Apple rolls out free Schoolwork app for teachers

Apple has launched its free Schoolwork app for teachers, making it easier for them to create assignments, collaborate one-on-one with students, and understand students' progress.

Image: Apple/AP

San Francisco: Apple has launched its free Schoolwork app for teachers, making it easier for them to create assignments, collaborate one-on-one with students, and understand students' progress. The app was first introduced at Apple's education event in Chicago early in March. The new cloud-based app makes it easy for teachers using iPads to create and send announcements and assignments with almost any type of content, from web links to PDFs and documents, and even specific activities within other educational apps, the tech giant said in a blogpost late on Tuesday. Other educational apps already working with Schoolwork include Explain Everything, Tynker, GeoGebra, and Kahoot!. With the app, teachers can have a snapshot of class performance and can check on an individual student's progress across activities as well as the progress within apps or projects they have created and helps them tailor their teaching to the needs and potential of each student. The app also helps students to stay organised and keep track of the work they need to complete and when they need to submit. Moreover, Apple emphasised the privacy elements to Schoolwork, that schools get to "create, own and control" the accounts used by students, and they get to determine when student progress information is shared, the blogpost said. Apple cannot see the student activity, either, as it stays within the system. Schoolwork app is designed to work with the Classroom app, which now runs on both iPad and Mac. Classroom on iPad helps teachers keep students focused on a specific app or website and lets them view student screens during class, share documents with students, assign shared iPads and even reset a student's password.