Apple Plus Pearson Equals PowerSchool Multiplied

In a business deal poised to make education much more accessible and comprehensive, Pearson Education, the world’s largest educational publisher, bought Apple Computer’s PowerSchool Thursday. The sale comes into effect June 1.

PowerSchool is an easy application for sharing information. It is part of Apple’s award-winning student information systems (SIS) division. According to Reuters, Apple paid $62 million in stock to acquire the application in 2001. In a statement on Apple.com, John Couch, Apple’s VP of Education, said broadening the company’s relationship with Pearson directly relates to Apple’s growing commitment to education.

“Our customers will love having Pearson’s education content on their iPods, and we’re confident that PowerSchool will continue to flourish and grow with Pearson.”

Pearson and Apple collaborated earlier in the school year to bring digital versions of Pearson workbooks and textbooks to California schools on the Mac mini.

In the United States, nearly 25,000 schools use Pearson technology to help instruct K-12 students and manage how they are doing. With the partnership, Pearson will expand its network to possibly double or triple that number.

“Pearson’s commitment is to improve student performance. Student information and achievement results are essential to teachers and families in knowing how a student is doing and helping her make gains,” said Steven Dowling, president of Pearson’s School Companies, in the Apple report.

How will the new partnership affect students and teachers? As part of the deal, Pearson will develop new services for educators and students, including research-based educational content compatible with the iPod. Teachers will have access to podcasts on professional development to help with lesson preparation and provide innovative ways to reach students struggling with specific content. Students will be able to load their iPods with study guides that are aligned with Pearson texts and listen to review notes to prepare for exams.

Apple has used its dominance in the youth consumer market by selling its computers to school children at a discount with the business-savvy logic that its kids grew up with Apple products, they would be users for life.

Educators, students and teachers all have different opinions about the “podcast” educational revolution. iPods are looked at by many teachers as entertainment devices only, not to replace the traditional classroom. But high school and university students, with increasingly busy schedules and less time to devote to sitting in class, think the innovation can help them with their studies.

The accountability requirements of No Child Left Behind , the federal legislation that has brought more testing across the country such as the California High School Exit Exam, have made the demand for study materials increase exponentially.

But public school districts want the students in their seats because they are funded based on Average Daily Attendance money. One result of the technological revolution in education is students choosing to tune out going to school and stay home and learn their lessons there because they can (I can’t but help feel a little sorry for parents at this point).

If anything, the jury is out on whether or not the partnership will work to benefit education in the end. iPods being used as a supplement to classroom instruction appears to be the happy medium, but the many applications are very seductive.