Apple, IBM jointly developing education App

Apple Inc and International Business Machines Corp are jointly developing an education app focused on providing teachers with real-time student data analytics, according to the Coppell Gazette.

Alex Kaplan, global lead for IBM's business services activities for education and personalised learning on cloud solutions team, said the idea behind the app was to stimulate adoption.

He added IBM and Apple wanted to change the way teachers worked and bring a sort of excitement through the use of the app.

Although further details of the app were not disclosed, it would most certainly revolutionise the faculty's decision making, and might even completely change conventional ways of evaluating a student, according to commentators.

The app would use technology and real-time data analytics to formulate a predictive model for teaching and student success and it was also capable of being tailored for use at different grade levels, subjects, and accessibility.

IBM hopes it would have a prototype of the software for testing by the first half of the new school year.

If successful, the pilot programme would expand to a wide range of school districts, and would also be a big win for both the Apple and IBM partnership in education.

Google Chromebooks had emerged as a top seller in schools as school administrations sought low cost, easy maintenance devices in the classroom.

Apple had made inroads in schools with its iPad as well, but had faced its share of reverses, too. The Los Angeles School District, for example, had considered asking for refunds from a large iPad deployment with education software that, according to the district, was not up to the mark.