Vote for the 2010 IEAR Community Best App Awards
Sunday, December 12, 2010 at 8:22AM 
2010 certainly has been a great year for the IEAR community! What started as a small, grassroots effort focused on taking a closer look at the educational value of mobile apps has really grown into something special. Over the course of the year, IEAR has seen increased membership, high quality app reviews by an ever growing group of volunteer reviewers, ongoing discussion and collaboration on the IEAR Ning, the development of a monthly podcast and many other positive endeavors.
The most exciting part of all these accomplishments is the fact that no one individual can take credit for all that is IEAR. Rather, what we have put in place are the building blocks for a total community effort. We are proud that the IEAR community represents people from all walks of life, including teachers, administrators, students, parents, app developers and many others. Working together, we’ve built a dynamic community that is IEAR!
With that in mind, we are proud to announce the opening of voting for the first annual IEAR Community App Awards. Nominations were collected from our diverse community and the 2010 ballot is full of truly wonderful apps. In fact, a recent tweet proclaimed the nomination spreadsheet as a valuable resource for any school looking to build their own mLearning initiative!
Voting Specifics:
Please vote for the app you think is "best of the best" in each category. If you do not have a favorite app in a category, please leave the choice at "No Vote".
In an effort to try to ensure voting integrity and prevent any potential ballot box stuffing, voting will be weighted. 40% of the vote totals will be contributed by a small team of IEAR community members who serve in an advisory capacity. The other 60% of the total will come directly from the IEAR at-large community.
Ballots must be completed by 6:00 PM EST December 15, 2010. Listen to the iEAR Podcast and check the iEAR community websites for the results.
Official Ballot:
"best of", Community, awards, voting | in IEAR Site Related 
Reader Comments (3)
Hi Guys, disappointed we didn't get a mention - I feel that our application is as good, if not better than nearly all the Language Arts Apps
It has nearly all the features of Word Magic, Letter A to Z, A similar game to Super Why!, Alphabet Photo Machine (minus the photos, but with better illustrations). It also I think would deserve some sort of recognition in the Foreign Language App section for kids.
Flashcards for iPad doesn't include Chinese, but children can make a start with German, Italian, French and Spanish (and easily learn these words along with a 2nd language they are already familiar with).
When it was originally reviewed your contributor said: "based solely upon the flash card app category, this is a very good one. I should probably go further by saying it is the best that I have come across for this age group."
http://www.iear.org/iear/2010/8/12/flashcards-for-ipad-app-review-by-smeech.html
We have also fixed many of the problems that you highlighted at the time of the review - we are now up to version 1.6 and continue to fix problems based on user feedback.
It would be great if you could re-review our application for consideration in your awards list.
http://itunes.apple.com/au/app/flashcards-for-ipad/id378421781?mt=8
You also mentioned in the review that it wasn't cost effective for schools - we've included the education discount since it became available.
regards
- Jude Novak
Thanks Jude for your comment and I am not going to disagree with you at all. The nomination process was open for anyone to add in an app and we didn't turn away any app that was on the nomination form. The spreadsheet was left editable by any reader of IEAR.org for an extended period of time of at least one week. Please note that for whatever reason, no one added it to the list from our readers.
WIth that being said, when I talk to schools and teachers about choosing apps, I always emphasize the importance of learning about the app developer through their websites. I have to say that is one of the main reasons that I will continue to recommend your work because of the extent at which you continue to want to improve the app, etc. Teachers have been successful with using your app so it is always on the list of apps that I share when doing presentations.
By adding your comment, I know that our readers will continue to check out your app that we have recommended! Thanks for the comment ...
Hello,
Your readers may be interested to know of some mobile apps I offer for learning French:
http://french.mobilelanguageapps.com
They all focus on the oft-neglected fundamentals like numbers, alphabet, gender, and phonemes.
Regards,
Sean Rasmussen
Erasmos Inc