Software - is it worth your district's money (and your students' time)?

School districts have significant challenges, with time and money being two of the biggest. As a result, it is important that the software you choose for your district offers the best possible value for the purchase price, and is the best tool available to maximize your students' learning in the limited amount of time you have with them.

Ohio SchoolNet, now eTech Ohio, had a software review project (SSRP) that is now, regrettably, inactive. The intent was to have Ohio's teachers use a standard software review matrix for the software they use and submit it to SchoolNet for inclusion in a review database. This would make the front line experts' objective opinions about the value of the software they used in their own classroom available for others to use when performing their own evaluations of software for purchase. The good news is that, even though the SSRP program is no more, there are several groups who have devised evaluation rubrics to help ensure you make the best possible software decisions.

Ohio SchoolNet's own SSRP Tool is still available on ERIC's website (an incredible resource in it's own right).

The International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) also offers it's own Educational Software Evaluation Form, as do other organizations such as SREB/EvaluTech with their own software review criteria outlined below.

Of course, your own teachers are still your most valuable resource for information on software that works - and doesn't. Encourage them to participate in conferences such as eTech's, and take all available opportunities to share with teachers in other districts. We all share the same goal, to provide the best possible education for our students, so there's no need for each of us to reinvent the wheel (to coin a phrase).