Apple TV takes learning further with Jamf and TrilbyTV

Apple TV for schools

Digital signage for education

Apple TV digital signage has become more and more important in educational environments. Apple TV has become an indispensable part of education at many schools, offering:

• School-wide announcements and celebrations
• More flexible and interactive in-class instruction
• Ways to centralize student focus

Benefits of digital signage in education

Digital signage can help enhance engagement, smooth communication and support diverse learning styles.

“I’m often asked about the use of digital signage in the classroom,” says Neil Emery, Director at TrilbyTV, “and there are definitely a few considerations to be aware of!”

For instance, keeping student focus on learning is paramount; most schools and teachers don’t want digital signage playing in the front of the classroom. “But if there was an opportunity to share content onto classroom boards,” asked Emery, “when is an ideal time to do so and what would this content be?”

Tim Lings can answer that!

Heronsgate: encouraging students, supporting teachers

Tim Lings is Director of Digital Learning at Heronsgate Primary School in Longdon, UK. He deploys TrilbyTV into all classrooms at Heronsgate daily to share school information and to showcase pupil success.

Heronsgate has:

• 1:1 iPads for pupils and teachers
• Apple TV connected to in-class projectors for sharing from the iPads to whiteboards
• A Mac in each classroom that can AirPlay onto the whiteboard through Apple TV

Teachers like whiteboards because they can write on them when needed; after all, Apple TV enhances learning, but teachers still provide instruction.

“AirPlay is the mechanism to get stuff on screens,” says Tim Lings, “and iPad is our first-class citizen.” An iPad and Apple Pencil provide teachers and pupils interactivity, saving the school from the high cost of interactive flat panels.

Moving from Reflector to Jamf and TrilbyTV

Heronsgate understood the unique educational capabilities that Apple provides, which is why they’ve had the ability to project content from Mac since 2012. Back then, they used the software Reflector for AirPlay.

After getting 16:9 projectors, the school invested in Apple TV as it offered easy connection with peer-to-peer Wi-Fi.

Slowly, Apple TV rolled out across the whole school. This was made far easier when the school discovered that fourth generation Apple TV could be managed more reliably with Jamf. IT could then rename, update and deploy apps to Apple TV from a central location.

After realizing the benefits of mobile device management, Lings decided to purchase TrilbyTV for the school. It was a platform he was already aware of, but the ability to use it everywhere from one location was exciting.

The school already had three digital signage screens, but now with TrilbyTV, Apple TV and Jamf, Lings could deploy signage into classrooms and other spaces such as group rooms and hallways. Content shared could be anything from advertising upcoming events such as Safer Internet Day or World Book Day to promoting the school brand.

Apple TV in the classroom

“Sharing digital work on screen seems like a really great thing to be able to do,” says Lings.

He began displaying content in classrooms first with a smaller group of teachers who were interested in the idea; from there, the appetite grew.

Using Apple TV managed by Jamf, Lings set TrilbyTV to single app mode, so as soon as the projectors were turned on in the morning, content played automatically.

Now, when teachers want to use Apple TV, they simply AirPlay content from their iPad or the classroom Mac. They can share slides, classroom instructions, digital work and more. When a teacher wishes to stop using Apple TV in favor of other educational strategies, they can simply turn off AirPlay on their iPads.

Supporting the school and students with Apple TV

In group rooms and hallways, Lings constantly reinforces the vision and ethos of the school with the simple message: “We discover and realize the genius in everyone.”

This impacts everyone including pupils, staff, parents and visitors. He also uses the Smart Content within TrilbyTV to create attendance and punctuality certificates to help celebrate individual student achievements.

Extending reach with TrilbyTV

TrilbyTV has focused its Apple TV development efforts on bringing web-based content to the tvOS platform. This means schools can benefit from the functionality of other platforms such as iOS, Android, Chrome and Windows when using TrilbyTV on Apple TV.

“Apple TV, TrilbyTV and Jamf have created digital spaces where teachers and pupils can share their digital work,” says Lings. “It's also given us a school communication space. It means we are using money spent on technology more effectively. The ability to instantly update screens is really valuable.”