Education State of the Union

The Education State of the Union session is your reference guide to everything happening in education at Jamf. This year’s session started with Suraj Mohandas, VP of Product Strategy, introducing the key elements and motivators of Jamf’s education strategy.

We are proud to work with schools worldwide to help students succeed with Apple. Jamf’s solutions are currently used in 40,000 institutions globally, empowering over 42 million students via one-to-one or shared Apple devices.

Enabling the successful deployment of Apple devices is only part of the story. Empowering student success through an ecosystem that supports teachers, parents and school leaders is central to what we do. To make the best use of Apple in education, deployments must be purposeful and have clear objectives. Purpose should guide educators’ decisions, while IT teams must leverage the right technology to achieve the intended purpose.

Transforming teaching and learning with Apple and Jamf

What strategies are required to solve education problems at all levels of the student landscape? With this question, Mat Pullen, Senior Product Marketing Manager of Education, entered the stage. He presented thoughts based on three foundation areas:

• Seamless & scalable technology deployment: Regardless of the size or type of organization, the tech focus has moved away from merely providing access to devices to enabling users to be more productive than before. Education institutions must ensure that people can effectively use technology in their role.
• Building future-ready skills: The job market is ever-changing, and areas like Artificial Intelligence can potentially affect over a billion jobs. In education, we can prepare individuals for new opportunities by fostering new ways of thinking.
• Maximizing the total educational impact of your implementation: Technology can enable educators to develop efficiencies and reduce workload and the burden of repetitive and mundane tasks. Utilizing tools that optimize teachers’ time can help meet recruitment and retention challenges.

Mat believes IT admins are responsible for the outcome and must focus on helping teachers get empowered to use the technology so it doesn’t become just a box at the corner of the classroom. They should also take credit for the work they do in solving education problems, as well as the impact their work has on creating a successful educational experience.

Stories of impact

To showcase stories of impact in education, Mike Lawrence and Dr. Emily McRoberts-Froese, Education Leadership Executives at Jamf, come to the stage. They selected the following case studies:

Taiwan’s Ministry of Education (MoE) deployed iPad devices to schools across the country, using Jamf Pro to manage a large-scale 1:1 program. The iPads are personalized for every student, allowing them to work independently. In addition, Jamf education apps on iPads enhance engagement between teachers, students and parents, while Jamf Safe Internet prevents students from accessing inappropriate content.

Over eight weeks, more than a hundred training sessions were hosted by Apple and Jamf, with an average of 10,000 iPads deployed per day, ultimately training 3,000 teachers.

The College of Architecture at Texas A&M University needed a dedicated enterprise mobile device management (MDM) solution for their Mac environment, so they sought out input from their peers and landed on Jamf Pro following a successful trial. The team was excited about how much time they could save on admin tasks with Jamf Pro and how switching to Jamf improved the efficiency of device deployment workflows. They expanded the use of Jamf solutions to manage Apple TVs, and in partnership with Carousel Digital Signage, they created a new signage solution that blended seamlessly into the physical architecture.

Stadt Bremen is one of Europe’s biggest Jamf Education deployments and the largest in Germany. It encompasses 90,000 devices, all using Jamf School and Jamf Teacher to keep students interested and engaged.

Community impact

To talk about Community Impact, Valeria Tschida, Community Education Program Manager, comes to the stage. Valeria gives an overview of the Active MATTER Innovation hubs, 16 student-centered spaces across the world that foster problem-solving, creativity and active learning using Apple devices and Jamf.

She shared that in Zimbabwe, a new MATTER Career Readiness Institute, a state-of-the-art facility that evolved from local innovation hubs, is opening on November 2nd. The institute will continue to develop essential work and life skills and partnering with organizations for internships. In Apia, Samoa, an innovation hub was opened in partnership with UNESCO and the government of Samoa, where students are using Apple devices and Jamf School.

Key updates for 2023

Mat Pullen comes back to the stage for a quick recap on the key 2023 releases in the education space. Jamf School, Jamf Pro and Jamf Safe Internet have received updates to user interface and functionality, as well as enhancements on security and cryptojacking prevention. There are additions to the Marketplace, with new and exciting partner tools to support educators in making the most of technology, as well as a new education certification, Jamf School 240.

For additional support, Jamf promotes sessions and webinars, such as the Jamf Breakfast Club and the Jamf Security Lounge, to improve awareness of education and security topics within the Jamf community.