itopia, a leader in cloud automation and orchestration, today announced that Iowa’s Council Bluffs Community School District is leveraging its virtual labs solution to provide students in-home access to the same apps they use to explore digital media on campus.
For years, photography and media teacher Randy Lau had been disappointed that students around the district could not edit photos from home, limiting their abilities to explore and build creative skills.
The Council Bluffs Schools had been using on-site Windows labs, which came with the burden of being limited to access only during school hours. As the district wished to move closer to a hybrid education model of both on-site and at-home learning, the district turned to itopia and Google Cloud to facilitate learning from anywhere on students’ portable Chromebooks.
Using itopia, the district can create virtual labs and classrooms on the fly, delivering access to creative Windows apps like Adobe Creative Cloud on Chromebooks that students can readily use from school, home, or any location. With one-click from a centralized dashboard, itopia makes it simple for school admins to add students to new classes each semester and easily push app updates as a student’s curriculum changes.
“itopia should really take pride in how they are enhancing students’ academic achievement and ultimately benefiting our students and our community,” said John Stile, Chief Technology Officer at the Council Bluffs Schools. “With this partnership, students are able to more easily access tools to help them reach their academic potential”
“The opportunity to explore tools like Adobe Photoshop shouldn’t be confined to a few, strict hours at on-site Windows labs because of technical limitations,” said Jon Lieberman, CEO at itopia. “The Council Bluffs Community School District now has a way to foster their students’ imagination at home the same way they do at school.”
Switching to itopia and Google Cloud enables the district to get more out of their investment in Chromebooks, and eliminates the need to buy and maintain expensive equipment for on-site Windows labs.
“Now, with everything set up, it’s become easy for my students to access even our most graphically intensive apps from their Chromebooks while studying at home,” said Mr. Lau. “And we’ve found the technology is very simple to use, especially with itopia’s Google Cloud automation.”
“Itopia didn’t just apply a band-aid to a problem, they modernized how the students at Council Bluffs access the software and services they need most – all delivered through a browser on a Chromebook, and powered by Google Cloud,” said Kyle Azua, GCP K12 Specialist at Google Cloud.
As schools’ technology needs evolve, itopia remains focused on providing students seamless access to all the apps they use at school so they can continue their progress as inspiration strikes upon returning home.
About itopia
itopia is a comprehensive cloud orchestration and automation solution for Google Cloud Platform, simplifying IT management for desktops, apps, compute, storage, networking, and security. Enterprises use the itopia platform to facilitate increased productivity and efficiently manage distributed teams of employees. Current customers include some of the leading companies in healthcare, education, Call Center/BPO, telco, and manufacturing.
About the Council Bluffs Community School District
The Council Bluffs Community School District is where every student experiences more choices, more opportunities, and more ways to succeed. Every day, we ignite potential across academics, athletics, fine arts, and extra-curricular activities so that each child is able to access – and celebrate – their unique gifts and abilities. Within this culture of expertise, collaboration, and caring, we prepare students to be their best selves.
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