Air Drop Question

[vdammer]

I'm an assistant principal at a school and we are having trouble with kids Air Dropping things onto other kids and teachers computers. Whenever the users # has come up, we have had our tech guys trace it. The past two times it has been traced to kids who have no evidence of this on their device.

Today in fact, I took the student's iPad, but the other student who was receiving messages from "this iPad" is still receiving them...even though the iPad is literally in my hands. How is this happening? Is there any way of tracing where this is coming from? This kids is getting death threats and I'm concerned if kids can do this but make it look like it's coming from someone else.

Please help!

 

[steve knight]

I'm an assistant principal at a school and we are having trouble with kids Air Dropping things onto other kids and teachers computers. Whenever the users # has come up, we have had our tech guys trace it. The past two times it has been traced to kids who have no evidence of this on their device.

Today in fact, I took the student's iPad, but the other student who was receiving messages from "this iPad" is still receiving them...even though the iPad is literally in my hands. How is this happening? Is there any way of tracing where this is coming from? This kids is getting death threats and I'm concerned if kids can do this but make it look like it's coming from someone else.

Please help!

usually the ipad getting the airdrop has to ok it. How does this get around that?

 

[vdammer]

usually the ipad getting the airdrop has to ok it. How does this get around that?

[doublepost=1489018913][/doublepost]Yes, most times this has to be accepted...but these are kids and accept whatever comes across their screen.

We have also had issues where teachers have music that just comes up blaring on their computer. They are not accepting anything and obviously do not want this. We do have Air Server and Apple TVs too so maybe it's not an Air Server issue?

 

[steve knight]

[doublepost=1489018913][/doublepost]
Yes, most times this has to be accepted...but these are kids and accept whatever comes across their screen.

We have also had issues where teachers have music that just comes up blaring on their computer. They are not accepting anything and obviously do not want this. We do have Air Server and Apple TVs too so maybe it's not an Air Server issue?

yes kids will be kids. but now I am past my expertise.

 

[ericwn]

The issue with the music might be students using Airplay to play content on an Apple TV. Maybe check the Apple TV's settings, maybe just enabling conference room display (might have a different name, not at home right now) will solve this already. It requires a code displayed on the TV in order to connect. Best success!

 

[Ledgem]

Are the devices in question the property of the school, or the personal devices of the students? If it's a personal device, I'd advise them to change their AirDrop settings to "Contacts Only." This has two effects:
1) It should prevent children from receiving things from classmates who aren't close enough to be on their contacts list;
2) It will prevent spoofing and clearly identify who (or whose device) is initiating the send. Accepting AirDrop from "everyone" will cause the device name (which can easily be changed in settings) to show up as the sender, but if the sender is in the Contact List, then the device name is replaced by the Contact List entry.

If the devices belong to the school, I'm not sure what options you have to lock the devices down and disable Bluetooth (and thereby, disable AirDrop).

I have no experience with Air Server, but Apple TVs can be locked down. I'm not sure exactly how far the security can go; in most cases the code to connect is displayed on a screen, which would still make it easy for students to connect. I'd be surprised if you couldn't have a more secure option, though.

As an aside, thanks for doing what you're doing in the education system. Thinking about these issues reminds me of how happy I was to be done with grade school.

 

[tgara]

I don't have an answer to your question, but I just finished listening to a podcast by Fraser Speirs, an educator in Scotland who works with the iPad extensively in the classroom. He noted in the podcast that he uses Airdrop all the time to deliver materials to students and without the problems you described. You might want to reach out to him for advice.

http://fraserspeirs.com/

Good luck.

 

[steve62388]

[doublepost=1489018913][/doublepost]
Yes, most times this has to be accepted...but these are kids and accept whatever comes across their screen.

We have also had issues where teachers have music that just comes up blaring on their computer. They are not accepting anything and obviously do not want this. We do have Air Server and Apple TVs too so maybe it's not an Air Server issue?

Why are these students allowed to have their devices out and used in class causing a distraction? Isn't this the equivalent of passing notes and should be banned? If the devices are used in the lesson why aren't the students educated not to accept incoming Airdrops or to just turn off Bluetooth? If the tech can't be made to bend to your will shouldn't you look into these options?

 

[Badrottie]

Wait.....did you check to make sure Julian Assanges is not in any of classes?

 

[neutrino23]

There is not a lot of control for Airdrop. You can turn it on, off, or restrict it to devices whose owners are in your Contact list. If kids want to play with this I don't see how you stop it.

If kids want to stop it they can set it to Contacts only and then be careful who is in their Contacts. I'm not sure how the devices identify each other. I'm pretty sure it is not simply the name of the device. Maybe the Apple ID?

The name that shows up is not unique. It is whatever name you set for your iPad. There could be many iPads at school named "this iPad".

I would go to an Apple Store and get help there. There might be some more information available.