Every day, technology innovations transform the way people learn and how educators teach. In the last few years, the edtech field has attracted a lot of talented people, all with excellent knowledge bases and ideas. Though the edtech industry has been around for a few decades now, the last few years, in particular, have seen a surge in investment from both school districts and investors.

The education market is currently worth around $5 trillion globally, and it is forecasted that edtech investment alone will reach $300 billion by the year 2025. This growing investment into edtech start-ups has created some exciting changes in the world of education. Naturally, with increasing capital, the number of edtech companies, products, and thought leaders is also growing. In that spirit of change and innovation, we present the 5th Annual Tech Edvocate Awards.

After 4 months of hard work, we’ve narrowed down the year’s top edtech companies, products, people and more. We solicited nominees from readers in June/July and held online voting from May 1, 2021 – July 31, 2021. The nominee’s performance during the online voting period was used to gauge their popularity, but in no way signaled that they would become a finalist or walk away with an award. The finalists and winners were ultimately selected by a panel comprised of two edtech thought leaders, two PreK-12 teachers, one college professor, two K-12 administrators, one college administrator and two PreK-12 parents. Here are our winners and finalists for 2021. Winners and finalists can access their award seals by clicking here.

 

Best Lesson Planning App or Tool

Winner: BuildYourOwnCurriculum (BYOC)   

Finalists:

Algorithmics International School of Programming & Mathematics

Certell, Inc.   

 

Best Assessment App or Tool

Winner: Star Assessments by Renaissance

Finalists:

Curriculum Associates – i-Ready

Learnfully   

edSpring by Sourcewell

Learnosity 

TAO from Open Assessment Technologies 

FastBridge 

Edmentum Exact Path 

ProctorU

MobyMax 

Great Minds®️  Eureka Math Equip™   

Council for Aid to Education, Inc. (CAE) 

TestHound 

 

Best Early Childhood Education App or Tool

Winner: MobyMax  

Finalists:

ABCmouse Early Learning Academy

Little Fox 

Handwriting Without Tears

Lalilo by Renaissance 

myIGDIs by Renaissance

Amazon Kids+  

 

Best Literacy App or Tool

Winner: Accelerated Reader

Finalists:

myON by Renaissance 

Lalilo by Renaissance 

MobyMax 

Imagine Lectura    

Reading Plus 

Pixton 

 

Best Math App or Tool

Winner: ExploreLearning Reflex 

Finalists:

MobyMax

SpringMath by Sourcewell

Imagine Math PreK–High School

SplashLearn   

STEMscopes Math 

FEV Tutor 

My Math Academy 

Casio ClassPad.net  

Freckle by Renaissance 

ST Math  

Measurement Math Training Kit 

 

Best STEM/STEAM Education App or Tool

Winner: Flinn Scientific – PAVO 

Finalists:

MobyMax 

ExploreLearning Gizmos 

STEMscopes Science 

Hughes Network Systems and 4-H  

Vernier Software & Technology – Graphical Analysis Pro 

TwigScience Next Gen 

 

Best Language Learning App or Tool

Winner: ELT Songs  

Finalists:

Little Fox 

 

Best Virtual or Augmented Reality App or Tool

Winner: History Adventures, World of Characters 

Finalists:

Gamar

  

Best Personalized/Adaptive Learning App or Tool

Winner: Edmentum Exact Path 

Finalists:

MobyMax

My Math Academy 

FEV Tutor 

Freckle by Renaissance 

myON by Renaissance 

Lalilo by Renaissance 

Rosen LevelUp   

Learnfully   

ExploreLearning Reflex 

TutorMe 

  

Best Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning App or Tool

Winner: AVer DL30 Auto Tracking Distance Learning Camera  

Finalists:

Knowledge Ai, Inc.

Jenzabar Chatbot 

Deledao 

Yewno  

  

Best Coding App or Tool

Winner: STEMscopes Coding 

Finalists:

Unruly Splats 

Algorithmics International School of Programming & Mathematics

  

Best Gamification App or Tool

Winner: SplashLearn   

Finalists:

Baamboozle 

MobyMax 

guideWELD® VR Welding Simulator 

ST Math  

ExploreLearning Reflex 

  

Best Learning Management System

Winner: Jupiter 

Finalists:

Google Classroom

 

Best Blended/Flipped Learning App or Tool

Winner: Great Minds in Sync™

Finalists:

MobyMax 

IPEVO DO-CAM USB Document Camera 

ExploreLearning Science4Us 

FEV Tutor 

TwigCreate 

Edmentum Courseware 

TCI 

classroom.cloud 

Learning Explorer

ClassLink

 

Best Assistive Technology App or Tool

Winner: PresenceLearning – Therapy Essentials 

Finalists:

AVer X18iS UV Sanitizing Charging Cart   

 

Best Parent-Teacher/School Communication App or Tool

Winner: MobyMax  

Finalists:

TalkingPoints 

Jupiter 

Bloomz 

 

Best Collaboration App or Tool

Winner: One by Wacom 

Finalists:

Soundtrap for Education

Crestron Flex

IPEVO iDocCam 

AVer M5 Document Camera 

Brainly

 

Best Tutoring/Test Prep App or Tool

Winner: FEV Tutor 

Finalists:

UWorld Finance

MobyMax

Learning Tools for the ACT® and SAT® Exams 

Learnfully   

TutorMe 

Brainly

 

Best Classroom/Behavior Management App or Tool

Winner: NetSupport School

Finalists:

MobyMax  

Jupiter 

  

Best Classroom Audio-Visual App or Tool

Winner: AVer VB130 

Finalists:

ActivPanel Elements Series + ActivInspire & ClassFlow 

IPEVO V4K PRO Ultra HD USB Document Camera 

Agora Inc. 

ELT Songs     

Epson – PowerLite 

                                                             

Best Higher Education Solution

Winner: Outlier.org  

Finalists:

TutorMe 

Anthology Encompass 

Othot   

InStride   

ClassLink

 

Best Learning Analytics/Data Mining App or Tool

Winner: Schoolzilla by Renaissance   

Finalists:

Edsby  

ClassLink

Lightspeed Systems

eduCLIMBER 

 

Best Professional Development App or Tool

Winner: Learn Promethean 

Finalists:

Finders Solvers (Keningau Vocational College)

National Institute for STEM Education (NISE) Micro Certificates 

  

Best Student Information System (SIS) App or Tool

Winner: Anthology Student 

Finalists:

Cardonex

Jupiter 

 

Best Global EdTech Leader 

Winner: Glynn Willett and Wade Willett, Co-founders of MobyMax

Finalists:

Cindy Mi, Founder and CEO of VIPKid 

Todd Brekhus, Chief Product Officer for Renaissance 

Jamie Candee, CEO of Edmentum 

  

Best Global EdTech Company

Winner: Renaissance 

Finalists:

Promethean

VIPKid

MobyMax

Learnosity 

Algorithmics International School of Programming and Mathematics   

Snapplify 

Edmentum 

NetSupport Inc.  

Proximity Learning  

Logitech for Education 

 

Best Global EdTech Startup

Winner: Class Technologies   

Finalists:

Learnie 

ELT Songs   

 

Best K-12 School Leader

Winner: Eduardo E. Lopez, Laredo Independent School District

Finalists:

Dr. Laura Stout, Executive Director of School Leadership at Corpus Christi Independent School District 

Elizabeth Shaw, Chief Executive Officer at Chicago International Charter School

Dr. Usamah Rodgers, Assistant Superintendent at Dallas ISD 

Dr. Johnnie Thomas, Superintendent at Rich Township High School District 227, Matteson, Illinois

Shawn Wigg, Director of Mathematics, Duval County Public Schools

 

Best Higher Education Leader

Winner: Jim Milton, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Anthology 

Finalists:

Roslyn Clark Artis, JD, EdD, President at Benedict College 

Janet Napolitano, President at University of California

Elmira Mangum, Vice President at Cornell University

Dr. Robbie Melton, Associate Vice President at Tennessee State University 

 

Best School District Technology Coordinator/Director

Winner: Nora Laho, District Technology Coordinator and Instructional Technology Coach at Public Schools of CLK 

Finalists:

Adrian Cepero, District Technology Coordinator, Hackensack Public Schools, Hackensack, NJ

Chris Long, Educational Technology Coordinator, Huntington Beach Union High School District, Huntington Beach, CA

 

Best K-12 Teacher

Winner: Megan Jacobs, The Connecticut MakerSpace Teacher Consortium 

Finalists:

Mossie Shephard, Gifted Education Teacher, Jackson Public School District 

Chloe Peterson, Teacher at Elevate K-12

Judy Williams, Teacher at Arizona School for the Deaf and the Blind

Aileen Gendrano Adao, Los Angeles Unified School District

 

Best College/University Professor

Winner: Derek D. Bardell, Professor of Business Administration at Delgado Community College

Finalists:

Dr. Alfred Boyd, Assistant Professor of Education, Mississippi Valley State University

Sangeeta Bhatia, Professor, MIT

Hope Rias, Assistant Professor at Bridgewater College

 

Best EdTech PR Firm

Winner: PR with Panache!  

Finalists:

Pando Public Relations 

 

Conclusion

As you can see, there is no shortage of award winners in edtech. With these innovative edtech companies, products and people in mind, it becomes clear that the landscape of education is vast and technology is carving a new path for present and future educators. Well, that does it for the 5th Annual Tech Edvocate Awards. We will be back, bigger and better in 2022.