In 2025 John Curtin College of the Arts will be running a mandated device program for students in Year 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11.
Year 12s are strongly encouraged to bring their own devices.
This FAQ addresses purchase and technical information.
What does MDM enrolment / device management mean?
The Device Enrolment Program or DEP is a method of telling the iPad that John Curtin is trustworthy and authorised to send instructions and commands to it. We use a service to manage our devices called JAMF. JAMF is our Mobile Device Management or MDM solution and it provides us the interface to send out apps and instructions to the hundreds of devices enrolled with our school.
By managing the device, we can seamlessly load apps, documents and ensure adherence to school guidelines across all iPads while connected to our school network.
What will the device be used for?
The One-to-One Program will become our classroom standard, starting with the Year 7 group in 2021 and progressing through each subsequent year group.
The iPad provides an opportunity to unify students’ needs into a single device through digital textbooks, access to their online timetable and attendance sheets, access to learning resources and their student office accounts, word processing, internet research and note taking.
What role does the iPad have in the classroom?
The iPad is expected to become a ubiquitous and multipurpose tool for students across their subjects. While it cannot replace the processing power or specialisation of the desktops in our computer labs, it has a place in almost every course stream in our curriculum. It is more than a replacement for a calculator, notepad, timetable and textbooks. Our teachers will be able to distribute educational applications specialised towards their teaching requirements to the devices of their students and tailor lessons to fully leverage the power of digital technologies in the classroom.
Why is an iPad mandated?
An iPad is mandated to provide a unified platform for directed learning in the classroom. While digital technologies provide powerful teaching aides, they are also an equally powerful source of distraction. By using iPads, we can fully leverage the power of the digital classroom by returning control to the teacher, providing a platform for truly directed learning. This is possible because of the level of control teachers can have over the student iPads through services such as Apple Classroom and our MDM system.
Can an older iPad be used?
If the iPad runs iPad OS 18 it can be used, however, the process of enrolling the device will wipe it – for more details see below. Existing devices that are locked to a lower version can continue to be used, but we are raising the requirement to 18 to ensure that all office software will remain usable for students entering the school with newly acquired devices.
What do I need to do to prepare a device for enrolment?
Ensure all data is synched to iCloud or copied onto an external storage device. There are three points to take note of:
- The ‘Backup’ feature of iCloud can’t be used as it would overwrite the newly enrolled device.
- The student can log back into their iCloud account on the newly enrolled device to access any synched Icloud content such as photos or redownload apps from the App Store (iCloud only has 5GB of storage by default, please be aware that photos exceeding this amount won’t be synced unless you’ve paid for the service).
- Many creative apps such as Procreate do not sync their projects to iCloud. Their content is still included in an ‘iCloud backup’ but can’t be browsed and downloaded as you would iCloud photos. For apps with data such as sketches, paintings or collages etc, we recommend exporting the project files and saving them on Google Drive or on an external device.
Prior to bringing the device for enrolment, please sign out of iCloud or turn off ‘Find my iPad’.”
Can my child bring another device?
Year 7-9 students in 2025 may only bring an iPad and no additional devices. That iPad must support iPadOS 18. Our Device Enrolment Program page covers specific device recommendations.
Students in grades 10 – 12 can bring alternative or additional devices. For students in years 10 – 12 we add the option of a MacBook to our recommendation. While we provide use of our labs, students in streams such as Media Arts often find it beneficial to have access to their own device capable of tasks such as video editing.
We will do our best to service devices students are equipped with, including any additional devices they may bring, however iPad’s that cannot run iPad OS 18 will not be supported.
What restrictions are put in place at school?
We aim to have a simple set of restrictions that will apply while the device is on campus, which will keep the device and it’s user focused on education.
While a fully detailed list of restrictions exceeds the scope of this FAQ, it can be summarized quickly:
- Restrictions on device features (e.g. Autocorrect)
- Restrictions on applications and services (e.g. iMessage)
- Restrictions on content (any media detected by our filters as not adhering to appropriate use guidelines)
In every instance, affected features or content are disabled or hidden until the device leaves the premises at the end of each day.
Can I remove restrictions?
No; to avoid the accidental removal of our profiles and apps by students, restrictions cannot be lifted from the device itself. Should the restrictions no longer be required, for example your student has left the college, the restrictions and all college applications will be removed remotely and the device will be fully autonomous. If they need to be lifted prematurely for any other reason, such as because the device was replaced or refurbished, you can contact John Curtin IT support to request it.
How do I control the device at home?
We provide parental controls for the device, to ensure consistency, any restrictions applied through the JAMF parent portal will only apply outside of school hours. Further information on how to use parental controls will be provided at the start of the 2024 school year in a parent information evening.
Where should I order from?
You can find our purchase portal with Winthrop Australia here.
Is financing available?
Winthrop Australia provides rentals via Studio19.
If the iPad is lost, stolen or broken what happens?
We recommend the AppleCare+ program and a solid case, both of which can be found on our purchase portal and One-to-One Program information page. Accidents happen and the majority of breakages occur during the first several weeks or months of ownership.
Access to AppleCare Support is not based on the ownership of the device or application, so staff, students and their families can access it. AppleCare Support is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It provides technical support for:
- Apple software and operating systems
- Apple applications, such as Keynote
- personal Apple accounts or settings.
The Department’s AppleCare Enterprise agreement does not provide any extra hardware coverage.
To contact AppleCare Support:
- phone 1300 760 237
- when prompted enter access code 2961
- follow the prompts to select your Apple device.
We will do our best to ensure the safety and security of all devices on campus, however we also expect students to treat their own devices and the devices of others with care and respect.
For lost or stolen iPads, as long as the devices are enrolled in DEP, we have the ability to remotely lock them into Lost Mode and track lost or stolen devices. Naturally this does not apply to lost pens or other peripherals, so please ensure those are clearly labelled. In all cases, if a student loses their iPad, they should report it to IT at the earliest opportunity.
Stolen devices
The device cannot be used without direct intervention from the school. Locks on DEP devices cannot be bypassed, removed or prevented by any method outside our own systems. Apple will not unlock it without a copy of the original receipt. Such a device cannot have the true ownership changed and will remain locked from the moment it is reported until the original owner informs us it has been returned.
Lost devices
If the device is on, its location can be accurately pinned down provided it’s still in signal range due to how lost mode works.
Under most circumstances device location data is only regionally accurate – lost mode automatically removes all limitations to provide positions accurate to a few meters.
If the device is off, we can check its last known position and the last wireless access point it connected to, narrowing down the location to a classroom. Naturally this is only reliable when reported as being lost immediately and is unhelpful if the student carried the device elsewhere while it was off.
What apps do I need on the iPad?
For apps that are universal to all our courses, and subjects, such as the JAMF student app or SEQTA they will be added to the iPad automatically.