The iThis or iThat has been a major topic of discussion in several recent individual and group meetings. I completely understand why and this post isn’t about debating the pros and cons or the reasons for all of the fuss. I do want to make a quick point and mention a few company names in this post.
First, a general point to be made here: Countless times, I’ve seen districts try to save money on the front end only to kill themselves in man-hours on the back end when new initiatives and technology are implemented. My opinion is always subject to change, but I see two options for a K-12 CIO facing an implementation of iDevices in their environment:
Option 1 – the ‘minimalist’ approach – Set the expectation from the beginning that you’ll get them on the network and make sure they can access the Internet. Anything else is up to the user. By “anything”, I mean anything related to behavior issues, app purchasing and deployment, repair (since they can’t be repaired by your staff), etc. I know some reading this will say “there’s no way that will work”, but I would at least put that option on the table. Face it, others often assume that you CAN manage all of those app and behavior issues at the tech staff level, so let’s at least get the thought (or the reality) out there in discussion that your staff not be responsible for these things.
Option 2 – the truly managed approach – I’ve been to a couple of sessions by Apple staff. They’ll admit that, as it pertains to proper enterprise deployment and management, they’re learning as well. These devices are being used in ways they didn’t originally imagine. I heard several references to wikis and posts made by other administrators and to non-supported software and processes to perform tasks. Putting a large number of these devices into an enterprise is not an easy task. It isn’t something that everyone else has figured out. There isn’t a ‘standard’ way of doing it. I would submit that, at least for now, the ‘truly managed’ approach involves some third-party enterprise software to assist with iOS management.
See my point? Try to either get OUT of the business of managing these devices or fully commit and truly get IN the business and insist on some sort of third-party tool to help you work more effectively and, with any luck, keep your sanity. Here are a few companies mentioned in a session I attended yesterday:
Absolute Manage by Absolute Software – says it will help you “…manage the PC, Mac and iOS devices in your deployment from a single interface.
Casper Suite by JAMF Software – says it integrates with VPP and it’s “…the only client management solution developed exclusively for the Apple platform.”
AirWatch – Looks to be focused on mobile devices and also mentions the Android OS, Windows Mobile and BlackBerry.
MobileIron – I’m struggling with their web site at the moment but their site mentions a server you would install along with an app for the device. It says you can recommend apps and ensure that users can only run authorized apps.
I’m not saying any of those products are wonderful or terrible, but I am saying that all of the discussion I’m hearing makes me believe that district tech leaders either need to help set a policy that puts them in a “connect it and forget it” mode with these devices or else they should push hard for a software product like one of these mentioned that may be able to help you effectively manage these devices.
[Image – Courtesy: National Science Foundation]
Jody, Thanks for the information. We are all struggling with these issues and have learned the hard way that no one wrote a rule book for us to follow before we started getting overrun by iDevices. I appreciate your research.
Lee
Lee, thanks for the kind words. I took the application names from a session that Todd W. did last week at WKEC (like the one at GRREC a while back). I guess my point is that this is NOT the time to make a heroic CIO effort and "do your best" without the tools needed to assist you. It's an opportunity to advocate for the district to really define their desires for these devices and either truly manage them (with the help of the proper tools purchases as part of the effort) or take a truly minimalist hands-off approach and have a district-wide understanding of what that means.
Jody — I appreciate your help in clarifying some of the choices we have to make. I am leaning toward the minimalist approach but keeping my eyes and ears open for sensible advice to pass on to staff.
It is still the "wild, wild, west" out there and we will need to hang on and ride it out — my biggest move presently was to implement network management to keep both secure and guest networks aimed to the AUP and CIPA devices in place in the district. It will not stop anyone from using Mobile Enterprise data plans from bringing in inappropriate content which then pushes it into the Digital Citizenship and good classroom management side of the house.
That being said — there were some additional bits of advice regarding purchasing plans (at least for Apple devices) that are in a transitional phase at present that I plan to pass on to school staff as they become available (i.e., District owned e-mail addresses — perpetual — for purchasing apps). As you said — they are learning as well and making changes as they go so attempting to keep up on latest trends will be important.
Susan