For technology professionals in K-12, one of the hardest parts of going 1:1 is figuring out how to manage the devices. Someone needs to be responsible for updating the operating system, installing and updating learning applications, managing access to network resources and setting permissions. Traditionally, those responsibilities fall to the school’s technology team, but not at Montclair Kimberley Academy in Northern New Jersey (MKA) where students in grades 4-12 are 1:1 and serve as administrators for their own MacBook laptops. That means the devices are not locked down and students are largely responsible for taking care of the technology themselves. MKA has designed a program that combines academic rigor with ethical use of technology. Students are taught not only how to use their devices, but how to use them responsibly.
“In a lot of ways it’s better to teach this generation how to use the technology appropriately…so that down the road when they’ll be asked how to make decisions about technology that we can’t even fathom, they’ll be able to make the right decision based on the philosophy of the program we put in place,” says Damien Barrett, system technician, MKA.
MKA has had this unique model in place for about 10 years now. While it’s not something that will work in every school environment, it’s worth exploring as as an option for mobile device management (MDM).
“We’re a private independent school so we have quite a bit of latitude in the rules that are set about how technology can be used,” Barrett says. “That’s not always true in public schools and it varies state to state.”
The Philosophy
The idea behind MKA’s unique MDM solution is simple. Turn out students who are responsible digital citizens in both how they treat technology and how they conduct themselves online. The idea for this program first came about in 2009 when the school began looking into going 1:1, but plans were eventually put on hold in order to make improvements to MKA’s technology infrastructure.
“We had to beef up our wireless and beef up our switches and our port counts as well as better plan our VLAN,” Barrett says.
Going 1:1 wasn’t an entirely new concept for the school. It’s been providing devices to its teachers since 2004, but outfitting students was a little different. From the start, MKA leadership knew they wanted their students to be administrators of their laptops. According to Barrett, this seems like a radical concept for K-12, but it shouldn’t necessarily be that way.
“We have a lot of institutional knowledge about managing 1:1 laptops and most of that, in my opinion, comes from the enterprise market,” Barrett says. “In the enterprise world it’s status quo to lock equipment down and to not allow your end users to be administrators and to limit what can be done so the device can only be used for work related tasks or education related tasks.”
The leaders at MKA do not believe this is the best approach and instead, would rather view technology mishaps as a learning opportunity. If a student installs a program they shouldn’t have, Barrett can tell. He uses the JAMF Software Casper Suite to actually physically manage student devices and monitor what’s happening with them. If a student installs something that becomes problematic, Barrett can bring it to their attention and explain why whatever they downloaded is causing an issue.
