Digital learning has come a long way in the last 12 months. Apps, multiple tools to make teachers and students’ lives easier have come up. To further enhance its presence in the sphere of education and learning, Apple has announced a slew of tools for teachers and students. Designed to capitalise on the features of iPad and App Store, Apple has unveiled the following:

All-new Schoolwork app

The new Schoolwork app — as the name suggests — is designed for teachers to keep a track of student activities and their progress. The app also tells teachers how much time students spend on documents, videos, and links that are assigned in Schoolwork. The app allows teachers to share assignments with their colleagues.
On the app, teachers can see the sidebar which comes with navigation to classes, assignments and student accounts. The idea of the app is to give teachers a tool to help them manage and customise instructions.

The Classroom app

The app is designed to keep students connected with their teachers. Through the app, teachers can view students screen and see a summary of their activities. The app will also soon have a feature where teachers can invite remote students to join a Classroom session.
The app works with a Managed Apple ID, which teachers can request to connect and students can choose to accept. The app also gives teachers a snapshot of students’ status at a glance, including whether they’re online, joining locally or remotely, using iPad or Mac, or whether a device has a depleted battery.
New versions of both Schoolwork and Classroom are available in beta now through AppleSeed for IT.

Apple does have a dedicated Teacher Learning Centre — a learning platform which is free and meant for educators. Apple Teacher Portfolio can help teachers keep a track of their lesson planning to help students activate prior knowledge, explore a topic more deeply, and apply understanding. Teachers can use apps like Keynote, GarageBand, iMovie to make lessons engaging.
Apple has also updated its Everyone Can Create curriculum with deeper support for certain Apple apps. The Drawing guide has been updated to include motion graphics and animation in Keynote, while Photos now covers the creation of animated GIFs using Keynote, and the Camera and Photos apps. The Video guide will explore creating short films using a green screen and other special effects, and Music adds new podcasting features using GarageBand.
Apple Teacher Portfolio is available through the Apple Teacher Learning Centre whereas the Everyone Can Create guides are updated and available as a free download on Apple Books.