Paperless Hall Passes in School: There's a (Student Made) App For That

Visit mPass Website

Last year, one of our middle school teachers had an idea for a paperless hall pass. Since all of her students had iPads in our 1:1 program, she figured it would easier to use an app instead of paper. There are a lot of problems with paper passes, including the ability to easily track and manage how often students are using passes in each of their classes throughout a day (and for some, even attempting to take advantage of the system). Students used to have a page in their paper assignment planners for hall passes, but since that was eliminated and had gone digital, a new solution was needed. 

Seventh-grader Omar, center, developed the mPass iPad app.
Also pictured (l-r) Pete Dymit, MME Principal; Minnetonka Director of IT,
Mike Dronen; and Dave Eisenmann, Director of Instructional Technology

Another teacher, Michelle Brunik, heard about this idea and shared it with a former student, Omar, who was inspired to create it. He had used MIT's App Inventor back in sixth grade in her STEM class where he learned the program's easy to use drag and drop interface and made Android apps. Omar was part of a Coding Club after school and worked with an older student, Jacob, who helped him transfer the idea from an Android prototype to an iOS app using Swift and XCode. The students used the online lessons in Treehouse to learn Swift.

After the initial prototype, Omar found that the original code was not suitable enough for what was needed. So he started from scratch using Swift, Xcode and then integrated Firebase (which he learned on his own) to the mix to develop the app as it is today. He worked with members of our Technology Department to use XCode and publish the hall pass app to JAMF, the Mobile Device Management system for our iPads. 

Omar then presented the hall pass, called mPass, to all the teachers at his school at a staff meeting. Teachers tried it out for a week before rolling it out to all students. They figured out the number of passes that would be issued per quarter, the length of time allotted per pass, whether or not students using the pass would take or leave their iPad on their desk (showing the pass being used and time left to be gone), as well as decided on their rules for what happens if a student stays too long (the teacher can pull another pass). It was used successfully by 1,100 students this past spring and will be used again this coming school year.

Now with digital hall passes, teachers have data on how often kids are leaving class and can see this total by individual. It helps better track students, time limits, and eliminates the confusion of the unknown. Later this past spring, Omar surveyed teachers and students to get feedback and suggestions for features to add. Although students like the idea of a digital hall pass created by one of their own classmates, not all students like the accountability; they preferred the old method that made it easier to sneak out of class!

You can learn more about this project in the video above (starting at 59 seconds) or on Omar's website. mPass will soon be in the Apple App Store for commercial use for other schools for the upcoming school year. Check it out!

To learn more about Minnetonka coding program, Tonka Codes, please see these related articles below:

• Minnetonka Linear Algebra 8th Graders Use Bootstrap to Code
• More Than an Hour of Code: Tonka Coding & Computer Science Programs Now in Year Three

• Video Game Design and Computer Coding at High School

• 7,843 Hours of Coding this Week @TonkaSchools

• Computer Coding Starting in Kindergarten

• Minnetonka Elementary Coding

• Details about the Curriculum and Program

• What's Cool in Our School

• Minnetonka Summer Coding Camp

iPad Setup & AppleIDs Simplified: Out of the Box & Running in Minutes

In the past few weeks we have had over 7,000 students and staff set up an iPad in our new Mobile Device Management system. Half of these students and staff kept their iPad for the summer. The other half turned in their iPad on the last day of school in June and received a new iPad Air 2.

iPad Setup Instructions

For the students and staff who kept their devices over the summer, we provided these instructions on how to erase and self-enroll their iPad into our new Mobile Device Management system, Casper, this summer. Then in August, juniors and seniors came to school early to pick up their new iPad Air 2 and take it home. They were tasked with having it set up and ready to go for the first day of school, September 6, following the same instructions.

Starting on the second day of school and over the following week, we handed out new iPads to all of our fifth and sixth grade students during class. After spending about 45 minutes in class, students had their iPad initially set up (following the same instructions which we also had in the slide deck shown below).

In a later class period, teachers followed up with additional instructions and tips (also shown in the second slide deck below).

Setting up iPads for individual students in 2016 is a much easier task than it was just a year ago because it is now possible to set up new devices without individual Apple ID accounts. This greatly reduced the time we spent setting up devices compared to past year, helping individuals with Apple IDs, forgotten passwords and email addresses. Most students were able to have a working iPad ready to go just a minute or two after turning it on for the first time.

We do still have students use an Apple ID for backing up their iPad itself and Notability notes to iCloud. In the past we had to have Apple send each student’s parent an email for approval, and as you can imagine (or perhaps lived through yourself), spent a lot of time following up with parents to determine if they received the email, resend it, etc. All that headache was gone this year and we were able to create non-commerce Apple IDs for students under age 13 using Apple’s School Manager System without relying on parents’ involvement. Our tech staff even emailed each fifth grader their Apple ID and temporary password to make setup even simpler.

I am thankful for all of the staff who worked so hard this summer and during first week of school to make this year’s rollout run smoothly. I am also thankful for our community and their continued support of technology in our schools.

Related Posts:

• Bigger, Better, Faster: New iPads Coming for Year Six in Minnetonka's 1:1 Program; First Devices Cost $0.38/school day 

• Free iBook about Minnetonka's 1:1 iPad Apple Distinguished Program: Four+ Years Transforming Learning

• School's (Almost) Out, So Keep Your iPad for the Summer

• Minnetonka Top 100+ Ideas for 1:1 Integration in 5th grade, English, Math, Science, Social Studies, and World Language

• Tip #1 for a Successful 1:1 Implementation: Execute the Rollout Carefully and Deliberately 

• Tip #2 for a Successful 1:1 Implementation: Differentiate Teacher Training

• Tip #3 for a Successful 1:1 Implementation: Use Schoology as the Classroom Hub

• Tip #4- Make Full Use of the iPad as a Formative Assessment Tool
• Tip #5 for a Successful 1:1 Implementation: Make Classroom Management  an Early and Continuous Focus

• Great 1:1 Program Evaluation Questions for Student, Parent, and Teacher Surveys
• A Big Bang for Your Buck: The iPad for $0.44/day: Less than a Chromebook