Photon Education brings innovative tech to 200,000 students with Microsoft Azure AI

Across Europe, classrooms are under pressure. Student achievement in reading, math, and science is declining¹ and teachers are feeling the strain too. Low student participation, excessive time spent preparing lessons, inconsistent Wi-Fi, misinformation in students’ personal devices, and a lack of real-time assessment tools have led to a decline in both teaching quality and student outcomes. 

It was an issue Sylwia Szuberska, an English teacher at Nicolaus Copernicus Elementary School in Margonin, Poland, was all too familiar with. “It was so frustrating to have hardware inequalities and technical issues interrupt games and quizzes. If we used tablets, the batteries would run out. Students would get kicked out of games because of poor connection. And I couldn’t track their progress between quizzes. Using students’ personal mobile phones also led to feelings of inferiority as they compared their devices to those of more well-off students. It was horrible.”

For Poland-based edtech company Photon Education, these challenges inspired an expansion of its existing offering. Initially a hardware company offering an interdisciplinary, interactive learning tool called the Photon Robot, it saw an opportunity to expand into software and content. “We wanted to build an engaging system that simplifies assessment across all subjects at every stage of education,” notes Marcin Joka, CEO. 

A simple interface backed by sophisticated architecture 

As longstanding partners of Microsoft, the company turned to Microsoft Azure AI. The first task? Figuring out how to architect a backend that was both robust enough for school environments and flexible enough for rapid feature iteration. One that could handle a diverse workload without overcomplicating the infrastructure.

“We have heavy content management tasks, real-time user interactions, and resource-intensive background processes. We also had to ensure that the generative AI features, like our quiz generator, weren’t just ‘cool add-ons.’ They needed to be stable, low-latency tools that teachers could rely on instantly during a class without compromising the stability of the core CMS,” explains Chris Dziemianczuk, Chief Technology Officer. 

The company solved for this challenge by decoupling these services. Using Azure Functions and Container Apps for specific microservices allowed it to keep the main application lightweight. A real win was orchestrating this so the end-user experiences zero lag. “Azure’s native integration between these services made that seamless,” adds Dziemianczuk.

As it would be working with schools and pupil data, a crucial consideration for Photon Education was keeping information private. “We made security part of the design,” notes Dziemianczuk. “Microsoft Defender for Cloud helped us make decisions by giving us information from the beginning. Instead of checking security at the end of a sprint, Defender gives us advice all the time that we can put into practice straight away. We know exactly how our App Services and databases are exposed and can lock them down immediately.” 

Bringing modern back to modern classrooms 

This diligence and vision work saw the birth of Classwise, a hybrid cloud-based education platform that combined gamification, analytics, and content in an intuitive, easy-to-use interface. Classwise enabled teachers to access a repository of verified lessons, use physical devices for student interaction, and analyze student performance post-lesson. “It’s just brilliant,” reports Szuberska, “I don’t have to worry about devices running out of charge, pupils get immediate feedback, and it’s saved so much time for me.”

With Classwise, teachers get the benefit of a library of verified lessons and videos, helping them quickly prepare curriculum-aligned content and quizzes without starting from scratch. They get physical, screen-free pads with colored buttons for students to answer questions displayed on the teacher's whiteboard, minimizing distractions and ensuring focus on the lesson. Teachers also get access to classroom usage and analytics post-lesson, to identify students who need additional support. Classwise also offers a wider curriculum than teachers may typically have access to, and it covers a wide range of subjects beyond AI and STEM—including geography and history—all which are localized to different countries and educational standards.

“The best part is that it supports inclusive education,” continues Szuberska. “For students with selective mutism and spelling difficulties, they can complete their class online without worrying about speaking or handwriting. They’re eager to play language games whilst I can check their progress without putting too much pressure on them. It also helps me manage mixed ability classes by allowing me to modify both my materials and the materials I get from Classwise’s extensive library. I’m now a Classwise ambassador and I train other teachers here in Poland.”

Gary Jones, Vice President of Sales, echoes this enthusiasm. “As soon as the product was in schools, we started to get fantastic feedback from the teachers. They were really amazed at the flexibility of Classwise and how it could really change the way they teach. As a new product in the edtech market, we weren’t expecting such a positive response so quickly.” 

The response also exceeded Photon Education’s own expectations. “We thought we’d have to provide most of the resources and activities in the platform, but actually more than two-thirds are now created by teachers, for teachers,” enthuses Jones. 

Measurable learning in energized classrooms

Since launching commercial deployments in early 2025, Classwise has scaled rapidly across Europe, helping teachers deliver effective, engaging, and personalized learning. Today, it supports: 

• 3,000-plus classes deployed across Europe 
• 10,500-plus active teacher accounts, growing by around 200 new users per week 
• 200,000-plus students, with learning analytics tracked 
• Over 1 million quiz participants representing the platform’s total student reach 

“But the real impact is felt inside classrooms,” concludes Dziemianczuk. “In our testing stages, I observed how the teacher and students interacted with Classwise. Seeing the genuine enthusiasm and pure joy in the children’s eyes was a real turning point for me. It made me certain that our technical direction was the right one.” 

Photon Education has also delivered hundreds of lessons focused on AI literacy, equipping students with essential skills for a rapidly evolving digital world. It achieved: 

• 81% progress in understanding generative AI 
• 74% improvement in critical thinking skills 
• 70% progress in foundational AI concepts 

“Our goal was to empower teachers and students with the latest in educational technology,” says Joka. “We wanted to simplify digitalization in classrooms to make it a place that teachers and students love coming back to every day. And I think we did it.”

Discover more about Photon Education on Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube.