Jamf After Dark: An update on Jamf in education

Whether you’re involved with a K-12 or higher education institution, this Jamf After Dark is for you! This episode investigates how Jamf can aid schools in classroom teaching and learning by creating a foundational technological infrastructure for students to learn wherever and however they want.

Read more to learn about Jamf in education from co-hosts Sean Rabbitt and Kat Garbis; Jamf’s Mat Pullen, Senior Product Marketing Manager, Education; and Suraj Mohandas, VP of Product Strategy.

Jamf in education

The episode begins with discussion about current educational trends and the differences (or lack thereof) between how technology is handled in K-12 vs higher education. Historically, K-12 schools tend to focus on functional use in the classroom, while higher education may approach technology more like a corporation. However, as Mohandas and Pullen mention, higher ed institutions are shifting their attitude to be more like K-12 schools — with the goal of empowering student success.

Next, they discuss how Jamf supports schools’ IT admins, elaborating on these goals to transform learning:

• Seamless, scalable deployment right out of the box
• Optimizing investment in technology and ROI
• Creating an ecosystem to bridge the gap between IT and the classroom experience

Jamf Safe Internet

The conversation then transitions to Jamf Safe Internet. With recent legislation and general attitudes schools have about apps like TikTok, many schools have wondered if Jamf Safe Internet can block usage (short answer: yes). However, as expanded upon in the episode, Jamf Safe Internet has powers beyond this — it provides guardrails to protect students from accessing inappropriate or harmful content, letting them “learn fearlessly.”

Jamf Safe Internet takes on a different role when it comes to higher education. Since students are generally adults, there is less focus on content filtering, and more on endpoint protection. These institutions are often targeted in phishing and malware attacks; students that are used to seeing emails from their school’s IT department can be susceptible for phishing scams. This is why both higher ed and K-12 schools are chaining together Jamf Protect and Jamf Safe internet for more comprehensive protection.

Challenges for educational institutions

Pullen and Mohandas identified some recent challenges they’ve heard school IT admins face:

• IT staff churn, especially with less experienced staff
• The need to reinforce shared goals between instructional and technology teams
• The need to reduce IT spending
• Not taking advantage of included add-ons like the Jamf Teacher and Jamf Parent apps

They then offer solutions to these problems: Jamf Safe Internet’s simple user interface allows less experienced IT staff to get caught up in less time. The Jamf Teacher app gives teachers simple power in their classroom, reducing teacher headaches and improving retention. Leveraging the integrations and multiple products offered by Jamf enables IT departments to use one platform for their IT needs, reducing overall spending. And the Jamf Parent app gives parents control of devices at home, keeping students productive while using the school's technology investment.

The Google platform

Did you know Jamf Safe Internet is available for Google Chromebook? Many schools opt for the collaborative Google platform — software and hardware included. Jamf wants to support schools where they’re at, whether they’re using Google apps on Google Chromebook or on Apple devices.

Related reading (written by this episode’s Mat Pullen!): Jamf Safe Internet now available for Chromebook