About your iPad device

This article presents some key resources to help you understand how to get the most out of your District iPad. It's always kind of under construction, so don't be afraid to check back for updates!

Identify your iPad

Some key details about your device, both the hardware and the current software, are useful in identifying it administratively within our fleet. There should be, on every District iPad, a "lockscreen message" at the bottom of the screen that appears when you first "wake up" a device from its sleep state. Different versions of iOS may display this block slightly differently, but you should see most or all of the following:

Device name, as it appears in the Settings app under General > About > Name.
Device location, as it has been assigned via device enrollment or subsequent administrative move.
Device owner, if one has been assigned. (If not, it will just say "username".)
Borough Number, as per the Borough Tag sticker or engraved number on the back of the iPad.
Serial Number, as it appears on the back of the iPad or in the Settings app under General > About > Serial Number.

If you're reading this on a District iPad, you can get to this lockscreen either by swiping down from the top left of the screen, or by pressing the power/lock button once to cause it to lock, and then once again to wake it up.

What's on your iPad?

Among the available apps on your device, there are a few key resources that can help you find other ones.

A WebClip (which looks like an app) called KPBSD iPad, which points you here. (If you're looking at this article from a District iPad, you may have just tapped that WebClip to get here.)
An app for installing managed App Store apps onto your iPad, "on-demand" or "self-service" style. This will be the purple Student app, whose full name is actually Jamf School Student.
On devices running iOS 15 or higher, the App Library helps you find apps already installed on your device.
On devices running iOS 11 or higher, the Files app helps you manage files between local iPad storage and cloud accounts.
A WebClip which allows you to self-enroll the device specifically to your user ID, called Azure Webclip.

You do not need to use an Apple ID to get apps!

The article Overview of iOS Apps for District iPads explains how you do not need to sign in to the iPad with an Apple ID, to get apps from the App Store. One of the prime benefits of using mobile device management (MDM) is that we instead offer a proxied relationship with the App Store, through an "on-demand" or "self-service" app catalog. For us, this is the Student app mentioned previously.

Note: if you have been using one of the old "cart" Apple IDs (e.g., "ai-31-cart001@kpbsd.k12.ak.us") to sign in to District iPads, please discontinue that practice and lean on the MDM for app distribution. If you feel you have a specific need that isn't yet available, by all means contact the Helpdesk and we'll figure out the best way forward together.

What's a device owner?

When we refer to a "device owner", we mean a user ID recognized by the KPBSD address book. For students it's the student number; for employees it's the employee number. This user can be "assigned" to a device, administratively; in this case, the "owner" designation means that a few things that are actually user-driven rather than device-driven, become possible. (By far most administrative features are device-driven, but some examples of user-driven features are: being able to assign content-licensed books, custom pre-configuration of some apps, and some of the richer features of the "classroom" and "teacher" apps collaborating together.)

Most iPads currently in the District are what we would call "cart" devices, which are not assigned to a single student or staff member, and which in fact might get picked up and used by several different people on any given day. These devices would not have a device owner. Some 1:1 staff devices, however, would imply a true device owner, and there are a couple of District schools which do use 1:1 student iPads.

There is a mechanism for self-enrolling your iPad so that you become the device owner; and devices can also be assigned, or un-assigned, an owner by simple administrative request. For such requests, and for further questions about any of this, by all means contact the Helpdesk.

The official iPad User Guide from Apple

See the article iPad User Guide (Apple) for details and tidbits about the official iPad User Guide.

Learn more about your iPad

As mentioned above, this article will get updated, as appropriate, with the most important bits for you to know about your District iOS device, but please be aware that other articles may also appear and get updated in the District's support knowledge base too. We're always adding things to this knowledge base as we can, and that includes tidbits and details about our Apple fleet as well as Chromebooks and Windows machines.

The knowledge base is searchable from any article (including this one; look up at the very top for the search bar!), or from the support portal's entry point.

If you prefer to browse an overview, a good place to get started is the main public-facing folder for iOS Users. (There is also an iOS Users folder for employees, which requires authentication.)

Contact the Information Services Helpdesk

Finally, remember that you can always get further help by contacting the KPBSD Information Services Helpdesk.