Apple releases Classroom app for iPad

[Zoom7000]

With the release of iOS 9.3 yesterday, Apple have released the accompanying Classroom app on the App Store.

 

Classroom turns your iPad into a powerful teaching assistant, helping a teacher guide students through a lesson, see their progress, and keep them on track. With Classroom, you can easily launch the same app on every student device at the same time or launch a different app for each group of students. Classroom helps teachers focus on teaching so students can focus on learning.

 

Assign Shared iPads to students

- Once configured, Classroom connects to nearby student devices

- Classroom intelligently assigns students to the Shared iPad they most recently used

- Log students out of Shared iPad at the end of a session to prepare for the next class

 

Start, focus, or pause student work

- Launch any app, website, or book on student devices with a tap

- Lock devices into a single app to help students focus

- Lock screens to pause work or refocus your class

 

See what your students see with Screen View

- See an overview of all student screens at once

- Focus on a single student screen

- Students are informed when their screens are being viewed

 

Share student work on the classroom Apple TV

- Showcase the great work your students are doing to the class

- Use AirPlay to wirelessly present a student’s screen

- Students are informed when their screens are being presented

 

Reset forgotten passwords right in the classroom

- Reset a Managed Apple ID password without calling IT

 

Organize student devices using groups

- Classroom automatically creates groups of students based on the apps they are using

- Teachers can create groups to break students into project teams

- Perform actions on entire groups or on individual students within groups

 

Great for use with both 1:1 and Shared iPad student devices

All actions take place over the local network only

 

Requirements

 

iPad with iOS 9.3 or later

iPad (3rd generation) or later, iPad Air or later, iPad mini (1st generation) or later, iPad Pro

App configuration via Mobile Device Management server

Supervised Student devices enrolled in Mobile Device Management server

Bluetooth and Wi-Fi enabled on both student and teacher devices

Student devices within Bluetooth range of the teacher device running Classroom

 

It needs an MDM configuration profile, but I'm not quite sure how to do this yet. I'm using Cisco Meraki and I'm planning to update all my devices to iOS 9.3 next week. Has anyone seen any documentation about MDM configuration for this?

Edited March 22, 2016 by Zoom7000

[MMPS]

Even though it says the requirements are iPad (3rd generation) or later, the shared iPad feature only works on iPad Pro, iPad Air 2 or iPad mini 4.

 

From the looks of it, you must be enrolled in the Apple school manager program https://school.apple.com, which is replacing the device enrolment and volume purchasing program for schools. But it looks like its still in beta and only accepting enrolment from US schools at the moment (if anyone knows differently, please let us know)

I haven't tried it with the existing device enrolment program yet, due to the slight technical hitch of having our iPads stolen last week

[ModeratelyGruntled]

About three years' too late (and still counting for an official UK release) on hardware that's twice as competitive as its rivals.

 

I'd love to have a true multi-platform environment to compliment our existing Windows/Learnpad/Android provision but unless the Classroom App turns out to be a must-have I can't see us investing.

[MMPS]

We have some staff who are obsessed with all things shiny and Apple, so they pushed the ICT co-ordinator to purchase iPads instead of expanding the Learnpads, despite my concerns about the lack of monitoring on iPads. If it works as well as the Learnpads, it would be an acceptable compromise, despite the extra cost.

 

That said, with the introduction of shared iPads, it wouldn't surprise me if they changed their volume purchasing program from per device licensing to per user licensing.