Chicago, IL: April 5, 2022. For immediate release.
This month the winners of the EdTech Awards were announced and Hāpara was singled out for the global leadership of its CEO, Wayne Poncia and once again for its innovation of student-centered technologies.
CEO of Hāpara, Wayne Poncia won the EdTech Leadership Award for Global Leadership, and Hāpara Student Dashboard Digital Backpack was a finalist for the Cool Tool Award for e-learning, blended, flipped solution or remote solution.
Celebrating its 12th year, the Edtech Awards is the world’s largest recognition program for education technology, recognizing the biggest names in edtech. The EdTech Awards recognizes people for outstanding contributions in transforming education through technology to enrich the lives of learners everywhere.
“The future-focused work they do is inspired by the infinite potential of all people to learn and thrive. It’s pushed forward by the human spirit. It’s the light that even through the darkest times always shines through,” Victor Rivero, Editor in Chief of EdTech Digest and director of the Edtech Awards.
“In this time of nonstop disruption, our team at Hāpara never lost their vision for learning impact. Hāpara stands for something special: equitable, evergreen, impactful and differentiated learning for teachers and students. I would not be recognized for the global impact of my work to date if the crowning achievement was not the most unique edtech company in the world: Hāpara. I am thankful to the team at Hāpara for giving me the opportunity to take credit for their important work and global reach. When we all put students first, everything else about learning falls into place. Thank you to the schools we serve who trust us as their true partner in learning innovation and student success (ask any of them!). Finally, I want to recognize that I am surrounded by a smart and visionary team, some of whom have been on this journey with me for more than a decade. Special shout out to Robin Gardiner Poncia who has been my partner in K-12 edtech and life for 32 years,”
– Wayne Poncia, Hāpara CEO
Featuring edtech’s best and brightest, the annual program shines a spotlight on cool tools, inspiring leaders and innovative trendsetters across the K-12, higher education and skills and workforce sectors.
“As students struggled with the difficulties of remote learning, we wanted to make it easier for them to access everything they need to learn. Student Dashboard Digital Backpack brings all of a student’s assignments, reading materials, grades and teacher notifications into one easy-to-navigate platform. No matter where the student is, or what device they are on, we want to make learning accessible for every student. We are humbled to be recognized as a winner or finalist in EdTech awards for 3 years running. It is a testament to the passion, effort and commitment to serving learners and educators that is part of our DNA at Hāpara. Making simple, accessible products that solve real problems is the driving force of our product design and development,”
– Nara Chilluvuri, Vice President of Product
Wayne Poncia is a well-known thought leader in educational innovation through technology. He has provided leadership to a number of edtech companies whose products are used by millions of users every day. He has been a prominent player in introducing digital learning and education-focused applications on four continents. As CEO, Poncia leads team members in New Zealand, Canada, and the USA. Hāpara is a global edtech company with millions of paid subscribers in over 40 countries.
Hāpara Student Dashboard Digital Backpack, alongside a distinguished list of edtech companies was named a finalist for the Cool Tool Award. Released in 2019, Student Dashboard was developed to address the app-fatigue, multichannel notifications and messages that many students deal with on a daily basis when they move through a large number of applications. This can be overwhelming and can result in frustration for students and teachers alike. Student Dashboard was developed primarily based upon feedback from students with their needs foremost in the product development team’s priorities.
In 2021, seeing the impact the pandemic had on how teaching and learning took place, Hāpara teamed up with technology partner TandemTrax to add Digital Backpack to the Student Dashboard tool. In addition to the one-stop hub that Student Dashboard provides, Digital Backpack gives schools the added convenience of a tool to house and distribute digital educational content. It allows schools to provide a wider variety of content with multiple perspectives, and distribute it equitably. Students can read and view digital content from any device using this K-12 friendly digital reading technology that is WCAG 2.0 compliant and provides greater accessibility to all learners.
“We are thrilled to have the Student Dashboard Digital Backpack named a finalist for the EdTech Cool Tool Award. This latest offering from the award winning Hāpara suite helps every student have access to the digital resources they need to be successful no matter which device they use.”
– Rich Dixon, Senior Director of Learning Innovation
To learn more about Student Dashboard Digital Backpack visit our website.
About Hāpara:
The Hāpara instructional management system provides teachers with maximum leverage of Google Apps for Education.
Hāpara provides:
- Digital productivity tools that match instructional practice
- Tools for group and differentiated learning
- Broad visibility into student online work and activity
- Collaboration tools with real-time engagement among students and teachers