This is great news! Apple and IBM have launched their first iOS app for academia this week. It was a significant step forward that they set themselves the task to combine student data with cognitive technology and curriculum to improve and enhance personalized education for students in K-12. The IBM Watson Element for Educators has finally made this possible.
Apple and IBM teamed up in a new way of astonishing customers and clients. IBM Watson Element for Educators is a new iPad app that provides teachers with a more comprehensive view of students’ academic progress and achievements, progress, interests, learning activities, and learning activities in grades k-12. The initiative was initiated by IBM in 2013. Its development was accelerated by Apple’s 2014 partnership. MobileFirst for iOS was created.
According to Chalapathy Neti (Vice President of Education Innovation for IBM Watson), it was crucial for the companies that they reconstruct the educational experience for students and teachers by combining IBM data, analytics, cognitive computing and IBM data with Apple’s design, user experience and design.
According to Neti, Watson, IBM’s cognitive tech, pulls data from three classes to align curriculum with students’ interests and proficiencies. Neti states that IBM Watson Element for Educators records students’ behaviors and interests to give insight into their proficiencies and determine the type of personalized content and learning environments they will be most interested in, according to Neti.
This app may be viewed as a system of record by some readers. It’s actually a portal that teachers can use to access, manage, and gain insights from a variety of data sets. The application can use data from different systems. This is common with most school districts, such as the Coppell Independent Schools District (ISD), Texas, which was the first to use Watson Element.
Apple and IBM have collaborated to integrate relevant data into the app. This is expected to help educators track students’ learning and make observations about their learning preferences. In the end, personalized plans will be created that improve over time.
Watson Element is being used by approximately 150 teachers in four schools within Coppell ISD at the moment. The district plans to have all its teachers using the app by next year. Teachers have been using iPads for approximately three years. This is why some iOS apps and the tablet are now a part of their daily routine for lesson design.
Teachers can also incorporate training programs or other published material as well as lesson plans and textbooks to further customize their district’s instance of Watson Element.
The new iPad app was created by Apple and IBM. It is available to educators at a per year, per student price. There is also a one-time setup fee that includes integration with existing programs, databases, and technologies in school districts.
CIO originally published this article.
