Over the last few months, the Junior e-Learning Technologists have been sinking an insane amount of hours into researching how best to bring in – and protect – HRC-bought Apple devices such as iPads and iPods. This was spurred on by a few departments around the college asking about the possibility of receiving iPads for either educational or business purposes.
Whilst purchasing the products in bulk is not too much of an issue, the main problem has been trying to find a way of monitoring and updating the devices without negative obstructions interrupting any usage. It would be almost impossible to take back every iPad in the college each time an application had to be installed: There needed to be a way for both data and software to reach college-owned Apple products, no matter where they were…
Finally, after a battle rivalling the fabled David and Goliath story, there was a breakthrough. Using an online monitoring system called Lightspeed, all future tablets purchased by HRC will now be tracked by the e-Learning department – as well as keeping the original asset tags supplied by IT support. What does this mean for the staff and students hoping to utilise iPads in future lessons?
“Having all of the iPads on Lightspeed means that we can remotely control them, should the need arise. This is beneficial in both an educational and a security sense. For example; if a department has five iPads and then suddenly realise they want a particular application on all of the devices, we can download it in the office and then push it to all of those machines in one go. It also means that if someone tries to manipulate one of the iPads, we can prevent it.”
“The main purpose of this is to eliminate the need for staff and students to set up Apple accounts that they might not want. By bending Lightspeed, we’ve found a way to get apps out across the college with a unified e-Learning AppleID. This was tested on an iPad for Makbule and Mark of the Marketing department. It worked so smoothly, I was in shock. I wanted to keep checking if something was wrong! We’re still perfecting things, though.”
The apps we have wirelessly dispatched to the Marketing department, and most likely support staff in general, include:
> Facebook.
> Twitter.
> LinkedIn.
> Instagram.
> Pinterest.
> Vine.
Could the iPads act odd when put on the Lightspeed system?
“Lightspeed is only a background process. It won’t outright change anything on the device unless we tell it to. An iPad in a Mathematics classroom may very well have its cameras disabled if we feel they aren’t going to be utilised in a positive way. Conversely, iMessage and some of the gaming functions will be restricted unless a tutor expresses a specific need for them.”
“There is no need to worry about any iPads going rogue: The privacy and restrictions can be altered for each department upon request. It is true that we are able to lock iPads and completely wipe them to prevent anybody accessing private information – but as long as both students and staff members treat them with respect, there shouldn’t be any need to.”
Keep an eye on the blog for future updates and information about iPads and Lightspeed at HRC!
HRC e-Learning Blog 