Easy Device Management for Interactive Touchscreens in Education

With schools moving to a blend of in-school, at-home, and hybrid learning environments, teachers have been forced to adapt to provide lessons that engage students in different ways. The need for interactive touchscreens has never been greater.

Traditional teaching methods that worked in-class won’t work for at-home students. For example, using an overhead projector or chalkboard may work for students in the classroom but may be difficult for students to see when watching on a live stream. One solution is interactive displays that can be used to provide a better learning experience for each use case.

Interactive touchscreens provide a variety of benefits for educators:

• Active learning
  Demonstrations come alive. Students can collaborate and work on assignments in real-time. They can conduct experiments and be immersed in learning. Active learning has been demonstrated to improve performance, especially in STEM classes.
• Motivation
  Students using interactive touchscreens are more motivated. It increases the engagement with the material and aids in retention.
• Better Feedback
  Feedback sitmulates learning when it’s timely. Educational programs running on interactive touchscreens can provide instant feedback.
• Classroom Management
  Visual timers and noise level cues can help keep classrooms running more smoothly.

Interactive displays, such as those from Promethean, are replacing traditional whiteboards to give educators greater flexibility in the classroom. It creates an immersive learning experience for students and gives teachers access to more tools for increasing engagement. Promethean offers its customers a powerful management layer that adds value for OEM manufacturers, such as ad-hoc support and updates and a robust management platform for users.

Managing and Maintaining Devices for Education

You can think of these interactive displays as giant tablets. They’re going to be the most expensive piece of hardware in any classroom. That means you also need a sophisticated – yet easy-to-use solution – for managing and maintaining your devices. This is especially important if you are deploying multiple touchscreens or interactive displays.

In such an environment, you also need a way to centrally manage devices. You need to be able to configure, patch, update, optimize, and control access at all times.

Students today are tech-savvy. In some cases, they’re more proficient with tech than the teachers. They have no fear of playing around with devices or changing settings. You can’t afford the time to journey to each classroom to troubleshoot problems. You need a way to remote into every device when problems arise. You also need a way to alert them if they’re using devices differently than how they’re intended.

Radix VISO MDM for Education

Radix provides tools for IT, support, and school leadership. Radix VISO MDM for Education allows the management of all your interactive touchscreens and other devices in one platform. From K-12 schools to higher education, it’s easy to centrally manage even devices on different operating systems.

• Interactive touchscreens
• Chromebooks
• iPads
• Tablets
• Laptops
• VR devices

Operations

School leaders, teachers, and IT teams can define operational modes and tune device settings to exactly the way they want to operate. They can limit functionality. For example, they can disable ports or access to programs. Kiosk modes can be enabled to force everyone to use the same program at the same time.

Security

Security policies and settings can be universally applied. Mobile devices can be tracked by GPS and data can be remotely controlled or wiped if devices are lost or stolen. Geo-fences can be set up to provide automatic alerting if devices leave defined areas.

Software Management

When there’s a software update, patch, or new software that needs to be installed, it can happen remotely from the VISO MDM for Education interface. It happens silently without any user intervention. Installing can be done on-demand or set to occur when devices are not in use. Besides using central repositories for installation, IT teams can also take advantage of Apple DEP/VPP (Volume Purchase Program) or Google AFW/EMM (Android for Work).

Support for All Stakeholders

Radix VISO MDM for Education allows IT Administrators, teachers, and principals to all benefit from the central management.

IT Administrators

IT teams can centrally manage, monitor, and secure a school or district’s fleet of devices.

Devices can deploy in batches and execute preset configurations and settings. This allows devices to be automatically configured the first time they connect to a network without user intervention. They’re ready to go as soon they’re powered on and connected. Devices can be enrolled using our proprietary methods and also supports:

• Google EMM
• Samsung KNOX
• LG Gate
• Sony SDK
• Apple DEP/VPP

When there are issues with devices, including interactive touchscreens, IT teams can remotely control devices to provide support or troubleshoot. Without having to install or use additional software, remote controlling a device happens within the VISO console.

Teachers

Educators can manage the learning experience in school or on student’s personal devices. It also takes most of the technical management tasks off the hands of the teachers.

A common frustration from teachers working in today’s tech-heavy environment is feeling like they’re having to devote too much time to tech support. Teachers have cited tech management, remote learning frustrations, and COVID-19 as reasons why so many of them have stopped resigned.

VISO MDM for Education allows IT teams to manage the technology so teachers can focus on what they do best – teaching.

Principals

Principals and administrators can analyze device usage to ensure both students and staff are taking advantage of tech-based learning. VISO MDM for Education’s reporting function automatically collects hardware and software usage and create text and graphical reports so administrators know exactly what’s being used and how.

For IT teams, teachers, and principals, it gives back perhaps the most important thing we have right now:  time. By centrally managing devices, it lets everyone focus on their primary jobs.

Learn More About Radix VISO MDM for Education

Radix is a leading provider of device management solutions, such as Mobile Device Management (MDM) and Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) for education and enterprise single-purpose devices. Its cutting-edge platform can be installed by OEMs and vendors of digital devices, run in the cloud, or be managed in on-premises servers.

Contact Radix today to get a free trial of VISO MDM.