Moving forwards with Mac for Teachers & Pupils

[goldy77]

Hi, I just wondered if anyone has any experience of a predominately Mac-based school environment running on Windows-based servers? I am due on site this week to investigate solutions to overcome their main problems which are:

 

AD Password expiation (not able to change passwords have to go to a Windows PC)

Easy Access for Pupils to access their areas (Home drives)

File corruption when sharing to public areas and accessing files on a different Mac.

 

The school are already embracing Office 365 so the long-term goal if possible would be to use SharePoint for file collaboration and perhaps JumpCloud Directory Platform as a directory service due to issues with Mac OS and Azure AD and the cumbersome approach I think it will take.

 

I really welcome feedback from anyone who has Mac's properly co-existing in a windows domain, with pupils logging on with themselves as they would on Windows and having appropriate drive maps, permissions etc. along with teaching staff also with the ability to change their directory passwords.

[DalekSec]

Firstly, get a decent MDM to manage the Macs, Jamf if you have the budget. Mosyle if not.

 

You should be able to map home drives simple enough, Mosyle picked it up straight away from our AD users and mapped it to the dock. No issues with file corruption, been awhile since had any issues between Mac and Windows in general. Only issue normally is people saving .pages files!

 

Unsure on the AD Password exp as we don't an expiry.

 

We are also heavily into 365 so all our shared areas are in SharePoint so no need to map extra drives etc.

 

As i said before, first thing is to trail some MDMs and make sure they do what you need them to do.

Edited May 10, 2021 by DalekSec

[goldy77]

Thanks for the response. Believe they have Mosyle at the moment but only managing the iPads, not the Macs. Will no doubt pose more questions after my visit :-)

[Brimstone]

The solution here is...

 

Jamf Pro, a proper MDM with support for Azure AD using Jamf Connect

Jamf Pro

https://www.jamf.com/

 

Jamf Connect

https://www.jamf.com/lp/jamf-connect-secure-mac-authentication/

 

Apple School Manager Federated with Azure AD for Managed Apple ID

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/apple-school-manager/apdb19317543/web

 

Bear in mind, if you are working with macOS files in Logic Pro or FCP these files have to sit on the local drive not a network drive

[paulkerton]

...Mac-based school environment running on Windows-based servers?...The school are already embracing Office 365 so the long-term goal if possible would be to use SharePoint for file collaboration

If its Microsoft for everything else, why aren't they jumping on Windows devices too?

[goldy77]

If its Microsoft for everything else, why aren't they jumping on Windows devices too?

 

Teachers are very pro Apple and have now invested in Apple throughout. - They do have to use RDS for SIMS.... so Windows is around but very much in the background.

 

Just trying to find a happy medium, and get them over the annoyances.

[ozydave]

If its Microsoft for everything else, why aren't they jumping on Windows devices too?

Ditto [emoji848]

[DalekSec]

If its Microsoft for everything else, why aren't they jumping on Windows devices too?

 

We're a very Microsoft 365 school, but even we see why Macs have their place. Logic is an industry standard now so you have to teach the kids how to use it if they want to go into the music industry.

 

It's not that hard now to get Macs and Windows working together, just a half decent MDM and you're good to go*

 

*Yes i know you dont need an MDM to domain join Macs but good luck managing them without one!

[TwistedHelixis]

but even we see why Macs have their place. Logic is an industry standard now so you have to teach the kids how to use it if they want to go into the music industry.

Logic is also on Windows

[paulkerton]

Logic is an industry standard now so you have to teach the kids how to use it if they want to go into the music industry.

It's not an industry standard. Itls a dominant monopoly player that Apple would love you to believe is an "industry standard". Pro Tools is used more than Logic. Cubase is huge in Europe as is Ableton.

 

As a school we teach them the techniques to be able to use various different tools. If Apple and the music industry want schools to become Logic training centres, Apple and the music industry should be funding that.

[DalekSec]

It's not an industry standard. Itls a dominant monopoly player that Apple would love you to believe is an "industry standard". Pro Tools is used more than Logic. Cubase is huge in Europe as is Ableton.

 

As a school we teach them the techniques to be able to use various different tools. If Apple and the music industry want schools to become Logic training centres, Apple and the music industry should be funding that.

 

Good thing we teach both Pro Tools and Logic, both on mac

[jmak]

As they have M365, they already have Azure AD. You can set up Azure AD Connect to allow self service password reset with writeback to on premises AD, available from any browser.

 

Could be a quick win.

[Brimstone]

It's not an industry standard. Itls a dominant monopoly player that Apple would love you to believe is an "industry standard". Pro Tools is used more than Logic. Cubase is huge in Europe as is Ableton.

 

As a school we teach them the techniques to be able to use various different tools. If Apple and the music industry want schools to become Logic training centres, Apple and the music industry should be funding that.

Apple already provides millions in funding.....

 

https://www.apple.com/connectED/

 

And offers schools and institutions across the world something called "an education discount" for both hardware and software.

[FN-GM]

Logic is an industry standard

 

I would argue that it is the role of colleges to teach and prepare students for the workplace.

[paulkerton]

Apple already provides millions in funding.....

 

https://www.apple.com/connectED/

 

And offers schools and institutions across the world something called "an education discount" for both hardware and software.

 

And so do most of the other suppliers. They're hardly unique in this. Schools, once again, are not training providers for existing products.

We aren't there to teach people how to use Word, we teach people how to use a Word Processor. We aren't there to teach them how to use a particular Operating System, we're there to teach them how they function generally. We aren't there to teach them how to use Logic or Pro Tools, we're there to teach them how to use a DAW. We teach them transferrable skills, not particular tools.

[paulkerton]

I would argue that it is the role of colleges to teach and prepare students for the workplace.

I would argue that it's the role of colleges to teach and prepare students, and that a side-effect of that is that they're ready for the workplace because you have given them transferrable skills to do so.

What if someone left Post-16 to work for Derby County Community Trust (Office 365) and then moved on 18 months later to go down the road to Burton-Upon-Trent and work for the FA at St. Georges Park (Google Workspace). Then they left there to go and work in the customer engagement department at British Airways (Apple/iPad). At what point did the school/college fail this person by not going down the "industry standard" route? They didn't if they taught transferrable skills rather than "industry standards" (which don't exist)

[FN-GM]

I would argue that it's the role of colleges to teach and prepare students, and that a side-effect of that is that they're ready for the workplace because you have given them transferrable skills to do so.

What if someone left Post-16 to work for Derby County Community Trust (Office 365) and then moved on 18 months later to go down the road to Burton-Upon-Trent and work for the FA at St. Georges Park (Google Workspace). Then they left there to go and work in the customer engagement department at British Airways (Apple/iPad). At what point did the school/college fail this person by not going down the "industry standard" route? They didn't if they taught transferrable skills rather than "industry standards" (which don't exist)

 

Very true!