My Appeal to Apple (and Google) for an MDM Enrollment for Schools
Let me begin by stating that I am a huge proponent of the use of technology in the classroom. The reason for this is pretty simple — if it wasn’t for a very special elementary school teacher and access after school to an Apple ][ GS, it’s hard to say what path my life would have taken. Needless to say, I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t be where I am today. I think most of us can say that about a teacher or mentor that we had at some point in our lives.
In 2012, I was involved in the planning, deployment, and support of (at the time) the largest 1:1 deployment of iPads in higher education (over 32,000). The school I was working for had 28 campus locations across the country and when they decided to move from traditional textbooks to electronic resources, the decision was made to provide an iPad to every student to “level the playing field” between those who could afford their own device vs those who were less fortunate. It was a wildly successful program in classrooms where instructors used it as a central part of their curriculum… and it was a total flop in classrooms where instructors reluctantly allowed their use.
The Problem
Fast forward over a decade and… things haven’t really changed at all. In fact, if anything the overwhelming opinion of educators is that we need to ban personal technology from the classroom completely. The biggest change from 2012 to today is that nearly every student in middle school and beyond now has a super computer in their pocket but instead of harnessing this power in the classroom, we’re locking them up in plastic bins and neoprene pouches.
There are many reasons for this ranging from organizing fights after school, sending text messages during class, cyber bullying, distractions from learning, and various other anti-social behaviors. The solution of banning phones from schools is popular with faculty and school administrators yet less popular with parents who want the ability (for better or worse) to contact their students while they are in class. Reasons could range from reminding them about an after school appointment to checking to see if they are okay in the event of a mass shooting or other emergency.
I’ve been reading Jonathan Haidt’s new book The Anxious Generation with much interest. If you haven’t read it, he correlates the rise of mental health issues in teens with the time frame where smart phones and social media (particularly Instagram) grew in popularity among teens. I expected to disagree with him but instead I found his diagnosis of the problem and his remedies to be quite well researched and amenable.
One of the remedies he calls for is limiting the use of smart phones in school to only classroom-related activities. I was pleased to read this because he, like myself is not advocating ‘throwing the baby out with the bathwater’ as there is a place for the use of technology in the classroom. From teaching digital literacy to using various apps for writing, math, and not to mention the various accessibility tools that are on offer for students with a variety of needs, simply banning these devices is not the answer.
Solutions Schools Are Using Today
It seems that I’m not the only person reading Jonathan Haidt’s book. Unfortunately, as is the case with many things, school administrators are using a sledgehammer when a scalpel is required. Much like installing metal detectors and hiring security guards in full uniform to roam the halls, the solution to the problem of students using phones in class that is being implemented in many schools today are plastic bins ($35/each) or Yondr pouches ($25/each) that lock the phones away for the day.
My issue with this is that security guards, metal detectors, Lock-a-boxes, and Yondr pouches all cost money and don’t really go directly towards educating our kids. The worst part about the Yondr pouch is that it’s made of cloth material and susceptible to wear and tear, so the likelihood of those needing replaced at least annually is quite high. Last I checked we weren’t dramatically increasing the budgets for public education in this country, so the cost of these items means we’re cutting expenses elsewhere (the arts, teacher salaries, remedial instruction, who knows).
Beyond the cost of these lock boxes and pouches is that they are still fallible. Students are able to get their hands on magnets that can be used to unlock the pouches and some faculty don’t want to enforce the use of lock boxes, so the bans are not being enforced uniformly or fairly. Beyond that there is quite a lot of blow back from angry parents that school boards and administrators have to contend with.
The Solution Schools Need
In some ways this is a behavioral problem and in other ways it’s a technological problem. Let’s focus on the technological problem because I think we can fix it with a technological solution. I’m pretty sure that most of the faculty out there in our public schools want to utilize technology in ways that improve learning outcomes. I know there are parents that feel that their kids are safer with a smart phone in their pocket that they have access to in the case of an emergency. I’m pretty sure parents and teachers would agree that social media, video games, and the like are distractions in the classroom and impede learning. I’m pretty sure tax payers are not interested in funding plastic bins and neoprene pouches which are not helping to educate and train our next generation of citizens.
It would seem to me that if we can come up with a way to allow students to keep their phones, limit/control what they do with their phones during class, provide students with access to educational materials and Apps on their smart phones that teachers can utilize in the classroom, and do it for a low to no cost, we might have a solution everyone can live with.
Here’s the a secret: this solution already exists and most schools already have it. It’s called Mobile Device Management (MDM).
Mobile Device Management vendors like JAMF, Microsoft, and Mosyle already provide for all of the controls that schools need to lock down devices in a way that limits distraction and enables learning. Schools already own and use these products to manage their own Macs, PCs, iPads, and Chromebooks. The problem is — the way that Apple and Google have designed the MDM protocols in their operating systems requires the devices to be owned by the school to use the more restrictive controls needed in the classroom.
Not to get super technical but just looking at the Apple platform in particular, we have two kinds of restrictions we can apply to managed devices — Supervised and User Enrolled. User Enrolled restrictions are designed for companies to use to apply basic restrictions to protect company data on employee owned iPhones. This would be things like configuring a VPN or forcing a minimum passcode policy. Supervised enabled restrictions on the other hand, run the gamut of forcing a particular wallpaper to removing Apps (including Safari, App Store, or Camera) or restricting Internet access.
The solution that schools need is a third kind of enrollment type that doesn’t exist yet — School Enrollment.
School Enrollment would work like User Enrollment where an end-user enrolls their own device into management but system administrators would gain much of the control given to managing Supervised devices.
How School Enrollment Could Work
For this to work, the first thing we need is for Apple and Google to update their operating systems and carve out device management allowances for this new kind of device enrollment. This idea is dead in the water if the operating system isn’t modified to support it. However, once in place I’m sure it would take only a few months for every major MDM vendor to provide support for this.
The way I envision this working is through the existing Account Driven User Enrollment model where a school provides the parent with the ability to sign-in and enroll their child’s device. Most schools provide logins for parents to check their child’s grades and attendance. This can be the same username and password. The parent or school system administrator would be the only one who could remove the device from management once added.
Once the device is onboarded into the school’s management system, the school system administrator will push policies to the device that can substantially change the way it functions between a specific time frame or schedule. For example, during school hours on weekdays.
There are a multitude of restrictions that the school can enforce on the devices; in-line with the state, county, or district smart phone policy. A few examples include.
- Disable social media apps.
- Disable built-in camera, web browser, and SMS/IM apps.
- Disable the App Store and games.
- Force a specific wallpaper & Lock Screen that identifies the device as managed.
- Limit the functions of the built-in calculator app.
- Install specific apps and books on the device that students will need for class.
Once the school bell rings at 3pm, these restrictions automatically get removed and the device returns to its normal state.
Besides the enrollment process, the other thing that makes School enrolled devices different from organization owned is the added User Enrollment protections around privacy. Just like User enrolled devices, School enrolled devices would hide various things from the system administrator such as which apps are installed, browsing history, device serial number, and the like. This also allows parents to use Find My or Life 360 to monitor their student’s location or ping them in the case of an emergency.
I believe that if given the opportunity, most administrators would implement this MDM enrollment in their schools. Join me in calling on Apple and Google to extend their operating systems to provide for this new School enrollment paradigm. As more and more districts around the country move forward with cell phone bans, now is the time to demand a better solution.
Special offer: If you are a parent of a child under 16 and do not know how to make full use of Apple’s Screen Time to manage your child’s iPhone, check out my course on Apple Family Sharing & Home System Administration for only $19.99.
© 2024 Drew Smith — Automata Technology Services
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