Microsoft Introduces Intune for Education; New Devices to Challenge Chromebooks in Classrooms

Last summer, Microsoft revealed that the Windows 10 Anniversary Update would arrive with a new functionality that would allow educators and IT support in schools to easily setup shared devices for students.

The Setup School PCs app would work with stand alone devices and those which were part of an Azure Active Directory, Office 365 and Azure Active Directory Premium.

Its biggest limitation was that each machine had to be setup individually and there was no over arching management tool to monitor and control these devices.

Well this week that will no longer be a limitation because Microsoft has announced Intune for Education.

"Microsoft Intune for education is a new cloud-based application and device management service that is built on the proven Microsoft Intune service, offering easy setup and management in shared learning environments."

According to Microsoft, shared devices are used in 90% of schools and half of the time those devices are supported directly by the teacher themselves. This can prove to be a significant time obligation to make sure everything is up and running properly. Using the Setup School PCs app that means the support happens one device at a time as well.

Well Intune for Education eliminates that one on one support challenge and brings everything into a cloud based dashboard that allows school IT or educators to manage multiple devices at one time remotely.

This new service provides three key features and capabilities:

As Microsoft was making the Intune for Education announcement they also revealed several Windows 10 devices from their OEM partners that challenge the adoption of Chromebooks and provides educators and students options for full Windows ecosystem compatibility at home and in the classroom.

You can read the entire education related announcement and read more about the new Windows 10 based devices on the official Windows blog.

----------

Looking for an awesome, no-nonsense technical conference for IT Pros, Devs, and Devops? Check out IT/Dev Connections!