iPad portal page..?

[abillybob]

Hey guys

Just started a new job at a primary school in Kidderminster. They have around 100 iPads throughout the school and at the moments the kids are just using them as stand-alone devices that connect to the internet. I want them to talk to the network I have a Mac server and a Windows Domain Controller and was wondering whether or not it is possible for a student to turn on an iPad and it shows them a custom made page where they need to sign in with their user name and password which then can link each user to their own area. I was thinking of Tonido as this application dosen't just work with iPads but every mobile device?

 

What you all reckon? Any help would be most appreciated.

 

Alex

[Stevecee]

Hi

 

I'm working at a special school in Kidderminster, we have around 40 ipads, also have a mac server and am just about to look at webdav, have been pointed to an app called webdav nav (i think that was the name:-) ). Going on a course on Thursday, hopefully find out more then.

 

Steve

[hallb15]

What you are wanting to achieve sounds simple enough, however it is likely to be anything but simple! There's all sorts of apps out there for this kind of thing and many schools have been there already so there is quite a bit of knowledge out there.

We are looking to implement ipads later this year so I'm in the early stages of research at the moment. The one product that keeps coming up as being very capable is Meraki's systems manager. Its free, cloud based, and very comprehensive.

Cisco Meraki - Cloud Managed Networks that Simply Work

You'll also need to find out how to use Apple Configurator. This site gives a very good insight into how it works. What I've learned about apple configurator so far

 

Hope that helps you a bit!

Edited June 18, 2013 by hallb15
Typos!

[SovietRussia]

Im in the process of building one;

 

You load up the iPad, login with your AD credentials (Calling a custom build web-based back end in PHP), it then checks the bind - If good - Redirects user to a custom start screen with teacher-customizable apps and access to their home area. Using the built in Guided Access to lock it down.

 

 

Excuse the Junk.txt files, they are there for testing

Edited June 18, 2013 by SovietRussia

[abillybob]

Thaks for all your help guys webdav is currently what the school is using. I don't rate it to put it blunt due to the fact all it really does is allow you to access samba shares and view things it's not very graphically friendly and easy for the kids (im at a primary school). I have looked into Meraki and I proberbly will do again very good bit of software to lock iPads down and keep the kids at bay thankyou for all your help if you do have any other suggestions keep them coming haha

[zag]

Im in the process of building one;

 

You load up the iPad, login with your AD credentials (Calling a custom build web-based back end in PHP), it then checks the bind - If good - Redirects user to a custom start screen with teacher-customizable apps and access to their home area. Using the built in Guided Access to lock it down.

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]18676[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]18677[/ATTACH]

 

Excuse the Junk.txt files, they are there for testing

 

VERY cool!

[Steve21]

Im in the process of building one;

 

You load up the iPad, login with your AD credentials (Calling a custom build web-based back end in PHP), it then checks the bind - If good - Redirects user to a custom start screen with teacher-customizable apps and access to their home area. Using the built in Guided Access to lock it down.

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]18676[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]18677[/ATTACH]

 

Excuse the Junk.txt files, they are there for testing

 

Curious, but what stops them just closing the page and using the internet/normal apps etc?

 

Steve

[SovietRussia]

Curious, but what stops them just closing the page and using the internet/normal apps etc?

 

Steve

 

Guided Access, locked down to 1 app. (This app)

[abillybob]

Curious, but what stops them just closing the page and using the internet/normal apps etc?

 

Steve

 

To be honest the reason I was a bit put off by this is it gets rid of the value of having an iPad, the only way I can describe how I see it is your running another O/S on the top of ios which the kids have to use though in my point of view the whole point of having iPads is to surely get the kids to learn how iOS works and not just a portal page I just don't want to loose the ios look and feel about them but it is a good concept.

[Danp]

Im in the process of building one;

 

You load up the iPad, login with your AD credentials (Calling a custom build web-based back end in PHP), it then checks the bind - If good - Redirects user to a custom start screen with teacher-customizable apps and access to their home area. Using the built in Guided Access to lock it down.

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]18676[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]18677[/ATTACH]

 

Excuse the Junk.txt files, they are there for testing

 

Nice work!

[Matt-iLearn24-7]

There is Something in Casper Suite called Focus can do similar things to guided access which is good for classroom management however i agree with Alex that lockdown defeats the purpose of an iPad for me. We should be keener on teaching new techniques and ideaologies in the classroom and having freedom to learn in ways they learn best?

 

But in terms of MDM solutions there are a few that can help with what you are trying to achieve. Casper, Lightspeed, Meraki (free for the most part of it)

[Alis_Klar]

@SovietRussia Have you seen LearnPad in action? Basically does what you are making but for Andoid. Kudos to you for attempting it on iPad as you are at the mercy of what Apple will let you do.

 

However one of the Casper Focus Webinars hinted that they had made feature requests to Apple for locking down to more than 1 app at a time. Currently they can only "focus" on 1 app at a time using guided access via their MDM. Casper Focus is a iPad add aimed at teachers to use in the classroom. This essentailly remotely controls thier MDM software and push updates are used to update the student iPad with new settings in real time.

[Alis_Klar]

Slightly off topic but have you had a look at foldr? Havn't tried it myself but it basically exposes windows server shares to iPads. Foldr comes as a virtual appliance that you run on your internal network.