Ideas for 1:1 iPad Deployment in schools

[joshua_huber]

Casper 9.3 has many functions I would like to take advantage of, but I'm starting from scratch and looking for some advice from people who currently use Casper in an educational environment.

Do you let the students create their own Apple ID or do you assign them an institutional ID?
Do you leave the App store open?
During enrollment, did you set up a guest Wi-Fi network?

If there are any other nuggets of advice you could provide I'd love to hear about them. Negatives, positives, and everything in between.

Thanks.

[lehmanp00]

This is a huge topic! But this is how we did it for 1 grade level.

Every student needs to have an email address
Tech group unboxes and asset tags the ipads. Thats it. Setup a temp, open, WiFi. Keep it off until enrollment day. Setup a limited, generic ID for students to login to Casper with using Web Enrollment
Smart group(s) created
VPP Codes purchased
iOS Profiles are created per Smart Group Schedule an enrollment day

Tons of meetings and communication with Parents. Tons of How To docs created
Parents sign a release form and buy insurance for each iPad.

On enrollment day...
Student unboxes iPad, creates Apple ID/iCloud account while going thru the setup screens. Student enrolls into Casper during unboxing using Generic account. Ipad gets put into Casper SMART group. Gets appropriate Profiles (including official Wifi)
Staff confirms everything looks OK. Students then redeem VPP apps thru Self Service

You could now add DEP to that, however our district determined it was more work that it was worth. (because we would have to re-touch all the 2000+ ipads we have out now)

Also be aware that Apple has the Under-13 Apple ID program too.

[schiavom]

Q) Do you let the students create their own Apple ID or do you assign them an institutional ID?
A) Yes, we required our students create their own Apple ID's using their school email as the username and the school email as the primary retrieval process.

Q) Do you leave the App store open?
A) Yes we leave it open, but we are beginning to nudge them in the direction of using the "Self Service" Portal for App retrieval, but the process of getting us the Apps they need is a bit of a struggle.

Q) During enrollment, did you set up a guest Wi-Fi network?
A) No we already had an open SSID for anyone to use so that process was simple. Also, pre-deployment we configured the iPads with the SSID so that it didnt have to join, it was already programmed in the software. That was done thru Apple Configurator. We enrolled every iPad into our MDM before handing them out so they "Re-Enrolled" with their AD Credentials. That also was exported out of JSS and imported into Apple Configurator for deployment. This is so we had an accurate count of every single iPad prior to dispersment. So we knew right from the get go that every iPad was enrolled and accounted for.

[obi-k]

Advice:

• For your deployment, I'd recommend setting up a caching server. If your environment allows it, you need a Mac with good storage and Mac OS X server 10.9. Once Server is installed, you flick caching to "On" to play.

• Yes, students will have their own Apple ID's. This will go a long way for you to revoke managed apps, and repurpose them for other students.

• Mentioned above, but SMART Groups, configuration files, etc. should be thought of and tested ahead of deployment. This will make everything run smoother.

[nnewport]

We are in the boat of not doing the apple ID's. Part of our issue is that student ID's get reassigned every year because their are so many conflicts and they just have numbers on the end. We are looking to change that finally. We've had to go with configurator setups which is quite a pain. It is partially required though because most of the grades getting iPads are 2-1 so Apple ID's won't work.

Has anyone done the under 13 Apple ID process yet?

Also, how many students are in your districts?

[anne_benson]

What grade levels of students?
1. In Grade 9 (pilot program), we just said they needed an Apple ID; in grades 5 - 8 we are not requiring one - are managing all apps through configurator.
2. App Store: Grade 9, yes; Grades 5 - 8, no at the parents request
3. We currently enroll through configurator, but are hoping to do the DEP program.

We have run a couple of tests in the under 13 Apple ID process (with staff children) and it works really well! We are hoping to create Apple IDs for students in current grade 4, 5 and 6 before they turn 13 and then next year have the current 7th grade students create their own. We want to use the Apple IDs for backup and pages and keynote document sync. We did not distribute apps over the air - were worried about how long it would take the 75 apps to download. Even updating over the air (~25-30 apps) was problematic.
Think carefully about how you set up your configurator (if you use it, I'm thinking you could do without it and use the DEP program instead). We have 360 students in grades 5 - 8 and 100 in 9th grade. Next year we are moving the grade 9 iPads to a 1:1 program in the 4th grade (iPads stay at school) and doing a laptop program with the 9th grade instead.

[joshua_huber]

Those are all very helpful responses. We have had iPads deployed to our 9-12 graders for almost two years now. I'm hoping we will be going in the direction of DEP because starting from scratch will actually be ideal for our situation.

Most of what I am gathering is communication to the parents is vital. Also, I'm trying to make a case for leaving the app store open, and then using Focus in the classrooms so that it will take away the students ability to play in class, but also giving them the option to have fun with their iPad when they are at home.

We've been working in a highly restricted environment with our 1:1 program, and it isn't working. Can anyone give me a solid case for leaving the app store open, and a case for making either institutional apple id's or letting the students create their own?

Once again, I'd like to say thank you to everyone. This post has already been quite helpful.

[lhscasper]

Hi Joshua,

> a solid case for leaving the App store open?

The teachers in our school all have different ideas on what apps they want the kids to use and so they will ask their class to download App "X" for next lesson. It's a real pain if the kids can't do it at school. If you have the bandwidth (or can use a caching server, then the educational outcomes can be so much better if the teachers (and to a lesser extent the students) can decide the Apps that will best serve them, rather than the technical department.

> letting the students create their own Apple IDs?

see comment above - works so much better if the students can self manage their own apps. I wouldn't have believed it before we implemented the iPad program - but kids will actually purchase their own Apps if they are motivated to learn.

If you're worried about students not downloading required Apps, we use smart groups to alert us to those students who don't have a pre-determined list of Apps installed.

Cheers,
Chris.

Cheers,
Chris.

[joshua_huber]

Great response lhscasper. Does the student's personal Apple ID affect their enrollment in Casper? We plan on using DEP, so does that have any bearing on which Apple ID the student decides to use?

[obi-k]

Helpful responses.

Once you enroll with DEP, your environment will be more restricted. OTA supervision is possible, and plus, students won't be able to remove the MDM profile (famous L.A. problem). This will also move away from Configurator.

Agree with lhscasper about letting instruction guide the Apps. You can always set up Casper's Sites. This will allow them to upload their preferred apps to Self Service.

Here is a great video from JAMF about VPP/DEP/MDM.
http://www.jamfsoftware.com/resources/vpp-dep-leveraging-apples-new-it-deployment-programs/

[sandrews2158]

We are in year 2 of our 1:1 deployment. 3-12 take home. K-2 stay at school.
One thing we have found. BLOCKING doesn't work. We decided to teach digital citizenship starting in Kindergarten. We allow Twitter, Facebook, google +, and App store open. We deal with the problems one on one, instead of blocking them all from the beginning. The power the students have to "TAKE OWNERSHIP" and do it right or lose it has been pretty awesome. It takes awhile to change the culture, but when you do it really makes the 1:1 extremely powerful.