Simplicity, scalability and security: 2024 Jamf Event for education

Welcome

Sam Johnson, Jamf’s Chief Customer Officer, kicked off the educational portion of the Jamf Event this April 9.

“Our vision for education really comes down to three core principles,” said Johnson. “Simplicity, scalability and security.”

IT admins have a lot to juggle, Johnson pointed out, which is why Jamf strives to make management and security for educational devices as simple as possible.

And, he continued, as the world of education continues to evolve, “any solution we make for education must scale to meet your needs— whether your school has a couple of carts filled with iPads or tens of thousands of devices.”

“It’s not enough to just put technology into the hands of students and teachers,” he added. “You must secure the devices to ensure the device and the student’s learning experience remains safe at all times.”

Simplicity

Senior Education Leadership Executive Dr. Emily McRoberts-Froese spoke about the importance of keeping the focus of technology simple: base it on the impact it has in the classroom.

Jamf School: powerful and easy to use

“We designed Jamf School to go beyond traditional device management to meet the unique needs of schools,” said McRoberts-Froese. Jamf School is powerful and scaleable, integrating with unique education integrations and delivering a personalized learning experience in the classroom. Despite its powerful and nuanced capabilities, it offers a simple interface.

App Installers: simplifying the use of third-party applications

Since our JNUC announcement, Jamf has brought the highly-anticipated App Installers app from Jamf Pro into Jamf School for all customers.

App Installers bring the simplicity of the Mac App Store to third-party applications, saving admins hours each week.

Here’s how the App Installers app works:

1. IT admins select the Mac apps they want to deploy.
2. Jamf automatically installs the apps or makes them available on-demand.
3. Jamf automatically deploys updates and patches whenever they become available; no more building packages or managing complex update workflows.

Jamf apps for education simplify and improve the classroom and at-home experience.

“Our pursuit for streamlining technology doesn’t stop with admins,” said McRoberts-Froese. “We know we can improve the classroom experience for teachers and students while also simplifying the at-home experience for parents.”

• The Jamf Teacher app allows teachers to confidently tailor the classroom experience. Teachers can:
  • Manage student access
  • Safelist apps
  • Send messages

• The Jamf Student app allows students to:
  • Access learning materials
  • Install pre-defined apps
  • Message instructors

• The Jamf Parent app allows guardians to:
  • Restrict device functionality
  • Set location-based device rules
  • Block some apps at certain times

Global simplicity and opportunity MATTER

MATTER Innovation hubs have delivered transformational learning experiences to remote locations around the world.

Since partnering with MATTER in 2017, the innovation hub has now expanded to 17 locations across 6 countries. In 2022, Jamf again partnered with Matter to create the Matter Career Readiness Institute in Zimbabwe. This program serves as the next step for graduates of the Innovation Hub. Now in its third year, the program has 18 students and two graduates who are now working remotely at Jamf in software engineering roles.

We’re incredibly proud of the impact these programs are having on the next generation.

Second Baptist School: the educational power of keeping things simple

Technology Integration Specialist Antoinette Latham of Second Baptist School in Houston, Texas, joined Dr. McRoberts-Froese to discuss how she embraced the simplicity of Jamf School to allow for better classroom support.

Second Baptist educates nearly 950 students a year. Latham supports more than 100 pre-K to 12-grade teachers by helping them implement technology into their curriculum while managing and deploying the 900 iPads on campus.

Second Baptist, an Apple Distinguished School, has a 1-1 device model starting in Kindergarten. Through 7th grade, students all have iPads; from 8th grade on, each has their own MacBook Air.

That’s a lot of tech to juggle, and many students and teachers to support!

Choosing Jamf School saved time and increased service.

Latham chose Jamf School because it was so user-friendly. “When Jamf School came out,” said Latham, “I jumped on that trial to test it out and I realized within a day that it was something that would definitely meet the needs that we have here.”

With Jamf School, Latham equips devices, teachers and students with apps based on profile and grade level with ease.

“It really gave me my time back,” said Latham. “I have the ability to deploy all of the iPads in the way that’s best for the classroom, and now I have time to be in the classrooms supporting the teachers.”

Releasing her from full-time hands-on device management allows her to directly support teachers in the classroom on a regular basis.

Antoinette Latham’s unique educational tech outlook

As a former educator, Latham spent several years in the classroom. “Because of that,” she said, “I look at what we do with our technology differently. I have great empathy for our teachers in what they are trying to do every day with their curriculum and I want to be able to support that.”

Latham understands that, for teachers, technology use can sometimes feel like a stressor in the classroom rather than a useful tool. It's very important to Lathan that she sets up devices the way teachers need them so that learning — rather than frustration — dominates class time.

“Being able to be there for the teachers and support them is the goal,” said Latham, “and Jamf School allows me to do that.”

Scalability

Four years ago, the initial COVID-19 outbreak accelerated digital transformation for schools worldwide. While most students are now back in the classroom, these capabilities for flexibility have become the new normal.

“Today,” said McRoberts-Froese, “some schools are refreshing devices within their existing deployment strategy. Others are rethinking the role of technology and relaunching entirely new programs.”

In either case, said McRoberts-Froese, school administrators must ask themselves: “How does any plan I make today scale to meet my long-term learning objectives?”

At Jamf, we believe that simplicity and scale go hand in hand. That's why we’ve worked hard to ensure that Jamf School can support deployments of any size.

The City of Oslo scales to improve iPad use in city schools

Håvar Eidslott and Olav Eide, from the City of Oslo, joined the Jamf Event to discuss how they used Jamf School to improve the adoption of and satisfaction with iPad in area schools.

Eidslott and Eide both work at the central administration for Oslo's public schools. They support students from grammar through high school with around 55,000 iPads across 120 schools.

“Our goal,” said Olav Eide, “is to deliver a technical solution that allows schools to spend as little time as possible on managing iPads and as much time as possible on learning.”

The problem: unhappy ICT departments

The City of Oslow regularly sends out surveys to the ICT personnel in their schools to understand their experiences with technology. “Last year and the year before that,” said Eide, “our iPad deployment was scoring very low.”

According to the surveys, iPad was possibly the single thing causing the most friction for their users. “We knew we had to do something different,” said Eide.

The solution: Jamf School

“It was actually an easy decision to choose Jamf School,” said Eide. “It was the solution that met our demands.”

A pilot program with Jamf School for managing iPads in four schools yielded very positive results.

Scaling: beyond deployments into execution

After the pilot, Eidslott and Eide planned and executed a migration of all iPad devices over the next two months at the rate of approximately 20 schools per week.

After the migration, iPads ranked at the top of survey scores.

To increase ICT satisfaction, Håvar Eidslott wanted to scale not only in size but also in scope. They currently centrally distribute some mandatory profiles in addition to pre-created profiles meant for each type of school that ICT departments can choose from. This allows schools a more nuanced way of managing devices while also saving each department the time required to build their own profiles.

There is also some wiggle room at each school to add their own apps and create the settings that make sense for them and their students.

“This way of doing things is much better than what we had before,” said Eidslott, “especially for the ICT folks at each school. Time spent before on trouble-shooting iPads can be used elsewhere to streamline the digital school day.”

Eidslott also sees their new setup as a big plus for teachers. “Jamf Teacher has been a great success,” he said. “It’s hands-down the best and most reliable tool for classroom management that we have found. Instead of technology being a distraction, Jamf Teacher enables teachers to make the iPad a fully focused learning tool.”

Scaling controls on screen time

Parents and the general public in Oslow voiced their fear that giving students iPad devices might lead to excessive screen time. This concern was perhaps more significant because schools allow the students to take the iPads home for homework and further research.

So Eidslott and Eide equipped parents and guardians in Olso with a way to control this. They have built a workflow for parents to enroll in Jamf Parent and receive more control over their students’ devices. After parents verify their identities, they automatically receive login credentials for Jamf Parent that are tied to their student until the child reaches the age of 13.

“This has allowed us to offer Jamf Parent to every school with students under that age,” said Eidslott, “without introducing a manual or time-consuming workflow for the ICT personnel at the school.”

Security

Last fall, Jamf was pleased to announce that Jamf School had achieved StateRAMP-ready status, which is an important security requirement for many US-based educational institutions.

“While this specific requirement may not be relevant to customers in other parts of the world,” said McRoberts-Froese, “Jamf’s dedication to supporting more high-compliance requirements is something that all customers will benefit from.”

Of course, added McRoberts-Froese, every progressive step presents a new set of challenges.

As more schools incorporate learning-enhancing technology, and as more bad actors turn their sites on the lucrative data schools possess, the risks increase.

“That means we can’t just focus on simplifying learning,” said McRoberts-Froese. “We must also focus on securing devices and networks.”

Jamf Connect better secures learning environments.

Jamf Connect helps to manage local macOS account privileges. While some common tasks require admin privileges, granting all users perpetual admin privileges exposes schools to too much risk.

Jamf Connect now provides a simple workflow to temporarily elevate local account privileges.

Here’s how it works:

1. IT deploys standard privileges for all accounts
2. Jamf Connect temporarily grants admin privileges only when needed
3. Jamf Connect automatically reverts privileges to standard

Jamf Protect defends Macs from malware and attacks that put your institutional data at risk.

Jamf Protect’s brand new compliance dashboard offers:

• A simple visual that displays a vast amount of information
• Views of compliance baselines
• Mac fleet’s overall health monitoring

Jamf Safe Internet ensures that students remain safe while using technology for school.

“Jamf Safe Internet is purpose-built security for mobile devices in education,” said McRoberts-Froese. “It provides comprehensive web content filtering and web threat protections for your entire fleet.”

Jamf Safe Internet can now be your institution's single solution for all of your content filtering and web protection, thanks to several recent updates:

• Functionality now available across Chromebook and Windows devices
• On-device content filtering for Apple devices is more effective and provides privacy protections
• Privacy settings toggle will display specific devices and usernames when urgently needed

“Jamf Safe Internet is truly a best-in-class content filtering solution that works across your entire fleet of iPads, Chromebooks and Windows devices,” said McRoberts-Froese. “And thanks to the new reporting enhancements, Jamf Safe Internet is now better than ever. There’s never been a better time to replace your legacy content filtering solution with Jamf Safe Internet."

Next time, in October!

Chief Customer Officer Sam Johnson closed out the Jamf Event by thanking everyone who participated and the viewers.

“Today,” said Johnson, “we showed you how Jamf School gives IT a simple solution to bring powerful learning experiences to the classroom. We also shared how Jamf School is able to support deployments at scale, meeting the needs of a wide range of schools. We explored enhancements to better secure devices.”

“We’ve got a lot more in store,” Johnson continued, “and we can’t wait to give you another update at JNUC!”

This year’s JNUC will be in Nashville, Tennessee: October 1-3. Early registration is now open, and there will be no better price than right now so be sure to secure your spot today.

See you all in Nashville!