The International School of Monaco builds digital classrooms with Jamf

Founded in 1994, the International School of Monaco (ISM) welcomes more than 700 students from three to eighteen years old, of over fifty nationalities. Their families seek a truly international education based on the core values of altruism, honesty and openness so that students can achieve their greatest academic and personal success.

The school is in the process of being certified as a Google School, and students and teachers are equipped with MacBook Pro (for teachers), MacBook Air (4th through 12th grade) and iPad (3rd through 5th grade).

We needed software that could manage all of our devices: faculty devices, self-service devices, and student devices, whether MacBook Air or iPad.

We launched the Digital Citizen program so that our students could have access to all digital technology and our teachers could use it in the easiest way possible through Apple devices. Jamf was the most complete and structured reference tool for managing our entire Apple fleet in a centralized manner and with all the security required for teaching.

Indeed, our sector of activity is particularly sensitive because we have to ensure the physical security of the equipment but also that of all the applications requiring a complete monitoring of the IT service on site.

Cybersecurity is central to the school. Jamf Protect has been implemented at the firewall level, as well as other software to better secure students' devices. We also added Jamf Connect to allow students to have only one login and password for accessing all of the school's educational resources. This has simplified the student ecosystem and greatly reduced interactions with the IT support team.

From the moment we chose Apple hardware and ISM became an Apple School, Jamf emerged as the most advanced and robust MDM solution to cover the school's entire needs.

The deployment mobilized many resources:

• We created specific profiles and made a list of apps we wanted to deploy based on age groups, both for iPads and MacBooks.
• After that, there was a lot of configuration work in Jamf. We managed restriction levels, access and permissions to implement other resources or needs and automate as much as possible to make the day-to-day management easier for us.

We are also a Google School, so the Google suite has been integrated. Some teachers have also asked for resources they are used to or need for their teaching. For example, for art classes, we installed Procreate for design or Audacity for sound management.

Each application is reviewed to ensure that it is GDPR compliant and that our students' personal data is protected. We have ensured that all data remains in Europe and that our students' email addresses are never sold for marketing purposes.

First, we had the full support of the school's management, which created a Digital Committee. Then we set up a nine-month test phase.

The first tests carried out by the IT team allowed us to create packages to be deployed on iPad and Mac (on different versions such as macOS Catalina and Big Sur). They also allowed us to check the compatibility with the firewall, with the different security applications we had, as well as with the different pedagogical software requested by the teaching team.

Then we put together a pilot team of ten of the geekiest teachers. We gave them the first iPads so they could test and prepare their lessons for the new school year. We also gave Macs to the most computer-savvy teachers. Within this pilot team, a person in charge of pedagogy served as an intermediary with the IT team. Her role was essential to the success of the project during these nine months.

This project was successful because of the collaboration of the faculty and the IT team. Their daily involvement in delivering the iPads, configuring the devices and providing support made the experience possible. This digital foundation, with the modules we implemented, allows us to scale up to other infrastructures such as Jamf Pro.

Jamf Pro facilitates the integration of classroom management applications, such as Apple's In the Classroom and Apple School Manager. This allows for an optimal learning experience without distractions and a new, more efficient way to learn.

Jamf Connect ensures seamlessness between the computer and Active Directory, while maintaining account security. With Jamf Connect, students and teachers can authenticate with a single Mac username and password to access all of the school resources.

Jamf Protect provides a comprehensive management solution that manages all aspects of Apple devices, including provisioning, deployment and patch management. Jamf monitors and prevents malware threats, integrates with identity providers, provides aggregated (unified) device logs and device health reports, and helps meet compliance requirements.

At the IMS, we chose to deploy Jamf Pro, Jamf Connect and Jamf Protect to ensure consistency in the information system and in the solution. The installation of these three Jamf products has made it possible to have a totally homogeneous and coherent system.

With the goal of becoming Google School certified and being exclusively equipped with Apple devices, we chose a fully functional and interoperable solution on which we build our information system.