App Therapy 101

In today’s digital classroom teachers and students need access to an ever-growing variety of apps to meet educational objectives. The IT team’s challenge is how to precisely manage these apps, including the processes for requests and distributions.

With Jamf as your MDM for education, you can balance the need of students, staff and IT by using Jamf Self Service to manage your education apps for schools, and create a better functioning environment for all.

In this JNUC 2022 session, Jacki Walker, Applications Support Manager, and Joe Potocki, Instructional Applications Analyst, share how they bridged the gap between educator and IT needs for technology education essentials for the Questeq/Norwin School District in Pennsylvania.

Balancing act begins: the age of COVID and 1:1 iPads

Questeq has served school districts across Pennsylvania for nearly 40 years. They currently support 164 K-12 facilities across 40 school districts and are housed at Norwin School District just outside of Pittsburgh, which serves 5,100 students and 500 staff.

Prior to the pandemic, the Norwin School District was only using about 500 iPads district-wide, mainly for single assignments and special projects. IT management capabilities were limited, with no formal processes or procedures for devices and applications.

But as was the case in many schools, once COVID-19 hit in March 2020, overnight the plan changed to 1:1 device distribution, with a need for a robust, powerful MDM solution, and strong policies and procedures.

Looking at the apps alone, they discovered they were using close to 700 apps – many with the same functionality, with no documentation as to who was using what app, or who had paid for the licenses.

From an IT standpoint, they needed to get a handle on the management of licenses, security, updates and storage, as well as documentation.

Meanwhile, teachers needed access to technology and resources for differentiated learning, and quick, easy access to apps as instructional needs changed.

To resolve the conflict in needs, the school district formed a Curriculum App Committee with members of the IT department, teachers, and an admin to act as mediators.

Their solution: choosing Jamf as their MDM, and using Jamf Self-Service and App Request as a “counselor” between the two.

With Self Service they were able to:

• Create an easily navigable system of apps available to staff and students
• Customize app categories according to teacher and student need
• Set appropriate security and scope for apps to ensure everyone had access to only those apps that they needed

Check out the full JNUC session for a discussion of the steps involved, including actual product and process demos.