The Microsoft Store application on the school computers is now gone and has been replaced by the Company Portal app, or the new school sanctioned app store. This Company Portal allows the GA tech office to properly manage which apps students are downloading on their school computers.
This policy is well intentioned in trying to reduce the amount of unwanted apps on school computers, however, I believe that the newly implemented sanctioned app store fails to effectively solve the problem of students downloading apps directly from the internet.
In the first week of this school year the GA tech office removed student access from school devices and have now utilized the Microsoft Company Portal to still allow academic related apps such as Vernier, Bluebook, Java and more. GA’s goal with this new policy was to combat the unwanted applications being downloaded onto school devices such as games, streaming services and social media.
The main problem with this policy is its not doing a very good job of reducing unwanted apps on student devices. For example, most of the games and other undesirable apps are web-downloaded installers, not Microsoft Store apps. Just blocking Microsoft Store isn’t going to miraculously decrease the amount of games and other apps on student computers. It also inconveniences students who actually downloaded academic-related apps on the Microsoft Store while the students who want games keep using the internet.
Another key problem is that the useful and safe tools (code editors, scientific utilities, drivers) may not appear in the Portal quickly enough leading to class projects and clubs falling behind schedule. When approval from the tech office is slow, students will postpone their work or try to find unofficial downloads – ironically increasing computer safety risks causing more problems than the school sanctioned app store was meant to prevent.
Blocking the Microsoft Store is a simple change to GA’s school computers – just use centralized administrative tools to ban the desired apps and you’re done. But result wise, little changes actually occur. The school still has a large student population that downloads non-academic apps on their school-issued devices as students simply just work their way around the new restriction.
Meanwhile, the tech office has to spend more time creating a catalog of accepted academic apps and software on the company portal instead of targeting real tech issues. It’s simply progress on paper, not in or outside of classrooms: a restriction that promotes students to be compliant with the new company portal rather than producing meaningful results of reducing unwanted apps on student computers.
Instead, the tech office should block execution of any unknown installers with softwares such as AppLocker or Intune, rather than just banning Microsoft Store. Also implementing fast and efficient forms that students can fill out to ask for school related software getting approved would be effective as legitimate academic tools can get approved quickly.
GA’s goal – keeping devices solely focused on academics – is worth supporting. Blocking the Microsoft Store barely solves this goal while web installers continue to stay open. GA should aim for actual measurable impact, not just how things look on paper: manage web-installed applications, connect with the students and teachers about the apps they need, and most importantly, measure the outcome.