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 $00 billion by the year 2030. 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 7th 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, 2023 – July 31, 2023. 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 2023. Winners and finalists can access their award seals by clicking here.

 

Best Lesson Planning App or Tool

Winner: Gale In Context: For Educators   

Finalists:                                             

OER Commons  

TeacherFileBox      

Profile Planner

 

Best Assessment App or Tool      

Winner: Otus 

Finalists:

MobyMax    

Learnosity Assessment Engine    

MagicBox    

Renaissance 

Gale In Context: For Educators   

 

Best Early Childhood Education App or Tool

Winner: Gale Presents: Miss Humblebee’s Academy 

Finalists:

MobyMax    

Excite Reading   

Lalilo 

 

Best Literacy App or Tool

Winner: Accelerated Reader  

Finalists:

Reading Horizons   

MobyMax 

Imagine Language and Literacy 

Learning Ally Brain Based Literacy Instruction 

myON 

Edmentum Exact Path 

Gale In Context: Literature

Gale In Context: Elementary 

IXL English Language Arts   

Vocabulary.com  

 

Best Math App or Tool

Winner: IXL Math 

Finalists:

MobyMax   

Math Nation   

ST Math  

MathsOnline  

Freckle 

Edmentum Exact Path 

Edmentum Courseware  

 

Best STEM/STEAM Education App or Tool

Winner: MobyMax   

Finalists:       

Robotical     

Imagine Robotify

Twig Science  

Challenger Center  

LabXchange   

“How Does Satellite Internet Work?” Augmented Reality

Labster

 

Best Language Learning App or Tool

Winner: Rosetta Stone for Schools  

Finalists:

MobyMax                                                            

Imagine Espanol  

Youdao Dictionary Pen by NetEase Youdao  

Youdao Listening and Speaking Trainer by NetEase Youdao

 

Best Virtual or Augmented Reality App or Tool

Winner: Labster

Finalists:

Apollo 11 VR 

Gamar   

 

Best Personalized/Adaptive Learning App or Tool

Winner: MobyMax 

Finalists:

Gradely  

Elephango

Freckle 

IXL 

 

Best Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning App or Tool

Winner: Namecoach      

Finalists:

AllHere     

Readabilty Tutor   

Merlyn, the AI assistant for education  

 

Best Coding App or Tool

Winner: Imagine Robotify   

Finalists:

GOMYCODE   

Tynker

 

Best Gamification App or Tool

Winner: MobyMax    

Finalists:

Gimkit 

Adventure Academy 

 

Best Learning Management System

Winner: Edsby   

Finalists:

Google Classroom 

Blackboard Learn  

 

Best Blended/Flipped Learning App or Tool

Winner: MobyMax  

Finalists:

Google Classroom

Snowflake 

 

Best Assistive Technology App or Tool

Winner: Presence (formerly PresenceLearning)   

Finalists:

Seeing AI                        

Natural Reader

 

Best Parent-Teacher/School Communication App or Tool

Winner: AllHere     

Finalists:

Edsby       

MobyMax     

Rise Vision    

SpacesEDU by myBlueprint   

 

Best Collaboration App or Tool

Winner: Gale In Context: For Educators    

Finalists:                       

SpacesEDU by myBlueprint                                                                 

Gale In Context: Literature   

Gale In Context: Elementary  

 

Best Tutoring/Test Prep App or Tool

Winner: Apex Tutorials by Edmentum 

Finalists:

MobyMax    

Study.com      

MathsOnline 

Tutor with Pearl  

Wyzant 

 

Best Classroom/Behavior Management App or Tool

Winner: Linewize’s Classwize Platform    

Finalists:

Radix TeacherView 

Behavior Manager  

 

Best Classroom Audio-Visual App or Tool

Winner: Promethean’s ActivPanel 9   

Finalists:

Loom  

Logitech Zone Learn    

 

Best Higher Education Solution

Winner: PeopleAdmin   

Finalists:       

Namecoach     

MedCerts    

 

Best Learning Analytics/Data Mining App or Tool

Winner: eduCLIMBER  

Finalists:

Edsby    

Otus    

Intellischool  

Gale Digital Scholar Lab  

 

Best Professional Development App or Tool

Winner: Renaissance Professional Development  

Finalists:

Share My Lesson

Pipeline AZ 

 

Best Student Information System (SIS) App or Tool

Winner: Anthology Student 

Finalists:

Classes365    

Academy Connect 

SynergySIS 

 

Best Global EdTech Leader 

Winner: Jamie Candee, President and CEO of Edmentum  

Finalists:

Glynn Willett and Wade Willett Founders of MobyMax     

Todd Brekhus, Chief Product Officer at Renaissance Learning 

 

Best Global EdTech Company

Winner: Renaissance  

Finalists:

MobyMax    

Otus    

Linewize     

LocknCharge   

Edmentum 

Promethean, Inc. 

 

Best Global EdTech Startup

Winner: Edukoya

Finalists:

Gamar   

Classes365   

 

Best K-12 School Leader

Winner: Elizabeth Shaw, Chief Executive Officer at Chicago International Charter School

Finalists:

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

Dr. Usamah Rodgers, Assistant Superintendent at Dallas ISD

 

Best Higher Education Leader

Winner: Elmira Mangum, Vice President at Cornell University

Finalists:

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

Janet Napolitano, President at University of California

 

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

Finalists:

Chloe Peterson, Teacher at Elevate K-12

Aileen Gendrano Adao, Los Angeles Unified School District

 

Best College/University Professor

Winner: Sangeeta Bhatia, Professor, MIT

Finalists:

Hope Rias, Assistant Professor at Bridgewater College

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

 

Best EdTech PR Firm

Winner: Young & Associates

Finalists:

Publicize

PRlab