Since 1982, Tech & Learning has celebrated the best in education technology through its awards programs. To win a Tech & Learning isn't just a badge of participation, it’s an endorsement that a company’s product or service meets the standards of the most innovative edtech educators working in classrooms today.
Tech & Learning offers two kinds of awards programs each year: the Awards of Excellence and Best of Show, one for ISTE and one for TCEA.
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Awards of Excellence
The “Awards of Excellence,” open now through June 11, 2020, is Tech & Learning’s legacy awards program. This contest celebrates products released or re-released over the last year, and their contribution to schools across the country.
Here are the three top reasons companies nominate products for Tech & Learning Awards:
- Nominating a product is easy. No shipping of products or setting up guest user accounts. Just complete a simple form that tells our judges how your product is helping schools solve problems and support great teaching and learning.
- Winning an Awards of Excellence award is a stamp of approval that your product is impacting teaching and learning. Our judges are experienced edtech professionals who apply their expertise as they evaluate nominated products. Hear how our judges decide the criteria they use in the evaluation process.
- Cut through the noise. There are new products being launched for schools every day. Winning T&L Awards of Excellence can help your product stand out with an endorsement from our judges and the chance to showcase your company in a special section of winning products in Tech & Learning magazine. Read about last year’s winners here .
How to Nominate Your Product
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Any company who has released, or re-released, an edtech product in the last year, and can show their contribution to education through innovation, can nominate their products here.
The Judging Criteria
The Awards of Excellence contest is judged by a selection of tech-savvy educators with first-hand experience of the problems these products claim to solve.
Judges review each nomination and evaluate the product on the following criteria:
- Ability to Solve a Problem
- Uniqueness in Market
- Price value
- Suitability for use
To help judges evaluate your product against the criteria, the nomination form includes the following questions:
- How is this product unique in the market? 150 words max
- How is this product being used in education? 200 words max
- What specific problem does this product solve (reduced costs, increased test scores, improved attendance, etc)? 200 words max
Applicants have the opportunity to attach up to 3 additional supporting resources (testimonials, case studies, videos).
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Award Categories
This year, the awards include all new categories to help educators identify the potential problems going into Fall 2020.
BEST HARDWARE
- Science
- Physical safety solutions
- Math
- Computer hardware
- AV
- Emerging tech/esports
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BEST SOFTWARE
- Adaptive learning solutions
- Apps
- Assessment solutions
- Career/college prep solutions
- Curriculum and instruction solution
- Reading
- ELL/ESOL solutions
- Science
- Social-Emotional Learning solutions
- Social studies solutions
- Math
- Tutoring solutions
- Emerging tech/esports
- Special Education
- Music/Art
BEST ENTERPRISE SOLUTIONS
- Classroom/building/media management
- Professional development solutions
- Notification systems
- LMS/SIS solutions
- Website platforms
- Online safety solutions
For a walkthrough of the complete nomination process, you can download the full Entry Guide here.
How Winners are Recognized
The 2020 Awards of Excellence will be announced on techlearning.com and showcased in the digital edition of Tech & Learning July issue.
All winners also receive a certificate and an awards seal to use for promotions. You can read about the 2019 Awards of Excellence winners here.
Best in Show Awards
Hundreds of new products are displayed at conferences each year. Tech & Learning's Best of Show Awards highlight those nominated products and services being exhibited at these conferences that show the greatest promise according to the country's most tech-savvy educators. Any company that is exhibiting an innovative product can submit a nomination.
Tech & Learning offers two Best of Show contests, one for ISTE and one for TCEA.
The Judging Process
The Best of Show winners are selected by an anonymous panel of educator judges. Each judge visits the booth of the nominated products to talk to the product experts and see demos of the nominated products.
The judges rate their impressions of individual products on a sliding scale, evaluating areas such as quality and effectiveness, ease of use, cost, and creative use of technology. They then met in person with Tech & Learning’s editors to decide which technologies deserve to be named Best of Show.
Best of Show at ISTE
Tech & Learning's Best of Show at ISTE Awards celebrates those products and services being exhibited at ISTE that show the greatest promise according to the country's most tech-savvy educators. ISTE exhibitors may submit one or multiple products for consideration.
You can read about the 2019 Best of Show at ISTE winners here.
The Best of Show at ISTE Awards will open on September 1.
Best of Show at TCEA
Similar to Tech & Learning's Best of Show at ISTE Awards, Tech & Learning's Best of Show at TCEA honors nominated products exhibited at TCEA. A panel of judges and editors, chosen in advance by Tech & Learning editors, will review nominations and choose the winners.
The Best of Show at TCEA Awards will open on November 1.
How Winners are Recognized
The Best of Show winners are announced on techlearning.com and recognized in a special issue of Tech & Learning magazine. All winners also receive a certificate and awards seal to use for promotions.
Since 1980, Tech & Learning has reported on how edtech products are improving teaching and learning. In keeping with this mission, Tech & Learning is honored to showcase the stand-out products that are both unique in the K-12 market, as well as those that are helping schools solve specific problems, in our awards programs.
