of hardware solutions for classrooms. For example, Ipevo has an Interactive Whiteboard System, which includes a Sensor Cam and Interactive Pen that allows professors to annotate text and images on any projector surface.

On a smaller scale, Ipevo offers a VGA/USB Dual-Mode Document Camera that lets teachers stream images directly to the projector, similar to an old-fashioned overhead projector. With Ipevo's Wireless Document Camera, teachers are able to use their iPads or computers to stream images, and then annotate them using the Whiteboard application.