Monitor Student iPads Remotely

Now we’ve got all of our students connected into Apple Classroom, it’s time to start seeing what we can do in terms of monitoring the devices that they’re using in the lessons.

So at the top of my screen, I can press the little screens icon, and that will then show a live preview of all of the iPads in my class group. As the iPads in my class are being used, I can see that students are using different apps and different things on the devices.

If I wanted to find out what all the students are doing in one particular app – say Times Table Rockstars – there’s actually a really clever feature on the left-hand side of Classroom, where it will automatically make groups for you based on the apps that are being used. So I’ve got a group for the Home screen, a group for Maps and a group for Times Table Rockstars, and tapping onto here will show me all of the students currently in that app.

That makes it really quick to check in on particular groups of students, perhaps ones who are doing a certain task or a certain activity, and just to ensure they’re all on the right track.

I can also tap onto an individual student’s iPad and then, on the new menu screen, press View Screen, and I’ll get a full-sized version of what they’re doing on their device. I can see them logging in in real time, and I can see what they’re doing close up.

As I mentioned, I can then jump into another group – perhaps Maps or perhaps the Home screen – and I can really quickly see what’s happening. But if I go back to All Students here, I might actually want to see the whole class, but a little bit bigger than they currently are.

So right now, the screen preview is really tiny, but my top tip here is to pinch and zoom, just like you would do in the Photos app, and that will actually enlarge those previews to whatever size you want. That means I can see all six of my students filling up the screen just like this.

Whilst these live previews are really handy, sometimes you don’t actually need to see what’s happening on those device screens – maybe you’ve got a poor network connection, or you just don’t want to see what’s going on. Well, if you press the screens button again in the top corner, it will hide those live previews and instead you’ll get the profile pictures or the student names showing up in the grid just like this. You’ll still get the app icon in the corner showing you what they’re currently doing.

If you want to learn more about Apple Classroom, check out the playlist on the end screen now – I’ve got a whole guide for you.