SkieSkie for Enterprise
Schools, institutes and hostels, page 2
Questions from schools, coaching institutes and hostel wardens. 57 questions answered.
- What should a school tell parents about managed tablets?Tell parents in plain words what the tablet is for, what the school controls, what it can see, who can see it and who to call. Cover apps, web filtering, location, loss and breakage, and...
- What should we tell students about their managed tablets?Tell students the tablet is for learning, that it is managed by the school, which apps and sites are allowed and why, that the school can lock it and see its status, and how to ask for an...
- How should a school run a pilot of Skie?Pick one or two classes, a small team and a clear period, usually a term. Include one IT person, one teacher and someone who approves rules. Set the structure, provision the tablets, watch...
- A teacher needs an extra app for one lesson. How do we allow it?Give the class the extra app for the lesson. Skie can apply extra apps for one lesson to a whole class in one step, or you can use a window with a slightly wider list for that period. When...
- How does a branch add its own app, and how long does approval take?If the owner allows it, a branch pastes the Google Play link into the app store, the details fill in, and the app shows as waiting for Skie. Once approved it can be published and put on...
- How do we find which school tablets are offline or have a problem?Open the breach centre and Insights. They show which tablets are offline, silent, overdue or have lost a protection, at device, group, branch, school and organisation level. Last seen times...
- Can head office compare branches and see which ones are falling behind?Yes. Insights shows readiness, compliance, policy reach, online and silent share, low battery and open events by branch, so head office can compare centres without asking for reports. Daily...
- What happens to school tablets if our Skie licence expires?Rules already on the tablets keep working, new enrolments pause, and expiry notices show on devices and dashboards beforehand. Licences are seat based, one device per seat, and a daily...
- Why would a hostel use Skie for student phones and tablets?Because night-time phone use, adult content and unknown apps are the problems a warden cannot watch for in person. Skie lets a hostel lock phones at lights-out, filter the web on any...
- Can phones be locked automatically at lights-out in a hostel?Yes. A night window in the schedule switches the device to a short list at lights-out, usually calls and a clock, and back again in the morning. It runs on the device by itself, even...
- Can a hostel see who is out after curfew?With consent, yes. A geofence around the hostel raises an alert on the dashboard when a student's device leaves it, and a warden with location access can see where it is. Alerts show on the...
- A student is missing from the hostel. What can the warden do in Skie?With consent and the right role, the warden can open the student's device on the dashboard, request a fresh location, see the last seen time and the recent trail, and use go-to directions....
- What hostel mobile phone rules actually work, and how does Skie enforce them?Rules that work are few, written down, agreed with parents and enforced by the device and not by argument. Typical ones are no phones after lights-out, no social apps, filtered web, no...
- Can a hostel make hostel Wi-Fi the only network students can use?Partly. Wi-Fi settings can be locked after setup, so students cannot change networks, and mobile network settings can be locked too. Switching mobile data off entirely is not available yet....
- Can students use their own SIM data in a hostel, and does the filter still apply?Yes, they can, and the filter still applies. Skie's filtering DNS is locked on the device, so it works on mobile data, hostel Wi-Fi and hotspots alike. App control, Chrome rules and the...
- Can we stop hostel students from sharing hotspots?Yes. Hotspot and tethering can be blocked on the managed device, so a student cannot share their connection with other phones. The setting is on by default in Skie's hardening. A student...
- Can we control Bluetooth and USB on hostel phones and tablets?Yes. Bluetooth can be turned off, USB file transfer is blocked by default, and on Android 14 and newer USB data can be disabled entirely. NFC and Wi-Fi Direct can also be switched off....
- Can we block screenshots on hostel devices?Yes. Disabling screenshots is an optional policy switch, applied per group. The camera can also be disabled. Both are off by default, so a hostel turns them on only when it wants them. They...
- Can the warden lock every phone and tablet at once in an emergency?Yes. Skie has a lock-all action that locks all devices at once, and a panic lock for sudden situations. Locks reach online devices in seconds and offline ones at the next sync. A warden can...
- Can one hostel with many blocks and floors be managed in Skie?Yes. Treat the hostel as a school, each block as a branch and each floor as a group. Rules set for the whole hostel flow down, each floor can have its own schedule or app list, and wardens...
- Can we give hostel students a phone that can only make calls?Almost. You can leave only the dialer on the allowed list, so the phone shows calls and nothing else, with the clock if you wish. Contacts-only calling, where only certain numbers can be...
- How do we give each warden access only to their own block?Invite the warden at the branch level for their block, or at group level for a floor. They then see only that part of the hostel, and page access can hide location or settings for their...
- What if the hostel changes its phone rules in the middle of term?Edit the policy or the schedule once and it reaches the devices in seconds if they are online, or at the next sync if not. Use the impact preview first to see which devices will be...
- Can parents still reach their child during hostel study time?Yes. Calls stay available if the study window keeps the dialer on the list, so parents can ring through. Contacts-only calling is not available yet, so you cannot limit the dialer to parent...
- Can a hostel use cheaper tablets with Skie?Yes. Skie works on any Android 12 or newer tablet or phone, so a hostel can buy budget models. A new model goes through a one-time model review during setup. Check that the tablet has...
- Does a hostel tablet need a SIM card for Skie to work?No. Wi-Fi-only tablets work for most features, because the rules are stored on the device and sync over Wi-Fi. Features that depend on a connection, such as live location, need signal of...
- What if a hostel student has a second phone that Skie does not manage?Skie controls only the device it manages. A second, unmanaged phone is outside its reach, so the hostel agreement should cover personal devices as well. What Skie can do is make the managed...