Digital education is the key to finding future solutions. Samsung New Learning brings together powerful and flexible products that promote modern learning and teaching while creating excitement. Samsung tablets can be integrated directly and wirelessly into Relution's existing mobile device management thanks to their open operating system.

In order to understand tomorrow, the world of today must be mastered. Hardly any place is better suited for this than educational institutions. Learning with modern technology promotes knowledge acquisition and creativity and prepares learners for the demands of their future careers.

"The relevance of comprehensively digitizing educational institutions has been recognized. Efficient, future-oriented learning and teaching must be promoted in order to make students fit for the future in the long term and to relieve teachers of the burden of increasing administration," explains Jan Costa-Thiele, Head of Governmental Business at Samsung. Samsung New Learning is a comprehensive educational initiative for the successful digitization of all learning environments. The aim is to support the methodical and didactic use of digital solutions in the classroom, to enable interactive learning and to teach media skills.

SIMPLE, SAFE AND MODERN

The first step is to provide high-performance, flexible, high-quality Samsung hardware at market-acceptable prices for students and teachers. The media support for the lessons is provided by the appropriate software, for example the intuitive Samsung Classroom Management App, which provides holistic control of student tablets and communication with the entire class, thus promoting a creative, collaborative teaching and learning culture.

"Our clear ambition is to be much more than a provider of hardware in the field of digital teaching and learning in schools. Samsung New Learning offers teachers, students and educational institutions a highly specialized, holistic ecosystem. Every school board, every college or university faces its own individual challenges in the digitization of education. To meet this demand, and to achieve the best possible result for our customers, we work with competent, reliable, certified partners. Their decades of experience and knowledge in the market, as well as their product and service portfolio, are essential for the satisfaction of our customers and ultimately ensure our business success," Costa-Thiele explains. "We have the right advice on hand for every requirement: within the framework of Samsung New Learning, this means that an individual decision is made for each school board and school as to which solution is the most suitable," Costa-Thiele continues.

COMPATIBILITY

Samsung Knox, Samsung's Mobile Device Management (MDM), is suitable for data protection-compliant, uniform device management; however, this is not a must. Other device management systems are also used - for example, the MDM from Relution; strong partner of Samsung New Learning. "In most cases, Relution is used because, in addition to the extensive options for managing, configuring and securing Samsung devices, the requirement for interoperability is met. This means that all devices are completely compatible with each other," Costa-Thiele further explains. Another USP of Relution is that it is a system-open solution, which is of enormous importance, especially in facilities with mixed operations and multi-platform strategy. "Bring your own device (BYOD) is a big issue in the school context. The fact that Relution can securely manage different devices and infrastructures means that the use of Relution and Samsung devices works extremely well in practice - just like in the Heidenheim media center," explains Celal Yalcin, Senior Sales Manager Governmental Business at Samsung.

Digitization Heidenheim County

*As an educational support and consulting center, the media center of the Heidenheim district is the central point of contact in the area of "digital media". The media center is available as a contact for the 60 schools in the district, 45 of which take advantage of the mobile device management offer.

Digital devices are procured independently by the schools or school boards in the district and prepared by the dealers directly via Samsung Knox Mobile Enrollment (KME) for management by Relution. Mass enrollment of school-owned devices is automatic. Especially with a large number of devices, this leads to enormous time savings - one of the main reasons for Relution.

In the event of challenges with initial rollouts, the schools can call on support from the media center at any time; otherwise, the media center is primarily responsible for consulting and training on Relution. Where possible, the IT administrators train one teacher per school to become local school administrators in order to provide first level support directly through the schools. With over 4,000 Samsung devices and a small number of iOS devices managed in Relution, this would not be feasible for the media center in any other way, as the support effort for the infrastructure is becoming increasingly complex.

After a short test phase of different MDM providers, the choice quickly fell on Relution about seven years ago. After a short time, the first tablet was managed with Relution and nothing has changed since then. "Digitalization is advancing in leaps and bounds and we have to manage more and more devices as well as personal data," says Alexander Richter, responsible IT manager at Medienzentrum Heidenheim. "Relution supports us enormously in our daily work and massively simplifies the management of school devices. In addition, Relution enables a clean data separation in our own infrastructure thanks to a multi-client capable operation", Richter further explains.

A STRONG TRIO

The choice of operating system was up to the schools, and in the district of Heidenheim it was primarily Android. "Android is a freely accessible operating system with open interfaces. This interoperability is very important to us, as it reduces dependence on one vendor and allows us to avoid the login effect of other operating systems," explains Richter. Before recommending a vendor, the needs were defined from an IT perspective - the closest match was with Samsung. "These devices meet all our requirements. In addition to the very convincing price model and full delivery capability at all times, the excellent connection to Android is decisive. Thanks to Knox Mobile Enrollment and the Samsung Classroom Management App, teachers are greatly relieved in their daily work and can once again focus on the essentials: teaching important skills for the future," Richter further explains.

Numbers, data, facts

• 4,200 Relution licenses used in the Heidenheim district
• 45 schools
• Android operating system