Amazon Launches New Virtual Staff Room for Teachers

Amazon is moving into a new class of business with Inspire, a free educational platform for teachers.
Although in beta form and initially aimed at the US education system, Amazon's ideas for the classroom are already very clear.

 Inspire is a virtual teachers' staff room and lending library where educators can upload and share materials, and peer review those of others.

Materials can be packaged together via subject, age group or media and the idea is that via partnerships, Amazon will augment what's on offer via access to digitized texts from seats of learning and institutions.

For instance, alongside the unveiling, Amazon announced that New York's Mineola Public Schools is already on board as a materials provider.

"We believe the future of public education in a digital world is the ability to easily find engaging content for students. As more teachers share content on Amazon Inspire, other teachers will find high quality, highly successful classroom materials," said Superintendent Michael Nagler.