As my school prepares for next year, I’ve created a survey to collect data regarding requests for paid apps or software subscriptions that teachers would be interested in using with their classes for the 21-22 school year. This information will be used to inform the Technology Committee, who will review all requests before the end of this school year.

The survey will ask faculty members about the apps/software subscriptions that they are interested in, if they are currently using it, how much it costs, their rationale for their request, and if they consider themselves a beginner, intermediate, or expert when using the app. Based on this last question, they are asked if they are willing to offer their expertise and conduct professional development in the fall during the Superintendent's Conference Day. This will allow me to identify "techsperts" throughout my school who can be classified as the particular app expert in question, provide information about how it can be applied in the school’s curriculum, and it will compel them to keep aware of the latest updates to their app. By being an expert of this app, they will be able to share their knowledge through collaboration with their colleagues all year long, which will ultimately benefit all students.

Currently, the apps that have been notably requested are: Padlet, Kahoot, Gimkit, Socrative, and Quizizz. I’ve also targeted these 5 apps as having faculty members who have confirmed their interest in conducting professional development sessions in the fall.

• Individual Padlet Pro Plan: $10/month; $96/year includes unlimited padlets, 250MB file uploads, domain mapping, priority support, and folders; Backpack Pro: $2000/school per year includes 500 teacher and students accounts, user management access, enhanced privacy, extra security, branding, school-wide activity monitoring, larger 250MB file uploads, a control domain environment, extra support, student reports and portfolios, content filtering, Google Apps and LMS integration.

• Kahoot EDU for school & district: $8/teacher per month includes unlimited teacher use; tools to teach in class and virtually; word cloud, open-ended questions and brainstorm; advanced admin controls; school branding; combine reports to assess learning progress.

• Gimkit: $4.99/month includes Gimkit Live (A live learning game your students will beg to play.) & Gimkit Ink (A creation and publishing tool for students.); Gimkit Groups (Gimkit School $1000/year - Pro for every teacher in the school or Gimkit Department - $650/year - Pro for 20 teachers.)

• Socrative: Free account includes 50 students per room, 1 public room for your class, launch 1 activity at a time, on-the-fly questioning, and Space Race assessment; Socrative Pro for K-12 teachers: $59.99/year/teacher includes Socrative Free account features plus up to 20 private or public rooms,launch up to 20 activities at once, Space Race countdown timer, roster import via CSV or Excel; School Kit for K-12 Schools & Districts: Request pricing for 3+ teachers includes Socrative Pro for K-12 teachers account features plus a dedicated customer success manager, priority customer support, and access to 5 additional teacher-approved applications.

• Quizizz: Free account includes a limited number of activities, Quizizz Super: $8/month/teacher (current special pricing) - asynchronous learning, tagging custom topics and adding answer explanations, audio-visual learning tools, experience Quizizz ad-free, unlimited editing and collaboration, adaptive question bank mode, test timer, Quizizz Super users can host quizzes or Lessons with up to 500 participants. Both Basic and Super accounts can host any number of Lessons or games on the platform. However, only Super users can access the upgrades mentioned above; Quizizz School & District: pricing available upon request includes sitewide access to every quiz, lesson, and premium feature on Quizizz in addition to organizational features like collaboration tools, account management, and LMS integration.

The technology committee will present the administrators with the cost, features, and the faculty’s curriculum-rationale for these apps to determine which ones will be purchased and will discuss budgeting for the professional development sessions for the 2021/2022 school year.