IEAR 2011 - App Awards - The Beginning of the Process!

Today is the beginning of the 2011 IEAR App Award Process. Here is our timeline for this year! 

1. Categories ... Today, we are asking for your feedback on this year's suggested categories.  Check out the suggested categories so far and if you have a suggestion, please leave your suggestion as a comment on this post.   We are open to any and all suggestions but we will not guarantee that it will be included! We will finalize the categories on December 5, 2011.  
2. Nominations ... December 6, 2011, we will open up for nominations. 
3. Voting ... December 16, 2011 we will begin the voting process.
4. Count the Votes ... December 31, 2011, we stop collecting votes and the counting will begin.
5. Announcements ... January 10, 2011 on the Mobile Reach podcast.

Good luck to all of the App Developers and everyone involved.  Please remember, IEAR is focused on the best education apps.  We are not looking for the most popular and or the best visual presentation.  We want to know what apps educators should be using to improve learning and productivity. 

2010 IEAR Community Best App Awards

Fresh off the holiday season, I'm sure that many of you have iTunes gift cards to cash in. If you are looking for the BEST educational apps to add to your collection, then you've come to the right place! The votes have been cast and counted and the IEAR community is proud to announce the winners of their inagural "Best App Awards." Thanks to all those who nominated apps and also to those who voted. Congratulations to all the winners!

2010 IEAR

Best App Award Winners

Best Science App -- Elementary

• Virtual Frog Dissection

Best Science App -- Secondary

• NASA

Best Math App -- Elementary

• iLiveMath Apps (Oceans, Farm Fresh, Etomology, Speed)

Best Math App -- Secondary

• Numberline

Best Language Arts App -- Elementary

• Sentence Builder

Best Language Arts App -- Secondary

• Shakespeare in Bits

Best Social Studies App -- Elementary

• Stack the States

Best Social Studies App -- Secondary

• US Geography by Discovery Education

Best Note-taking App

• Evernote

Best Art App

• Brushes

Best Music App

• iShred

Best Foreign Language App

• Mindsnacks Spanish

Best Teacher Productivity App

• Dropbox

Best Administrator Productivity App

• Dropbox

Best Web Browser App

• Safari

Best Special Needs App

• Dragon Dictation

Best PLN App

• Twitter

Best Children's Book App

• The Three Little Pigs HD - So Ouat!

Best eBook Reader App

• iBooks

Best Educational Game App

• Stack the States

Best Creativity App

• Storyboard

Special Mentions -- MVP

• Edmodo

Vote for the 2010 IEAR Community Best App Awards

VOTE HERE

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:

Nominate Your Favorite Apps!

The IEAR community is happy to announce the opening of nominations for the 1st Annual IEAR App Awards. We are looking for community input as we seek to identify the appsolutely best apps in the following categories:

• Best Science App
• Best Math App
• Best Language Arts App
• Best Social Studies App
• Best Note-taking App
• Best Art App
• Best Music App
• Best Foreign Language App
• Best Teacher Productivity App
• Best Administrator Productivity App
• Best Web Browser App
• Best Special Ed App
• Best PLN App
• Best Children's Book App
• Best e-Book Reader App
• Best Educational Game App
• Best Online File Storage App
• MVP App
• Student’s Choice App (Have students nominate)

The deadline for nominations is 12:00AM PST, 12/9/2010. To nominate your favorite app in any or all categories, please use our IEAR App Awards Nomination Spreadsheet. We request that you only nominate apps that you have experience using in your particular content area. When nominating an app, please provide the App Name and iTunes link in the appropriate spreadsheet column. We are trying to limit nominations to 5 apps in each category, however, if needed, please feel free to create additional rows to the spreadsheet.

Remember, IEAR is a grassroots community dedicated to providing high-quality information about effective app utilization in the instructional setting. Please do not use the IEAR App Awards as a place to promote your app. Any blatant misuse of the IEAR App Awards for monetary or commercial gain is cause for elimination from the award proceedings.

Get your nominations in quickly and watch for voting to begin on December 12, 2010. Also, remember to tweet and tell all your friends about the IEAR App Awards Nominations! Thanks!