Enabling them to use the Aviary web apps in a controlled environment

Jul 15, 2010 10:04 GMT  ·  By

Aviary continues to expand its offerings, this time not with a new web app but with a new service aimed at educators. Aviary Education allows schools to use many of the tools Aviary provides, but in a safe and closed off environment, much more suited for education purposes. Users will get access to the Image, Vector and Audio editors and will be able to set up private classrooms available only to students and teachers.

“Aviary Education is a private environment for teachers and students to create content and collaborate together. In Aviary Education, teachers can manage assignments and projects using aviary's applications (Image, Vector and Audio). We are developing Aviary Education specifically with educators in mind,” Aviary announced.

The new program is now live but is still in a private beta phase. If you want to set up a virtual classroom for your students to use the Aviary tools you can request a beta invitation. The beta is free, at least for now, and there may be a free version offered later on, but there will also be premium versions which enable users to have more than one classroom and have access to more help material.

Aviary tools are a great match for schools. First off they’re free, something that most schools can appreciate, but they’re also mostly maintenance free. There’s nothing to install and there’s no sysadmin that has to make sure everything is working properly and safely. All the schools need is a working browser on their computers.

While there are people doing amazing stuff with Aviary tools, they’re not going to replace full-blown editors any time soon. But for schools, this is an advantage, the web apps are easy to use and powerful enough to be fun for children.

The reason why a school would choose Aviary Education over the standard version is that it offers them a more controlled environment. The kids won’t be able to access the works created by regular Aviary users, which may not always be suited for the younger audience, and it also prevents them from revealing their own creations, which they may want to keep private, to the world.