Mobile Computing | News

Buffalo School Deploys Tablet Management for 1-to-1 iPad Program

• By Dian Schaffhauser
• 08/19/13

As part of a program to provide Apple iPads to all of its students, St. Joseph's Collegiate Institute has deployed software to manage the tablets. The Buffalo, NY-based boy's college prep high school will deploy the new devices after an anonymous donor provided $150,000 to buy the iPads for all students and teachers — about 800 people in total. The donation arrived after the school set up an iPad 1-to-1 program for each incoming freshman class.

School administrators expect students to use the devices to access digital curriculum, perform online research, and use online applications.

The school has chosen AirWatch, which provides software to allow an organization to manage bring-your-own-device programs, with mobile device management capabilities and security features.

"Using tablets managed by AirWatch gives teachers more control at a classroom level, while still providing students with an interactive e-learning experience," said Steve Koniarczyk, the school's technology integration specialist. "Our students' safety is a priority and AirWatch gives faculty and parents peace of mind."

Three features are of particular importance to the school:

• Roles-based access to give granular control to a teacher to manage his or her particular classrooms devices, including pushing out applications and enforcing locks on apps on devices to keep students focused during class;
• Application management, such as the ability to integrate with the Apple Volume Purchase Program for allocating school-paid applications to students and faculty in a granular fashion and for getting the right applications and content to the correct student or teacher at the same time; and
• Application restrictions that give teachers the ability to guide students to applications for download that are recommended for education and are either pushed to the student from an administrator or populated in the school app catalog.

Software from AirWatch has also been used at Coachella Valley Unified School District in California, Brunswick County Schools in North Dakota, and DeKalb County School District, among others.