Apple provides a variety of applications that enrich productivity and organization, and foster collaboration and communication between and among students and teachers. Teachers can choose from a variety of tools depending on the needs of the learning process and environment. Apple offers two learning management tools, Classroom and Schoolwork. Classroom, Apple’s course management application, can support lesson implementation, activity management, and student engagement. Schoolwork, an iPad application, helps teachers unwrap the potential of the tablet in the classroom, through assignment creation and distribution and real-time student progress management.
Pages, Numbers, and Keynote offer a simultaneous editing feature that enables students to work together in real-time and collaboratively organize their work. iCloud Drive is a file sharing platform that syncs automatically with Pages, Numbers, and Keynote. Mail, Facetime, and Messages support communication between teachers, students, and parents/guardians. Calendar, Notes, and Reminders can be used for maintenance and organization of tasks.
Translate is an accessibility tool that can help students, whose native language is not English, understand the learning materials and communicate with their classmates and teacher. Additionally, Translate can boost foreign language learning among students by providing seamless translation “on site” without the need to refer to a separate application.
The Classroom tool can turn an iPad and Mac into a powerful teaching assistant. The tool puts teachers in the driver’s seat of every iPad and Mac for instruction face-to-face and remotely. Teachers can guide students through lessons and keep them focused on the task at hand. Schoolwork is an iPad tool that can help teachers and students use their devices more effectively for teaching and learning. A teacher can create and share assignments, distribute and collect materials, keep an eye on student progress in educational apps (as a group and individually), and collaborate one on one with students from anywhere, in real time. Through the Schoolwork app, assignments automatically appear on students’ iPads, organized by due date and class.
Apple’s online tools are accessible from any Internet browser regardless of the type of the operating system (MacOS, Microsoft Windows, etc.). Offline-only tools must be installed on an Apple device. All tools will require a user’s Apple ID for maximum functionality.
Apple has a strong commitment to teacher and student privacy. Schools are required to opt-in to Schoolwork’s student progress feature using Apple School Manager. Student progress is recorded only for activities a teacher specifically assigns and that are completed while using a school-provided and -managed Apple ID. All student progress data is encrypted. If a school does not opt-in, a teacher can still use Schoolwork without this feature. To ensure transparency when progress reporting is active, students will see a notification indicating that their progress is being recorded. For security and privacy reasons, a teacher should seek school authorization prior to adding new Apple tools to the curriculum.