Apple Classroom: Getting teachers on board

Technology is also a Classroom expectation. I encourage teachers to list it as an expectation and it follows my discipline code. If being sign into Apple ID & having Bluetooth on is a building/classroom expectation then if a student breaks that rule, I treat it as a discipline issue. It's like having your textbook in class, or paying attention, not being disruptive. Set the tone and include it in your classroom expectations.

You can also, via the MDM, make sure that students don’t turn off Bluetooth. That would solve the problem. Also let teachers ‘see it in action’ - sometimes seeing is believing.

Oh, that's interesting. What MDM prevents students from turning off bluetooth?

We have JAMF and we can set it to not allow students to change Bluetooth settings via a profile. However, our dilemma is that we cannot set it to "On" or "Off" -- so if it is Off when set the policy, it is off and the student cannot change it to on.

Depending on your ability to get this set properly in advance, you would want to get Bluetooth turned on for all student iPads, and THEN enforce a policy so they couldn't change it. Again, this is how we are talking about using JAMF in our district.

Have you seen this post? There may be some ideas shared here that are helpful. https://education.apple.com/en/story/250010768 😊

We use Mosyle for our MDM and Bluetooth is forced on. And through our MDM we can create the classes for Apple Classroom, so the teacher does not need to set up anything, just open the app.

I don't think I could teach without it anymore.

Hey Jim,

Just echoing the above from LadyBug, we take the same approach. It's a behaviour/classroom management conversation at the end of the day. I usually gently ask how they would deal with someone scribbling on a textbook and open up that conversation about building routines and expectations for their iPad as part of the whole classroom routines and expectations.

I think that the workflow features of Classroom are also a great selling point:

• the ability to share student work on the teacher device that's connected to a projector, rather than having to connect and disconnect to display each iPad
• being able to send files back and forth with students - especially that Apple Classroom automatically renames files to reflect the name of the student sending
• quickly sharing websites with students or small groups to help them navigate quickly
• End of class summaries that create a snapshot of what students are doing and where they are spending time (I often screenshot these and share with families or other staff as needed)

The management piece of being able to see student screens is great, but I think Classroom can be used to support workflow as much as to manage student use of the iPad, especially with the addition of Agendas (which I need to spend more time playing with).

I created this Slide deck to share with teachers based on info from the Apple Classroom support site if it's helpful.

I totally understand this! Is their a method through apple devices to lock them into their managed Apple ID and Bluetooth or is that up to individual mobile device managers?