Why Do Education Institutes Need To Manage Their Smartphones And Tablets?

The advent of technology has influenced the use of mobile phones in educational institutions all around the world. After the Covid-19 crisis, digital learning modules have been adopted even in the most conventional educational institutions. In the current world scenario, mobility is not only a desire but a necessity. With technology being embedded into everything we do, there has been a tremendous surge in schools and colleges deploying mobile devices such as smartphones, laptops, desktops, tablets as a learning medium. Technology has offered students a digitally immersive and remote way of learning. Mobile learning processes provide convenience, interaction, flexibility, agility, and engagement for students as well as the faculty. 

However, all these benefits can only be reaped when mobile devices are integrated in a secured and managed way. When these devices are integrated poorly, technology can distract, overwhelm, stifle, and obstruct the learning process for the students as well as the workflow for the teachers. Likewise, the use of mobile devices gives students the opportunity to access unwanted online content, and social media and expose the devices to innumerable potential network vulnerabilities. But banning technology from classrooms due to these challenges and barriers is no longer effective in the current learning environment where integrating mobile devices is imperative for schools to not only expand their classroom horizons but to leverage the academic growth and performance of their students. 

So, how do institutions mitigate the challenges of managing their mobile devices and retrieving maximum benefits from their smartphones and tablets?

To fully unlock the potential of digital learning, the mobile device management (MDM) solution is becoming a highly sought-after tool by the vast majority of progressive educational institutions. MDM solutions for education enables IT admins to manage, control, monitor, and track the entire lifecycle of devices enrolled with the software. CubiLock is one such mobile device management solution that offers cloud-based Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) for a wide variety of Android mobile devices. Contrary to their on-premise solution counterparts, a SaaS solution is typically quicker and more cost-efficient to implement for education institutions as they don’t require additional hardware or management, monitoring, and maintenance which all come included in SaaS solutions. The main goal of CubiLock is to provide a simple, fast and affordable mobility solution for businesses of all types and sizes.  

In this article, we will discuss the importance for education institutions to manage their mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets to ensure that the devices are used in a controlled and secured manner and to provide an optimal learning environment with the least scope for distractions for their students. The key focus areas for deploying mobile devices in the education sector are:

Endpoint Security 

CubiLock kiosk lockdown mechanism ensures to limit the features of any Android mobile device and strictly use mobile devices for educational purposes. The whitelisting/blacklisting of apps and websites allows admins full control over what can be accessed by their students. When the access to distracting platforms such as social media, gaming/streaming websites, entertainment apps, and messengers are restricted, the problem of attention deficit is solved effortlessly. Students can then easily focus and concentrate on increasing their academic performance.

Likewise, it secures the mobile devices used by the school with passcode policy, Factory Reset Protection (FRP), remote wipe-out, and encryption that protects student information, files, and digital textbooks even in case of device theft or loss.  

Cost - efficient 

With CubiLock, schools, and colleges can now make learning affordable to students all around the globe. It reduces the cost of manually enrolling, deploying, managing and maintaining the device throughout the entire device lifecycle. CubiLock bulk enrolls all devices Over-The-Air (OTA) with Android Zero-Touch enrollment which helps handle fluctuating student enrollment throughout the years. It remotely pushes updates, policies, app configurations, and device settings which saves time, money as well as resources for the institutions. 

Seamless learning environment

When using digital means of communication and learning modules, technical issues and system failures are common occurrences. Without a vigilant IT team that stands by at all times, it is impossible to ensure lectures are not disrupted. CubiLock MDM solution substitutes IT teams and automates troubleshooting of devices in real-time in case of such issues and minimizes device downtime to maintain the classroom decorum and ensure a smooth learning experience. 

Insight for educators and parents

CubiLock facilitates tracking student activity logs with full device visibility through its centralized console. It allows teachers to gain insight, analyze and assess their student’s academic performance without any hassle. Teachers can instantaneously assess assignments, and presentations and share digital textbooks, and files in audio, video, or written format which can be curated according to the learning style of the particular student. This makes learning more immersive and interactive for the students which ultimately contributes to their educational endeavors. 

Remote learning 

The technology uses a more democratic style of teaching, unlike the traditional classrooms that are rather rigid in their structures. Using technology responsibly allows students to have higher engagement with their academic materials by accessing their lectures anytime from anywhere. CubiLock also allows this flexibility by overseeing and managing personally owned devices (Bring Your Own Device) of students by enforcing specific policies and restrictions to their devices once they are enrolled with the MDM solution. 

Hence, the CubiLock MDM solution provides indispensable benefits to education institutions that reduce IT support costs, increase student productivity, and ensure data security. With easy app purchases directly from Google Play Store, app distribution through a single dashboard, device protection, and BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) management, CubiLock allows education institutions to curate the features according to the specific needs and policies of the organization. Managed mobile devices like smartphones, tablets, and laptops reform the entire learning experience for both learners and educators equally. CubiLock offers a multiplicity of features and services that maximizes a student’s efficiency and productivity. Thus, every school should adapt to a robust and reliable MDM solution that unlocks the greater capabilities and effectiveness of your institution.