Davidson Academy earns high marks for security through Microsoft Intune for Education

At Davidson Academy, an IT director who formerly worked for the Department of Homeland Security deploys Microsoft Intune for Education to help maintain the safety and security of both students and their devices.

Thanks to Intune, I have time to tackle projects that I have put off for a year and a half, and there’s a lot less stress for me. - Craig Browning: IT Director, Davidson Academy

Craig Browning, IT Director at Davidson Academy, takes the safety and security of his students seriously. As a former law enforcement officer and spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, Browning is well versed in the many threats and possible breaches that can occur with a connected population. At Davidson, Browning is responsible for both empowering and protecting the school’s connected, tech-savvy students and for training and supporting its teachers.

He does so confidently thanks to Intune for Education.

Highly secure learning, online and off

Davidson Academy instructs preschool through high-school students. From fifth grade on, each of the 600 Davidson students is assigned a single, school-owned Windows 10 device. Fifth graders, just learning to manage their own devices, leave theirs at school at night. Starting in sixth grade, students take their devices home at night, which means Browning must take preemptive security measures to maintain both student and device safety.

Browning recognizes that security begins with knowing how to prevent threats from the outside. So he turned to Intune to help protect students’ private information from external threats. Intune is backed up by Microsoft Azure Active Directory—the identity management and access service in the Azure cloud platform—which complies with global regulations regarding safeguarding student information. Azure and Intune work together to mitigate risk when a device is lost or stolen. Says Browning, “My ability to manage remotely using Intune is great. When people have lost their devices or had them stolen, it‘s simple for me to track those devices from the Azure panel. And with Intune helping to protect the information on the devices, we get extra safety.”

Safety and security can also be compromised from the inside, and that means regulating what students can access on their devices. “Using Intune, I block certain apps on school devices because I have to take student safety into account. I also take into account the fact that students are here to learn, and those devices are school devices for education,” said Browning. He is well aware that limiting certain apps or websites is part of keeping his students safe from harmful or inappropriate material.

“There are so many video platforms and videos out there that are categorized wrong,” continues Browning. “I don’t want a parent to come to me wondering why their student was able to look at inappropriate things on the web. It’s my duty to make sure that that doesn’t happen.”

Simple deployment + cloud management = more time

Now that Browning is assured that he is safeguarding both his students and their devices, he can turn his attention to other school projects. Not surprisingly, the IT director part of Browning loves this flexibility and with it the time to contribute in more meaningful ways. He says, “It was music to my ears knowing that Intune for Education could push one image to all our devices, which I could then instantly manage in the cloud.”

With the school’s small IT shop, in the past it could take Browning up to two and a half months to provision each and every student device, manually loading every app and policy onto the device. After adopting Intune, it took Browning just four days to configure the 600 devices. “Thanks to Intune, I have time to tackle projects that I have put off for a year and a half, and there’s a lot less stress for me. We’re using Intune to better serve our faculty and students rather than making them wait days and weeks to get something simple completed.”

One of those projects is working on the school’s emergency preparedness plans. Browning’s previous experience in law enforcement and Homeland Security make him especially suited to support the school’s emergency plans, and now he has the time to implement important safety measures. “I can do device management on the fly—whether at a desk, on a smartphone, on a tablet, or even while away on vacation,” says Browning. “There’s no set place that I have to be, so I can essentially take my server with me anywhere I go and still serve the students and faculty.” His efforts made Davidson Academy one of the first private schools in Tennessee to be certified “Storm Ready” by the National Weather Service—something he couldn’t have accomplished were he still managing devices by hand.

Measuring success

Browning’s been measuring student and teacher reactions to Intune for Education all along the process of deployment, and the metrics are positive. In a survey that asked parents, students, and teachers to rate factors of safety, opportunities for learning, quality of education, and more on a scale of one (lowest) to five (highest), every single stakeholder rated “I feel safe at school” as one of the highest criteria. Parents and students both agreed strongly that “They have the materials, supplies, and technology” they need to be successful.

Browning knows those two beliefs are, like his students, connected. With Intune for Education, he has the capacity to manage both outcomes, with confidence, and feels empowered to do more, be more, and bring more of his background and expertise to benefit the students and teachers at Davidson.

It was music to my ears knowing that Intune for Education could push one image to all our devices, which I could then instantly manage in the cloud. - Craig Browning: IT Director, Davidson Academy