Are the startup glory days over at SXSW? Well, it’s true that the field is getting pretty crowded, and angel investors aren’t flying in on gossamer wings to shower every new startup with cash. But if you look carefully, you can see some real gems among the shiny objects. A few that stood out for me at this year’s SXSWinteractive:

• I’m not a big proponent of letting kids have mobile devices in the classroom, but you can’t really prevent it these days, so at least make them useful.  Norwegian company Kahoot has a game-based learning tool that really engages students (www.getkahoot.com)
• AppGyver launched a Hack-in-a-box SaaS platform to help mobile app developers test, evaluate and distribute new apps faster and easier with in-house hackathons that include non-developers too (http://hack.appgyver.com)
• Delicode launched Z Vector technology, the first professional live performance visualization software based on 3D depth sensors like the technology in Microsoft Kinect. Cool stuff (http://z-vector.com/)
• Finally, I confess that I’m a bit fanatical about recycling and green tech. I love the solar backpack that Tespack was showing. It charges your mobile devices so you can go anywhere and still stay connected… and you don’t need the world’s longest extension cord! (http://www.tespack.com/us/)