From a few iPads to remote learning glory

With a clear vision to drive teaching and learning forward, Belgrave St. Bartholomew’s Academy had invested in a few iPads in the past, but had struggled to manually update each device and install different apps or content based on varying student needs.

“We had iPads already in place, but with no mobile device management solution or action plan, they weren’t being used to their advantage by the students nor teachers,” said George Barlow, Vice Principal at Belgrave St. Bartholomew’s Academy.

For their digital strategy to be a success, each student needed to enjoy the benefits of engaging content through an easy-to-use device. Determined to learn from the past, the school invested in 490 Apple iPads for all of its year 1-6 students. This time, however, they enlisted the help of Jamf’s mobile device management (MDM) solution, Jamf School.

Through Jamf School, teachers now had a deeper level of oversight into each iPad and could consistently upload and roll out content and software with just a few clicks.

The school’s investment into an MDM solution became crucial very quickly when the entire country went into lockdown and schools needed to close.

“As the pandemic hit, we knew that we were prepared to make that leap,” said Mr. Barlow.

Learning in lockdown

With each student having access to an iPad, supported through Jamf’s MDM solution, Belgrave could efficiently move to learning remotely when the UK was placed in lockdown. While many schools frantically printed off worksheets, teachers and students at Belgrave experienced very little disruption.

Enrolment of devices could easily be provisioned online, which helped to reduce the spread of infection and meant the school could scale as they needed via the Cloud. All existing assessments, resources and workflows were maintained, with the only difference being students and teachers were now communicating in virtual classrooms.

The school was able to take advantage of education technology tools that had pivoted to adapt to the lockdown, such as paperless classroom app, Showbie, which had made significant changes to their software to include video classroom functionality.

A seamless experience

Managing which apps are accessible to teachers and students, as well as dissolving any IT issues, can make or break any digital strategy. Jamf School enabled new app and technical requests to be instantly resolved, all through simple pop-up notifications.

As Belgrave maintained responsibility over the iPads, the leadership team worked together to organise a pre-approved list of apps that could be downloaded by teachers and introduced remote locking of iPads at 8:00 p.m. to help reduce student screen time.

Similar to school attendance, if students hadn’t checked into their device over a set number of days, a notification would be sent to the teacher who could then contact parents to ensure everything was okay.

Through the Jamf School Teacher app, teachers could manage student devices remotely and personalise their own devices. Apps most relevant to their subject could be installed, without ever needing to request support from IT. In addition, teachers could invite their students to assigned video conference classes, where they could share different content to encourage group learning.

Impact and vision for the future

With the use of iPads, Belgrave has seen a change not only in engagement but behaviour, too. Students who previously struggled to concentrate are now enjoying more interactive learning, while others are noticeably more focused on their activities.

While reading and writing remains important, using Apple technology has improved digital literacy — the students enhance their learning by searching and can ask the Apple voice assistant, Siri, rather than using a dictionary or reference book.

As schools return to normal, Belgrave is now considering implementing a continued learning programme. This would provide additional support to children, and enable students to use their devices on certain days for homework.

“It has been really effective having Jamf in place. We were prepared [for the lockdown] before we even knew it, and Jamf helped to solve any problems that may have arisen in introducing education technology. As a school, we now couldn’t imagine teaching and learning without the iPads as it has totally transformed our experience,” said Mr. Barlow.

If your school would like to enhance its digital learning capacity, Jamf School are offering a free trial to EdTech Impact readers.

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Jamf School
Jamf School is a purpose-built mobile device management solution (MDM) for schools. With its intuitive web-based interface — deploying, managing and securing Mac, iPad, iPhone and Apple TV has never been simpler.
www.jamf.com/products/jamf-school/