Bradley has worked at K-12 independent schools for much of the last 20 years, serving as the head of the information technology department and leading classroom technology integration. He’s well-versed in enterprise Wi-Fi, macOS and iOS system management, school technology, and SaaS tools.
Screen Time was one of the key features in iOS 12, and it does seem like something Apple is committed to as a focus of iOS going forward. Kids love their iOS devices, so it makes sense for Apple to continue to enhance ways to help parents going forward.
We recently learned that Apple has been cracking down on third-party apps that provide parental controls, so it got me thinking about how Screen Time could be enhanced to give parents greater control with iOS. Here are some ideas I came up with for Screen Time upgrades in iOS 13. If you have any more, please leave them in the comments. Expand Expanding Close
Even though my school mainly uses iPads, we still have a suite of ChromeOS devices in our library. There are 10 Chromebases (the iMac version) for students to use, and then we have a Chromebox for our librarian to use to check books in and out (she has a MacBook Air as well). We’ve had this computer in there for the past four years, and I have not touched it since it was installed. ChromeOS auto updates, it’s easy to manage remotely (not that I did much), and never once gave us a problem. Last week, it started shutting down randomly on us, so I decided it was time to replace it. I got on Amazon, found a similar model, and I ordered it. I then emailed one of my vendors so I could add the management license to it.
The process of replacing the machine was a breeze. I unplugged the old one, plugged in the new one, enrolled it in our management system by logging into a managed account, and then it restored everything like it was before. If anything, Google has nailed the web terminal experience. If you need a device to access your current web apps inexpensively, you’d be hard pressed to find a better machine. A lot of schools are pondering iPad vs Chromebook for upcoming technology refreshes, so I have been thinking about what the next decade of computing in enterprise/education looks like. Expand Expanding Close
A report prepared for the Senate on Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election says that the way in which Google complied with requests for information made it harder to analyze the role played by YouTube …
This article is meant to serve as the most up to date guide to backing up your Mac. Unlike iOS, there is no built-in cloud backup feature that will cover everything on your device to an offsite server. I am often asked by friends and family about backups, so I wanted a way to just send a simple article they can follow.
If you are hesitant to pay for anything, think of it like this: If your hard drive crashed, and I offered to restore everything for less than a meal at a restaurant, you’d take me up on it. Even in the age of flash storage and SSDs, failures still happen. Don’t forget about data losses due to theft, fire, and accidental damage (spilled drinks, drops, etc.). The most important thing I can communicate is you need to act like all of your devices have a chance of breaking tomorrow, and you need to be prepared. Here’s my guide on how to back up your Mac:
As we head into the new year, I’ve been pondering ways Apple could improve macOS and iOS deployments in my school. Back in October, I wrote about the fact that Google was soon to be adding an LDAP feature to its G-Suite product. At the time, we didn’t know how the pricing would end up for K–12, but in the weeks since, we’ve learned that it’s free. In case you aren’t aware of what LDAP is, it’s a way for applications to lookup to another directory for populating user accounts in another. It keeps IT departments (and users) from maintaining multiple user buckets.
How does this impact Apple? Well, they’ve taken a different approach when it comes to populating data. For K–12 districts, they’ve started offering student information system (SIS) sync. They only support a few at this time, though. While Apple’s approach is a modern take on this problem (LDAP is legacy technology), I don’t think they’ve gotten all the way there yet.
About Making The Grade: Every Saturday, Bradley Chambers publishes a new article about Apple in education. He has been managing Apple devices in an education environment since 2009. Through his experience deploying and managing 100s of Macs and 100s of iPads, Bradley will highlight ways in which Apple’s products work at scale, stories from the trenches of IT management, and ways Apple could improve its products for students. Expand Expanding Close
As I have done over the past few weeks, I am finishing up 2018 by looking at Apple’s various product lines to see how far they have come, where they are at, and where we hope they go in the future. As we think back to the Series 0 Apple Watch (released in 2015), it’s tough to believe how far the Apple Watch has come in just a few short years. The Series 4 Apple Watch was released a few months back, and by all counts, it’s the best Apple Watch ever released (if not the best wearable as well). Expand Expanding Close
It’s getting to the end of 2018, and I am excited looking ahead to 2019. This point in the year is when I start thinking forward to what the next round of iOS updates will bring to my day job and my computing life. I am likely looking at purchasing 250 of whatever non-pro iPad Apple releases in the spring, so I am starting to consider what software these devices will be running soon after school starts. Based on rumors we’ve heard for a while, iOS 13 looks to be an “iPad focused” release, so I am expecting big things. When I think about my current challenges with iOS and iOS device management, here are some items on my iOS 13 wishlist. Expand Expanding Close
The Christmas season is upon us, and everyone that I know is out trying to cross people off their gift buying list. Being an IT Director in my day job, there are always IT related items that I like to ask for every year. From extra dongles, new network testing tools, to the latest training manuals, here are gifts for IT professionals that I can recommend. Expand Expanding Close
Over the past few weeks, I’ve been writing a few articles looking at what areas I think Apple is doing well and struggling with its various product lines. I looked at the state of the iPad and the state of the Apple TV. This week, I want to look at the state of the Mac as we quickly head to the end of the year. What’s the best Mac laptop to buy? What’s the worst Mac to buy? What do we hope for heading into 2019? These are all questions I aim to answer as I look at the state of the Mac in 2018. Expand Expanding Close
For the most part, the K–12 technology market has revolved around Apple, Google, and Microsoft. One of the major players that has been non-existent is Amazon. While it does have its Whispercast service, I haven’t heard much about it in years. This week, I want to look what might happen if Amazon focused on education.
A few days ago, Apple released a new ad for the iPad Pro that gives five reasons it can be ‘your next computer.’ While I thought the ad was well done, I did come away from it frustrated. While I’ve been a big proponent of the iPad for a long time (I’ve bought 500+ iPads over the past eight years), I think the video shows serious flaws with Apple’s mindset at the moment. And I’ve been thinking, is the iPad Pro worth the money? Expand Expanding Close
Because we’ve kicked off the Christmas season, and I know many of you will be looking for gift ideas for your child’s teacher, I wanted to give you some great tech items that you can purchase for them as Christmas gifts. Whether it’s the latest accessories for their iPad or some fun Wi-Fi enabled gadgets, these gifts will no doubt be a hit! Be sure to follow @9to5Toys on Twitter for all the latest deals during the Christmas season! Expand Expanding Close
Many of us will travel to be with various family members over Thanksgiving. If you are like me, you are the resident “tech person” in your family, so for many family members that you only see once or twice a year, this is their one shot to get you to help with the problems and run routine maintenance on their devices. Here’s our list of family tune-up tips for the Holidays. Expand Expanding Close
One of my biggest complaints about Apple Music is the lack of reliable notifications of new music from artists I follow. In the past few weeks, two of my favorite bands have released new albums, and Apple Music didn’t give me a push notification. While they were at the very bottom of the new release section in the “For You” tab, I often forget to check it. This has been my major complaint against Apple Music for a long time, and Spotify handles notifications exceptionally well. Expand Expanding Close
Last week I wrote a “State of the iPad” article that I received some great feedback from throughout the following days. I thought I’d take the time to write a similar article about Apple TV. The Apple TV was first announced as iTV back in 2006. Steve said the goal of it was to enjoy your iTunes media on your flat screen TV. While Apple TV has undoubtedly evolved over the last 12 years regarding scope, hardware, and features, the original goal is still pretty close. It aims to let you enjoy your digital content (not just iTunes) on your TV. How well is the Apple TV doing? Is the Apple TV better than Amazon Fire Stick and Roku? Expand Expanding Close
The story about the past few years in K–12 has been iPad, iPad, Chromebooks, iPad, and more Chromebooks. There’s a major product category from Apple that is often not mentioned in K–12 anymore: the Mac. What’s the situation with the Mac in K-12? Is it something school districts should consider? If so, which model of the Mac should be the go-to for school IT departments? Let’s take a look at the modern history of Apple in Education. Expand Expanding Close
There are a lot of people I talk with that love Apple hardware, but also love Google services (especially Gmail). One of the downsides to using Gmail in a Chrome or Safari window is you miss out on a lot of benefits of using a native email app. Using an app like Kiwi for Gmail, you can get the benefits of using the Gmail interface (along with Google Drive and its apps) with Mac hardware.
It’s hard to believe that the iPad is now eight years old. I still remember hearing the rumors of the Apple tablet, watching the keynote, and being shocked to see the price at $499. When you go back and watch the original introduction, Steve Jobs asks the question: “Is there room for a third category of device in the middle?” Expand Expanding Close
The iPad mini has had an interesting history. When Phil Schiller first showed us a look at it in 2012, I was hooked immediately. Despite not having a Retina screen, I was in love with it. It was a great size for reading books, watching video, and browsing the web. In some ways, it showed us the path to larger iPhones. Fast forward to 2018, and we are only on the 4th generation of the iPad mini. The iPad mini 4 was released over three years ago, and we still don’t have a replacement. Despite being three years old, it’s still a great iPad. Expand Expanding Close
Last week, I wrote an article about the laptop I hoped Apple would announce at their October event. That event has come and gone, and I’ve gotten no less than 10 Twitter DMs and many iMessages from friends asking “Is the MacBook Air a good laptop?”.
In short, the Retina MacBook Air was a exactly what I wanted them to announce. The new MacBook Air is now the Mac I recommend to most people. It’ll fly off the shelves for college students and enterprise buyers.
In the early days of the iPad, the App Store was one of the key advantages it had over competing products. Compared to Windows PCs (and even Macs), The iPad had a wealth of apps that were unique, only available on iPad, and were low-cost. Schools were flocking to the iPad for that reason. We were coming from the days of $50/per machine licensing to $1 per iPad licensing. In the very early days of iPad in schools, Apple told us we could buy one copy of an app and use it on all of our iPads. This was before the volume purchase store went live, though. In those days, we were loading apps via iTunes. Now the discussion is around web apps vs iPad apps. Does this hurt Apple in K-12? Expand Expanding Close
Managing Apple devices in the enterprise is something I think a lot about, so I am always happy to learn about new companies who are doing interesting things in this space. A somewhat new player in this space is Fleetsmith. They’re a cloud-based MDM provider that focuses on macOS, tvOS, and iOS. They’ve got some interesting features that I am excited to explore further.
I am a few days removed from attending the annual Jamf Nation User Conference, and I’ve been pondering the entire three-day experience. I settled on this general question as I was sitting in the day one keynote: What is the state of Apple in the enterprise? Expand Expanding Close
Earlier this month, we learned about Apple’s upcoming October iPad Pro and Mac event. Many people are wondering what Apple will announce on 10/30. While I don’t know what Apple will announce, I do have high hopes that Apple will solve a problem I am facing in my job. Expand Expanding Close
