'Google Play' for Education - Helps Teachers Discover Apps

On Wednesday, 15th May, 2013 the Google disclosed about 'Google Play' for Education, which will allow teachers to discover apps designed specifically for K-12 students. Chris Yerga, an engineering director at Google, showed off the education-focused section of the app store at today's Google I/O developer conference in San Francisco. The effort, he said, was "built from the ground up to meet the content needs of educators."

The sources have revealed that, Google Play for Education will be organized by subject matter and grade level, so you could find math apps that are appropriate for kindergarteners, for example. Yerga showed off apps from partners like NASA and PBS. "Each app has been recommended by educators, [which] is key because teachers trust other teachers," Yerga said.

The education-focused Android app store will launch in the fall, but Google will begin accepting app submissions this summer. Google will also post guidelines via developer.android.com/edu. Google conducted a pilot program of Google Play for Education in New Jersey schools, which Google said demonstrated that there's a "huge opportunity for educators, students, and for you as developers."

Google said it will do the "heavy lifting" of launching Play for Education, but called on developers to help build up content on the store.

Google Play for Education will likely go up against efforts from Apple, which has made a large push into the classroom. Last year, it jumped deeper into the education space with the launch of iBooks 2 for textbooks, a custom e-book creation platform dubbed iBooks Author, and an expanded iTunes U app that is also now accessible to K-12 educators.

Will this bring big change in Education? Will it help students and teachers learn more about apps? How do you think it is useful in this competitive world? Share your views below.