Students embrace learning at MATTER Innovation Hubs

Innovation Hubs impact entire communities

This partnership shows us one of the most important aspects of our Innovation Hubs: much of the time, Innovation Hubs aid students in learning and teachers in teaching, but they also enrich others in the community and help provide for career opportunities.

The interns learned a wide variety of skills, from taking the Jamf 100 Course to learning how to be Mac admins using Jamf School. In order to do the work, students learned coding and logic, set up devices and even did the wiring to connect the iPads. This will send them out into the community with a solid grounding in on-demand skills.

MATTER Innovation Hubs in other countries impact the greater communities as well: teachers all over have access to the Hub for teaching or for their own technological education. For instance, in Zimbabwe and Afghanistan teachers are earning Apple Teacher Certificates, which equip them with in-demand skills that open up future career possibilities.

The work behind the Innovation Hubs

“An enormous amount of work goes on behind the scenes to bring these Innovation Hubs to life,” says Dave “Salty” Saltmarsh, Global Education Strategist, Jamf. “Partners like MATTER, Urban Ventures, the Jamf Foundation and the Bayat Foundation are essential in order to create new opportunities and get technology into the hands of students. These Hubs,” he added, “give students access to powerful Apple products and app-based STEM/STEAM curriculum to help them develop new skill sets in critical thinking, problem-solving, collaboration and creativity.”

Jamf School: the best technology for organizing Innovation Hubs

Kelly Watkins Conrad points out: “Some of the classes have 40 students or more per classroom. Being able to really stretch the technology as much as possible is super important so that every kid is able to use the device.”

Using ‘locations’ in Jamf School allows local managers to access their own Jamf instances, which stretches the technology even further.

Jamf School’s ability to use photos of the students so that their pictures appear when they are logging in also allows for ease of use: “Not all kids know how to use an iPad, says Conrad, “and not all of the kids at the Matter Innovation Hubs speak English. Having something recognizable like their picture to start their experience is so important. It not only builds confidence but also helps with equity within the Matter Innovation Hub space.” In addition, students with identical names can be sure they are logging into their own account rather than others.

From learning Apple admin skills and coding to learning new teaching strategies, students and teachers around the globe are gaining valuable skills and a newfound love of and familiarity with Apple technologies. We can’t wait to see what our Jamfs, our teachers and our students do next!