Ditching Device Drama in the Classroom with Apple Device Enrollment
You're a teacher and summer's over. Your precious vacation days, free of students, lesson plans, and 12-hour work days, are now gone. And it's not all bad—you're once again molding the minds of the world's youth, discovering innovative ways to better society, and developing new teaching methods for the ages. But what if something has already gotten in the way of your pedagogy? What if the same technology that is supposed to enhance your educational instruction has only hindered it?
That is, it's week two of school and you suddenly don't have enough devices for your classroom. And based on the new-school-year rush that's hit your school district's IT team—not by any fault of their own—the devices you need aren't getting configured correctly and into your students' hands anytime soon. You're beginning to feel burnt out (and it's only week two!), and next year's summer vacation already can't come soon enough.
We're here to help. Using Apple School Manager & Ivanti LANrev, your school district's IT team can now order devices through the Apple Device Enrollment Program, pull data into the LANrev console, and managing their configuration. Essentially, the moment the devices get in your classroom, they're ready to use immediately.
How? It's as simple as A-B-C and 1-2-3, really. With the Apple School Manager partnered with Ivanti LANrev, IT is able to customize the out-of-box experience for your students even before they hit your classroom's desks. Rather than IT having to configure hundreds of devices, they can configure a dozen policies, getting the devices to you still pacakaged and quicker than ever before.
Need an example? It's typical for the standard Apple setup to be bypassed by a district's IT team in favor of language and an acceptance of terms determined by the district. And with Device Enrollment Program support in LANrev, it's possible to lock devices into management by requiring enrollment into the setup wizard, which can distribute only the necessary apps and content—something even your smartest student can't disable. As soon as the device is activated, it is ready to use, customized for the assigned student(s).
With LANrev's DEP, Here's what a typical cycle looks like when a student activates their new device:
- Student authenticates to the school's Active Directory
- Device displays district's technology policy
- Data is imported from Active Directory to help drive customization
- LANrev pushes out applications specific to LANrev architecture (the LANrev APPS self-service portal and the LANrev Safe container for class-related media files/other documents)
- LANrev extends configurations that are automatically customized for users as appropriate and adds them to the policies. Things like customized welcome emails, setting up security, or some remedial actions—locking the device, issuing student notifications, removing access to district assets, or deleting file containers.
- Department or class-level policies then push out specific apps and content targeted to grade level, individual classes, types of users, or even specific users.
The above actions are completed within a minute or two from when the device is first turned on, creating a process that is hands-off for IT, easy for students, and worry-free for teachers.
Stop thinking about next year's summer vacation and get back to teaching. With Ivanti's LANrev DEP, you can be sure that devices are on their way and ready to use. Teaching crisis averted.
Download the Ivanti white paper Teachers in Charge, IT in Control: Strategies for Managing Classroom Technology. You may also be interested in this white paper from industry research firm Enterprise Management Associates titled Managing Apple Devices in a Windows World.