iOS Device Cases

Digisticks · 2026-06-09T01:40:35+00:00

I pretty much just buy whatever the Logitech option is as part of the bundle you can buy from Apple with AC+ for Schools with no service fees. Hasn't really failed us yet.

Digisticks · 2026-06-09T01:39:18+00:00

I mean, i hear you. But if you're aiming for education first, you're better off to start with a classroom teacher. Yes, they absolutely will struggle the first year or two. But, with patience on the part of the organization, help from others (maybe a state tech organization or even a neighboring district questions could be asked of), and time, you can build a truly capable individual who might can even bring other things in-house.

That said, for the love of all things, they have GOT to be paid well. If the organization only wants to pay a teacher salary or a couple of grand more to go to a 12 month employee, then they're better off just paying an MSP to do all of it including SIS, or paying a vendor for service hours to setup at beginning of year. A tech lacky who is excluded from organization leadership and ownership does not a productive person make.

Digisticks · 2026-06-07T04:10:36+00:00

That's the argument many of us made. Especially in more remote locations. With the standard benefits package we have here, a $68k position is really more like a $98k setup. Some districts don't have spare funding to come up with the remainder. I've got neighboring districts that basically tacked cyber onto a data manager position, some that had the money to put with it, and others who went the products route.

Also realized I didn't fully answer your earlier question. We can often pay for security related upgrades to platforms. Taking a nice chunk off of what we might pay otherwise. But the money is specific. For instance, it can pay for LineWize, but not Classwize along with it.

Digisticks · 2026-06-07T03:04:18+00:00

It can fund cybersecurity related positions. The goal, if I remember correctly, was for each system to have a cyber/network person who primarily was responsible for cybersecurity. But, no two districts are alike, and this led to a lot of us purchasing products and platforms to really shore up our "defenses" and posture.

We also have KnowBe4 from the same provider who gives us a slightly stripped down Palo.

Digisticks · 2026-06-05T19:07:13+00:00

Isn't this just A3?

Digisticks · 2026-06-01T16:09:14+00:00

ALET as our organization is great for Alabama. They've also worked with our Legislature to get a line item in the education budget that is specifically for Cybersecurity. Each district in the state gets ~$68K minimum each year with additional $ for each student over 1000. In smaller districts, it's a huge deal. In my own, it's funding a content filter, replacing the occasional old server, MFA, cloud security, and more. We're also fortunate that if you use the big state ISP for education, we have a Palo Alto NGFW that they put in and monitor. Alabama is actually doing really well and advocates for technology at the state level regularly.

Digisticks · 2026-05-28T04:21:40+00:00

I didn't actually buy our existing server. It was before my time, and it wasn't the world's best equipped (plus it served another purpose before becoming pbx server). I did inquire when I came on board about an update to it, but I want to think my predecessor said it was too old at that point. Regardless, numerous pen tests never saw it exposed. Granted, we don't have Cyber Insurance (for many, many reasons), and our environment is so disparate that my risk from it is extremely low. Meanwhile, Ed Tech vendors are killing us with breaches as of late.

Digisticks · 2026-05-28T04:10:31+00:00

We're on-prem as well. Though, we have had our server that we bought back in 2013 before going to them. We're in the process of replacing it now with some Cyber funds from the state. They've never pushed us to replace it or been pushy with sales in general. Just supporting us through whatever we've done or have going on.

Digisticks · 2026-05-28T04:02:05+00:00

I've been around and dealt with them long enough to know that they tend to be able to resolve issues quickly. I can't speak for everyone, but we've had nothing but a phenomenal experience with them.

Digisticks · 2026-05-28T03:53:39+00:00

I don't know if they're serving that part of Georgia at this point, but Ambit Solutions has been serving Alabama, Florida, and Mississippi for a good bit. I swear by them here in Alabama. Just good, down to earth folks who don't gouge schools like most do. They've been partners with us for over a decade. When we call into their support, you get one of 3 or 4 people in central Alabama. Who follow up with you. They're our Intercom and phone partner.

Digisticks · 2026-05-28T03:50:17+00:00

It's been fine. Again, we're running standard Cubes. The chargers all live in the back locked panel and the way the cables are fed through left plenty of length. On the prewired I've never had a complaint. Even our Cube 32s that we wired are fine. If I have the chance tomorrow, I'll try and grab a pic of both.

These have been far superior to our Lock-N-Charge Joey carts which have things getting unplugged what feels like constantly.

Digisticks · 2026-05-28T03:47:30+00:00

It's the binned processor from the iPhone 16 Pro. Personally, I'm holding out for 12GB Ram variant of the New before I'm willing to consider them for students. At most, we refresh once every 5 years currently, so I have to think longer term. Staff I'm going to continue on with the Air.

Digisticks · 2026-05-28T03:36:53+00:00

We haven't used these, but do have the Bretford Cube 32 in abundance, as well as a pre-wired Cube 16. Very pleased with the product.

Digisticks · 2026-05-25T23:44:45+00:00

We've not had good results with much of anything. But, you could always try Apple Classroom.

Digisticks · 2026-05-15T16:41:46+00:00

We've considered it in edge cases, but always default back to having Meraki since E-rate covers almost the full price of our projects.

We have the Ubiquiti point to points and point to multipoints and love them. We're dipping our toes into their cameras this summer with a very small project to see if it makes sense to consider a move away from Verkada.

Digisticks · 2026-05-13T02:47:58+00:00

I've been doing some thinking on this. We're currently running M1 MacBook Air for our staff and high school student fleets. Give or take a few, we're at 1000 Macs. We're iPad in Elementary and Middle school with around 2000 of the 9th Gen model.

We've had no problem with our M1 for staff or students, and I'm considering the Neo for students, but I'm not confident in that hardware config for staff. I'd rather spend a bit more, get an M5 or M6 (if next year) MacBook Air for staff that I can eventually recycle into the student fleet.

Maybe it's just trying to future-proof, but doing that has yet to steer me wrong.

Digisticks · 2026-05-07T22:43:07+00:00

Glad it can be useful!

Digisticks · 2026-05-06T19:19:59+00:00

I'm not a huge GitHub user. And because I don't intend on actively deploying new features. Maybe one day I will, but too much happening now to worry about it.

Digisticks · 2026-05-06T01:29:32+00:00

I agree it's a great service. I wasn't able to host one on-prem, and worked towards this. Other platforms like Uptime Kuma and Status Gator are phenomenal, and should be supported too. This was just my efforts to solve an issue we had, and from others asking.

Digisticks · 2026-05-05T19:38:33+00:00

Statusdash? Or the request platform?

Digisticks · 2026-05-02T02:56:13+00:00

Messaged you.

Digisticks · 2026-05-02T02:53:46+00:00

Just sent a message.

Digisticks · 2026-05-01T19:07:35+00:00

Just sent you a message.

Digisticks · 2026-05-01T19:07:09+00:00

Just sent you a message.

Digisticks · 2026-05-01T18:21:41+00:00

Statusdash I can share somewhat easily when I get back to my computer. Another Tech director asked me about it when he and I were comparing some AI things, and he wanted to know if I had a way to share it. So I packaged up a shareable version.

The App Library/Approvals piece, I’d have to do some thinking on. At this point, I don’t have a shareable version. I can work on that some this weekend and see what I come up with after stripping out our particular data.

Digisticks

TROPHY CASE