Tech tips for teachers: Monitoring your iPads

Monitoring your iPads is the best way to ensure that they’re being used correctly and not distracting students from their work.

Here, we’ll outline a simple monitoring solution that takes up minimal class time and keeps you focused on teaching.

Why you need to monitor your iPads

Introducing iPads into the classroom can open up a world of learning opportunities for your students. However, this method also presents some challenges for teachers:

• Safeguarding – Making sure that students only access appropriate and relevant content.
• Distractions – Keeping students away from non-work-related applications.
• Trust – Ensuring students repay the trust that you have instilled by giving them this device.

Providing that you’ve got these three key areas covered, iPads will make a dynamic and engaging addition to your classroom.

And, with these simple steps, you’ll go a long way towards keeping everything running like clockwork.

Monitoring your iPads

There are several ways you can monitor iPads effectively in your classroom. Here, we’ll introduce you to some of the techniques that will help ensure that your use of iPads is optimised:

Before deployment

Before handing out iPads to students, there are some steps you and your fellow staff can take.

First, speak with the school management about implementing an ‘acceptable use policy’. Deciding on such a policy is likely to require an open channel of communication between your IT staff, head teacher and school governors.

Once this has been confirmed, ask the students and their parents to sign a waiver agreeing to the policy. In this waiver, outline the consequences for breaking the contract (e.g. device is taken away, restrictions are increased).

Next, use an Internet filtering system that ensures students can only access educational content that’s acceptable for their age group. Your IT department should be able to set this up.

Finally, configure the devices to your school’s precise settings using a ‘device enrollment plan‘ (DEP). This plan includes blocking apps (messaging, games etc.) and restricting website access. Again, this will fall under the remit of your IT department.

In the classroom

Rather than teaching primarily from the front of the class, establish a routine of presenting information from various spaces within the classroom.

The dynamic presence of you and your TA will help to dissuade students from using their iPads for purposes other than those they were intended for.

Also, try adapting lesson plans so that students become accustomed to using iPads for part of the lesson only. This way, you can ask them to safely store their iPads while you’re engaged in direct teaching.

If that’s not enough, new apps like ‘Classroom’ and ‘Meracki’ allow teachers to monitor devices in real-time, view screens, lock multiple devices at once, and log students in or out of hardware.

So, there you have it, a few ways to make monitoring your iPads a piece of cake. Start introducing these methods today, and reap the benefits for both you and your students.

Monitoring your iPads is wholly achievable when you implement these steps. Call Utility Rentals to find out how you can make iPads a critical part of your educational programmes.