I interviewed the president of Tango Software, a company that develops handheld applications for education at Tango's booth at NECC. Their main product is for the Reading First project. They want to make it easy for a teacher in a classroom setting to determine how students are performing, aligned to state standards using a handheld. Teachers can analyze information on an individual or group basis. Then teachers can use this information for data driven decisions instantly. Here's a listing of Tango's products, which are licensed based on number of students and the license fee must be renewed each year.

You know I tend to stick to free software, but if Tango can fulfill its promise of reducing paperwork, giving teachers more time to teach, and providing immediate and productive feedback, it would be worth it. Software similar to Tango's is from Wireless Generation. They describe their mCLASS Assessment Software as a way to "save time, reduce paperwork, and apply results to instruction." Both Tango's and Wireless Generation's handheld software are the beginnings of Valerie Crawford's vision of mobile technology I blogged about in a previous post where real-time data is used for decision making. Unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to interview anyone from Wireless Generation at NECC.

Listen to my interview with Tango's president here (2 minutes, 44 seconds).