�ݺ�ߣ

12/1/2014 How schools are bringing mobile under control | District Administration Magazine
How schools are bringing mobile under control
District Administration, December 2014[1]
Whether devices are tablets or laptops, or owned by the school or the student, they all
require IT support.
Recent support developments include bundling digital learning applications and the
physical device with the cost of mobile device[2] management (MDM) software. Apple,
meanwhile, has made changes that make it easier to automate control of iPads.
Districts supporting BYOD can manage students’ instructional software through virtual
containers and clouds while relying on MDM software to manage security. Whatever
strategy a district chooses, the end goal is to take device management out of the hands
of teachers and students, so they can focus on learning.
Ilwaco Middle School in the Ocean Beach School District in Washington chose a package
this year that not only gives them MDM software, but also tablets loaded with
instructional content. The district wanted the interactivity of a tablet, but iPads were
too expensive. BYOD was not an option for the district where about 70 percent of
students receive a free or reduced-price lunch.
“Bring your own technology sounds wonderful, but it creates issues of equity,” says
Ilwaco Principal Marc Simmons. “You have kids thinking, ‘My tablet isn’t as good’ as
someone else’s. We want to increase equity through technology. It makes us all feel like
we are on the same page.”
Managing school-owned iPads
Cherry Hills Christian School in Colorado combined an MDM solution with district-owned
iPads. Every one of its 700 students in grades 1 through 8 is assigned an iPad
while its 60 kindergarten students use the tablets in the private school’s computer
center.
chromeextension://
iooicodkiihhpojmmeghjclgihfjdjhj/js_in_isolation/reformat.html 1/6

Cherry Hills, which has a fairly affluent population, attempted a BYOD program with
student-owned iPads by establishing requirements—like 16 gigabytes of memory so that
the devices could support the classroom software. Still, students were using iPads with
varying degrees of memory and processing speeds.
“The mix of devices got in the way of learning,” says Mike Scheid, Cherry Hill’s
technology manager. “There are more things we can do with a device we own versus
what we don’t own. We can customize every piece of district-owned devices.”
The district uses MDM and learning management system software from Lightspeed
Systems. Scheid applies security features to limit the websites that students can access
and to blacklist Instagram, ChatNow and other apps. The security filters identify users
when an inappropriate buzzword or website domain has been entered on a device.
Scheid also can push out instructional learning apps relevant to each student.
Information about students’ grade levels and classes are automatically sent from the
student information system to the MDM software.
Managing the iPads is a little easier now thanks to two changes Apple made to its Device
Enrollment Program last year, says Scheid. The district can automatically take control of
all the devices through its MDM software during the initial setup. Before, tech staff had
to manually enroll each device.
The second change gave the district, rather than individual users, control over app
licenses. The district can easily revoke access if a student leaves the district or a teacher
is no longer using the app in the classroom. In those cases, the license is returned to the
district. Students have the option of purchasing the app if they want to continue using
it. Scheid says this capability keeps the district from paying for apps that it is no longer
using.
Keeping track of licensed apps and subscriptions for instructional content is an
important feature of MDM software. It helps districts stay in compliance with their
licensing agreement, and not overspend, says Bill Odell, vice president of marketing for
Dell KACE, an MDM appliance. “Districts can do a deep inspection of every software
application on each device. They might see that a lot of students aren’t using a piece of
software, and then discontinue the subscription or move it over to another class that
wants it.”
chromeextension://

Supporting BYOD
Eastern Lancaster County School District in Pennsylvania supports BYOD and a 1-to-1
program with a mix of district-provided tablets and laptops. Rather than pushing
software out to each device, the district directs students to a desktop in the cloud where
they access all their instructional applications and classroom files.
“This route lets us open up our 1-to-1 program to use tablets or any other devices,” says
Lotsie D. Wooten, supervisor of technology infrastructure at the district. “It also helps
with managing passwords for digital content, which had become a big problem. The
software has a password locker where we can store passwords for all those different
systems so students don’t have to memorize them all.”
The cloud software, from ClassLink, also gives students with tablets access to the full
features of large applications like Microsoft Word and Adobe Photoshop—which are
usually available only on laptops with larger hard drives. Students and teachers also can
share and edit files in the cloud, rather than store them on their tablets.
Security settings and software are pushed out to all school-owned devices through the
Microsoft System Center. “The settings remain no matter where students have access to
the internet—whether it’s at home, the library or McDonald’s,” says Wooten.
With most MDM software, districts also can set time-based policies. For instance, they
can block students’ access to Facebook during school hours, but restore it when they get
home.
ClassLink CEO Berj Akian says BYOD will be the prevalent model in the future. In a
survey done by the company in February, 87 percent of the 67 districts that responded
stated that BYOD was either underway or being considered. “Cloud-based is the model
for instructional content today, and there is an ever wider range of devices that students
want to use,” Akian says. “Parents and grandparents are buying devices for children and
expect them to be used for education.”
Virtual “containers” are another management option for BYOD districts. Whereas an
entire library of educational materials might reside in a cloud, a container is a device-centric
concept that helps to separate out resources. In addition, apps and material in a
container can be subject to different security policies and parameters.
chromeextension://

“When users enter their credentials, they will only have access to materials in the
library that are relevant to them,” says Sundhar Annamalai, executive director of
product marketing management and advanced mobility solutions at AT&T Mobility &
Business Solutions.
Power to the teachers
Content on district-owned devices can be customized for each teacher and student. For
example, one student in tenth grade may have instructional software for an elective
finance class in addition to applications for core classes. Another student may have
access to an application for a music elective.
The MDM software also gives teachers tools for tighter classroom management. A
teacher who’s in control of all devices can lock an application—such as a writing blog—
when time for that lesson is up. Teachers can then push a document, such as a PDF of an
article, to all devices for immediate discussion.
However, there is no way to block applications that are on a student’s personal device.
And students can’t be prevented from checking out Facebook during class time. “You
can’t stop the student from doing something with their own device. There are only so
many things you can control with BYOD,” says Annamalai.
But teachers can adjust districtwide web filter settings. YouTube is normally blocked at
Cherry Hill; however, teachers can open the settings for a limited time to let their class
watch a pertinent video, such as one on a chemistry experiment. Access is automatically
blocked again after a set time, such as the class period, preventing the possibility that a
teacher will forget to change the settings back.
The cloud approach lets teachers at Eastern Lancaster access apps “on the fly,” says
Wooten. When an unexpected topic, such as the fall of the Berlin Wall, comes up during
a class discussion—or teachers want to go deeper on a subject—they can quickly search
for secure, approved content on the district cloud. Some of the instructional resources
available to East Lancaster students through their ClassLink cloud include Compass
Learning, Discovery Education and BrainPOP.
Both approaches can provide assessment tools that let teachers do a quick survey of
students’ understanding of a subject. If most students indicate poor comprehension, the
chromeextension://

teacher could review the concept the following day. Also, MDM software used with
personal or district-owned devices can generate reports telling educators how much
time students spent using different digital content. Eastern Lancaster routinely emails
parents reports on what websites their child has accessed, says Wooten.
When a device is damaged
MDM solutions can manage software, but students have to take care of the hardware. At
Eastern Lancaster, parents pay a $100 fee for any item broken that costs more than $100
to repair. But only about 7 percent of the laptops get damaged annually, says Wooten.
About 10 percent of Cherry Hill’s 700 tablets get damaged per year, with cracked screens
accounting for about 99 percent of the breakage. The district splits the $100
replacement cost with the student’s family the first time. The family pays the full cost if
it happens again in a single school year. Students must purchase a district-approved
case before they can take the iPads out of school.
Ilwaco Middle School pays $29 per tablet per year for insurance to cover breakage on its
Amplify tablets.
All the schools expect students to have their devices charged and ready to use each day.
Cherry Hill gives each of its students a charger and cable. Those who forget can check
out one of the school’s three battery packs for $5 per day. Some districts have charging
stations for students to use during the school day, says Josh Hartmann, chief technology
officer at Amplify Access. “Responsibility for charging the devices should be put on the
students. It’s part of teaching them digital citizenship,” he says.
Occasionally, a device gets misplaced, bringing the role of MDM software back full
circle. A school administrator can send a signal from the software to the device, which
sends back its location if it is turned on. The software also helps districts track
inventory, including the devices’ ages, serial numbers and who they are assigned to.
“My advice to districts is never do mobile deployment without MDM software,” says
Scheid. “You don’t want to give a device to students that you can’t manage in terms of
web content and filtering. And you don’t want to hand them a device that is a
distraction. With the right parameters, mobile devices can be tools for learning.” DA
chromeextension://

Katie Kilfoyle Remis is a freelance writer in upstate New York.
1. http://www.districtadministration.com/issue/district-administration-december-2014
2. http://www.districtadministration.com/topic/mobile
chromeextension://

�ݺ�ߣ

District Administration Magazine - Dec 2014 Feature - Simmons

Recommended

More Related Content

What's hot (18)

Similar to District Administration Magazine - Dec 2014 Feature - Simmons (20)

District Administration Magazine - Dec 2014 Feature - Simmons