Importance Of Using Whitelisting Website Feature For Schools And Education

Traditionally, education institutions have always been wary of mobile devices in school premises because of the reputation mobile devices held of being a source of distraction and entertainment. Mobile devices contradicted the academic image and pursuits of an educational institution. It has always been considered inapt for schools to jump on the digitalization bandwagon. Using technology as a teaching tool has been up for debate for a long time as mobile devices are the biggest source of distractions for students studying at any level but using website whitelisting features can be helpful. In a study published in the Journal of Educational Psychology researchers found that of the 118 upper-level college students studied, the students with laptops and cell phones open for non-classroom purposes scored half a letter grade lower on exams. The teachers in the classroom have to fight for the attention and focus of students even when they are under supervised environments. 

The situation is even dire when lectures are conducted online through remote learning. There is little to no control of teachers in these environments which gives students a free pass to use their phones during class for non-educational purposes like texting, checking their emails, surfing the web, using social media, playing games, streaming videos, etc. Also, the deployment of mobile devices raises new management and security concerns for the school to manage the fleet of laptops, smartphones, tablets, and connected devices that come under the school’s extensive network. 

However, technology in classrooms today is unavoidable; denying technology to students is like denying them the opportunities to modern and expansive learning modules. Remote learning has never been of more importance after the Covid-19 crisis. Learning digitally and social distancing simultaneously from our homes were possible only due to the integration of mobile devices in schools and colleges. After the Covid-19 crisis, the pessimistic outlooks on technology have taken a 360-degree turn with the use of mobile devices in education increasing.

So, the question remains, how do schools leverage the benefits of deploying mobile devices on one hand while mitigating the challenges and risks that come with it on the other?

A simple and straightforward answer to it is Website Whitelisting. 

What is Website Whitelisting?

A website whitelist is essentially an allowance list that explicitly permits the use of particular websites. It is a list of selective websites which are approved to use by the end-users while access to the blacklist websites is restricted and denied to use by end-users. A whitelist fundamentally contains domains that users are permitted to visit. Any domain which doesn’t fall under the whitelist cannot be accessed by the users. This phenomenon is becoming notably important for educational institutions where website whitelisting is regarded as a cybersecurity approach in which an administrator or educator pre-configures a policy or framework on controlled devices that will be accessed by end-users. IT admins can construct a list of pre-approved websites that will only be accessible by end-users on all devices that are compliant with the standards using the whitelisting functionality.

Key benefits of website whitelisting :

• Increased Productivity

Website whitelisting is a great tool to manage distractions among students. Students are easily denied access to off-task and non-educational websites which ensures their lessons get undivided attention. Whitelisting websites ensures inappropriate browsing is not entertained during study hours This extensive remote management of browsing the web significantly improves their academic performance and productivity.

• Secured Learning environment

Whitelisting feature is a substantial tool for a plethora of cyber-security predicaments and network vulnerabilities that mostly come from exposure to unwanted websites online. There are many unwanted websites that promote inappropriate content on the web. It becomes the responsibility of the institution to safeguard its students against violent or sexually explicit content. It helps organizations filter and blocks out such websites that have a harmful impact on their students and contribute to creating a secure environment for students of all age groups accessing these devices.

Likewise, younger students have little knowledge about the cybersecurity threats present online such as malware, viruses, hacking, phishing, etc, and how to tackle them. It is, therefore, crucial for schools to safeguard their students and sensitive information from breach or theft by blocking untrusted websites using mdm for schools.

• Reduced cost

Whitelisting websites saves the school tons of money which are otherwise wasted on surfing the web and visiting unnecessary sites that eat up a large chunk of data or WIFI. Data overages caused by browsing websites for personal or entertainment purposes will be eliminated which frees up financial costs for the school. Furthermore, it protects the school’s data and information from unsafe websites and domains present on the web and provides the institution a strong defense against incredibly risky financial costs and data loss. 
Hence, if you are looking for a flexible and dynamic whitelisting solution for your institution, CubiLock is Mobile Device Software that offers you just that with its simple, fast, and affordable interface. With CubiLock’s easy-to-configure steps, any school can implement whitelisting of websites in their browsers without any hassle. This feature of CubiLock alleviates education institutions from the hazards of the internet by providing them with a tightly secured safety net for maximized productivity and efficiency of their students.