[android] Managing Android Tablets at School

[peakrock]

I need to manage 16 new Android Tablets (Samsung Galaxy Tab A) that will be shared across all pupils at a primary school. They will need proxy server setup, and to be well locked down with restrictions on You Tube, Play Store etc.

 

I've looked at TabPilot which would seem to do the job but it's a $500 annual licence fee for up to 30 tablets so it's too expensive. I've also been looking at Google G Suite which has a device management feature and is also free for Education. I have got as far as activating the admin console and looking at the options. However, it seems rather complicated for what I need and is going to require some appreciable time investment in working out exactly what I do and don't need to set up.

 

Has anyone used G Suite for this purpose and do you know of any resources I might access, I was hoping to find a list of recommended options for quick setup. Alternatively, are there any other management tools that work well, I've looked around on the web but not found anything that stands out.

 

Thanks

[AlanD]

...I'd agree with you ..that $500 annual licence fee is not cheap....but if you read these groups you will also know of one of the complaints about "mobile devices" is managing them...and while some MDM solutions go some way to achieving this....its probably fair to say Tabpilot takes you much further. I looked at it ...and thought....I'd really like this...especially if it could be used to manage our ipads (which it couldn't).

 

We use G suite for a handful of android tablets used in our pre-school nursery section ...but I think I'd want something better for secondary students....but it may be OK. As you say - its free...

[peakrock]

Having spent a few more hours on this I have now discovered that Google are discontinuing the Android for Education offering and not accepting any new signups so the ability to manage tablets this way will no longer exist.

 

I've been looking at setting up a work profile within G Suite and whilst it offers a lot of centralised control the main flaw for a school is that the work profile is accessed from the main user sign in which would still give pupils access to most apps. I can set a restricted user profile up on the tablets which provides the lockdown needed for You Tube etc but it's then not possible to select the work profile in this mode so there is no centralised control for apps to be pushed out. G suite still gives some centralised setup such as setting network proxies etc so it should be of some use but I'm now going to test this out.

 

I don't claim to be an Android expert by the way so comments/corrections welcome !

[CommodoreS]

Perhaps Edudroid might do some of what you need: eduDroid - Managing mobile devices in schools

[nottsure]

There is Meraki (Not cheap unless you are already using it) or Lightspeed which is £5 per device per year. Otherwise you have airwatch, manage engine or mobile iron you could look at. Haven't found a free one apart from G-Suite but would be interested if you do find something as I have 15 tablets sat doing nothing at the minute and would really like to get them in use.

[peakrock]

Update now Tablets are deployed at the school:

 

First of all I couldn't find anything that was cost effective or suitable from a centralised management point of view for 16 tablets so set them up manually.

 

The tablets are set up with an Admin user account such that each tablet has its own Google account although it is only used to access the Play Store and no payment option was specified. Free apps that were not user specific and had minimal or no Ads were downloaded via the Play store. A restricted generic pupil user account was added to each tablet and the relevant apps and permissions were added to the account. Each tablet has the same Admin PIN code which is needed on power up as well as to access the Admin user. It makes the tablet harder to hack should it be stolen but if a pupil powers off the tablet completely rather than putting it in sleep mode then the Admin PIN needs to be entered next time it powers up and the tablet switched back to Pupil user mode.

 

As it's a school with an external proxy server and SSL certificate (Updata) it was (annoyingly) necessary to set up each tablet in pupil mode to connect to the Wi-Fi access points and to specify the Proxy settings for each connection. It was also necessary to download and install the SSL certificate in Pupil mode even though it had been installed under the Amin id. This also required generating a PIN code for the credential store which in turn meant that instead of a PIN free pupil sign on, pupils now need to enter a simple PIN to log on.

 

The resulting environment is somewhat locked down in that there is no access to the Play Store and Apps can't be installed by Pupils and the Proxy Server/SSL certificate policies will police most of the Web. However, it is possible to move icons around or remove them as well as change the Wi-Fi settings. I experimented and although the icons can be deleted the app itself remains on the tablet and be reinstated via the Admin id.

 

We have appointed a couple of responsible Year 6 pupils as Tablet monitors and they will check the tablets out and back in again to try and keep them in order but it remains to be seen how this will work out in the long term.

 

I was somewhat reluctant to introduce tablets into the school as I thought they would be harder to manage centrally than the traditional client/server setup that we have but it's hard to get this over especially when a pot of money has been raised by the Friends of the school with the objective of buying tablets....