The development of education determines whether we can ensure continuous technological and cultural progress. As our demands on education continue to rise, an intelligent technology is urgently needed for education. By applying IoT in education, school operational efficiency, campus safety, and quality of education can be improved. MOKOSmart can create iot education solutions for your needs, including developing hardware and software for you. We focuses on sensor and beacon development. Our smart devices can monitor spaces on campus, classroom management, and energy efficiency.

Devices for IoT in Education

H3 Card Beacon

M2 Location Beacon

H5 RFID Beacon

H4 Sensor Beacon

LW002-TH Temperature
Humidity Sensor

W5 Wearable Bracelet

Smart Meter

LW005-MP Meter Plug

LW007-Pir Motion Sensor

The advantages of IoT in education

Improved safety management system by deploying IoT in education

The iot education network allows school administrators to customize security plans using badges, beacons and door and window sensors. IoT network is widely adopted by many schools to create different programs for intruders, severe weather threats, and other security risks. Teachers and students can contact security personnel through a button on the beacon.

Improve the students’ experience with IoT in education

When the teacher is lecturing on the platform, he can not always cause the students’ concentration. At this time, the teacher can cause the attention of the students who are dozing with variation of lights. Moreover, the real-time information collected by the Internet of Things can also be used to predict and analyze student activities to build an efficient teaching system.

Energy consumption is decreased by IoT in education

Lighting and other facilities can be automated. For example, lights could be set to a schedule, or they could be connected to occupancy sensors that turn off when no one is in the classroom. Building efficiency are improved and energy waste is reduced, resulting in cost savings.

The working efficiency is improved with IoT in education

In traditional schools, especially those with relatively backward conditions, logistics work is always time-consuming and boring. The Internet of Things helps reduce time and cost spent on manual tasks such as paperwork, money management and material tracking.

Global connection is possible with IoT in education

IoT systems connects you to and exposes you to schools and universities across the globe. This gives you a platform to interact with global systems and improve the quality of education.

How to apply IoT in education

Monitor temperature & humidity

Different spaces in school require different temperature and humidity due to different activities. For example, gymnasium, auditorium or dance studio, and different classrooms have different requirements for temperature and humidity. Especially,a constant temperature is required for labs as there are chemicals restored there. School administrators can connect temperature&humidity sensors in schools through smart sockets. Once the sensors detect abnormal changes, the alarm system will be trigerred. The setting can also be scheduled at specific times of the day. This not only enhance comfort in school, but also allows timely detection of water leaching.

Manage attendance

Beacons can be used to improve the efficiency and accuracy of automated attendance. Each one has a badge of their own, and their location is tracked in real time. Once they enter the classroom, their location is reported to the system. In addition to attendance management, beacons also help improve campus security. Once the sensor detects motion into a prohibited area, the alarm will be triggered, many schools detect the intrusion of some foreign people to avoid the occurrence of campus tragedy in this way. More automated tasks mean teachers can focus more on lessons preparation.

Alleviate campus traffic

Parking beacons can be installed in school garages, including bicycle parking areas. When the school enters the campus, the system will inform the driver where the parking space is empty, and the location of the vehicle can be checked on the software, so there is no need to worry about finding where the vehicle is parked. In addition, school buses in schools can also be fitted with beacons, so that parents can know when the bus will arrive at their door and whether it is safe to arrive at school. Moreover, the EV charging stations can be seen pretty common in campus as well as the sustainable develeopment and environmental protection are the common goal in the society.

Asset tracking

School equipment is an important asset. Tablets, rented laptops, lab equipment, teaching materials, and more can be monitored with location beacons and motion sensors. Beacons ensure that assets are placed in the right place and used properly through transparent asset location. School procurement staff can also supply assets according to the number of inventory.

Energy monitoring

As a large and densely populated place, the daily energy expenditure is not a small amount of money. Growing concerns about global warming require reforms in the education sector to protect limited energy resources. With motion senser, lights can be turned on and off automatically when no one is around. The usage of every facilities can also be monitored in real time after connecting with smart plug. The amount of energy each device uses at a certain time can be monitored, and when some devices exceed the limit of time, an alarm will be triggered to inform the relevant personnel.

Monitor facilities usage

By connecting motion sensors and occupancy indicators to the Internet, equipment and room usage can be accessed, especially in spaces such as school libraries or computer labs. The occupation status can be easily be accessed and scheduling is enabled with iot solution. Tracking such data enables those who are managing school to observe and report on how students use particular Spaces and resources.

Receive Instant notification

The traditional notification mode needs to be reformed. The arrival rate of message from notice board and group message is low. But if the beacons are installed on campus, schools can send notifications to students’ mobile phones, and teachers can use the Bluetooth beacons to send reminders of class and assign homework.

Data acquisition & analysis

The needs and progress of students are the key to improving the employment rate of schools. The traditional education system has low information flow and can not adapt to the current development any more. IoT in education can improve teaching programs by understanding their needs and behaviors, as well as investing related assets and technologies.

Maintain social distance

The education industry adopted the distance learning model in the beginning of covid-19 breakout, it exposed some disadvantages, that’s why school start socialization again after a period of lockdown. But going social doesn’t mean putting students’ lives at risk. Beacon is widely applied for social distancing, which trigger an alarm when the distance between two people is beyond a safe range. Everyone’s movements can also be tracked in real time, and contacts can be quickly tracked once someone is diagnosed.

Deploy your IoT in education with our end to end solution

MOKOSmart has been developing iot products for more than 16 years to help companies exploit the potential of smart technology. Educational institutions can get our help in developing IoT based student monitoring solutions with a single IOT aggregator with access to all available smart devices. Besides, we also provide a real-time device status monitoring platform, and other solutions tailored to your needs.

The market of IoT in education

The IoT education market was $6.05 billion in 2020 and is expected to reach $26.8 billion by 2028 with a CAGR of 20.06% from 2021 to 2028. There is a growing emphasis on improving operational efficiency and managing connected devices, which implies an increasing in IoT education market.   

Key players in the IoT industry are taking various steps such as forming the Open Mobile Alliance (OMA) to standardize protocols.

The definition of global IoT in education

IoT connects devices through network aiming to exchange information with each other, collecting data and controlling processes. As in many areas, the Internet of Things has always had advantages. IoT make great contribution to the educational structure. This is a boon to education. IoT in education implies a collaborative future for education systems. IoT devices compose smart building technologies such as speakers, locks, thermostats, smart lighting, doorbells. They can be connected to each other and controlled centrally through systems such as phones, tablets and computers once the devices are installed. In education, the main benefit of IoT is to make schools safer through the use of custom security plans. These plans make use of connected devices such as door locks, sensors, and digital signage. With the programming and automation of IoT devices, student outcomes is improved and the cost of devices are decreased through IoT in education.

What are the challenges of IoT in education and how can they be addressed

Now that we’ve seen examples of the Internet of Things in education and their benefits, let’s take a look at what challenges these devices may pose and how they can be practiced to mitigate the risks.

Security

Every coin has two sides. IoT education solutions can both enhance the security of educational institutions and become a source of vulnerabilities. For example, In Verizon’s 2017 Data Breach Digest, one university’s network was attacked by 5,000 connected devices on school. The devices “do hundreds of DNS look ups every 15 minutes,” result in slow connections at the university. In addition, ransomware, rogue devices, hardware attacks, device hijacking are also troubling students and parents of several examples.

So how do we overcome this challenge? Unfortunately, there is no foolproof solution yet, but we can be sure that as long as you apply IoT education solutions to your security strategy, it won’t be too much of a problem.

  • When you plan to integrate IoT devices into an educational environment, you have to create a well-defined action plan. Overview of roles and permissions, plans responsible for the maintenance of IoT devices, data protection regulations, etc.
  • Adopts network segmentation security. By dividing the network into multiple network segments or sub-nets, different network domains can be created for different types of IoT devices, limiting access between them. By reducing network congestion, the overall security and performance can be improved.
  • Ensure that communication between layers of IoT devices is encrypted, including end-user layers, IoT platforms, databases, etc.
  • Conduct Internet of Things security awareness training among administrators, students and teachers. We suggest doing backups, updates, and regular maintenance checks. This can be done by your internal IT department or the equipment manufacturer if this is a prerequisite of the contract.
  • Authorization and authentication should be ensured at all stages of interaction with IoT solutions to protect against hacking attacks.

Fiscal issue

School that want to deploy IoT in education should be prepared for the costs associated with staff training, network connectivity, regular maintenance, etc. Creating a dedicated platform or device will require a capable development team unless the device manufacturer bundles it. All of these will require substantial investment. Unfortunately, not all schools can afford to pay all the costs.

So how to resolve this challenge?

  • We recommend an in-depth analysis of potential costs before adopting this technique. Costing always take the long-term costs of maintenance, system upgrades, and security checks into consideration. We can also evaluate your project and provide a custom solution that fits you best.
  • If you choose our one-stop solution,you can save your money by streamlined your project and we will find ways to help you save costs.

Incompatible facilities

Different devices may have different connection modes. When many devices are connected, they may be incompatible with each other. Some software solutions and operating systems may also be incompatible. So how can this challenge be resolved?

  • Suggestions for IoT solution providers like us. When developing projects for our customers,we should pay attention to the device compatibility. For your IoT device, it makes sense to integrate with a variety of popular digital solutions and operating systems that can be used with your product without adding discomfort or complexity to the user experience.
  • Suggestions for education agency and school. Before purchasing an IoT device from a specific company, all points relating to device compatibility must be clarified. Is this new device compatible with your existing one? Is it compatible with your operating system? When signing a contract with a provider, you should also clarify all the key points relating to compatibility to protect yourself legally.

Scalability

Scalability is one of the most common issues when working with IoT infrastructures. This problem often arises because all potential risks, such as user, feature, or device growth, are not considered during the development phase. Poor scalability can have serious consequences, such as longer maintenance times, latency issues, and unexpectedly high overhead.

So what’s the countermeasure of this challenge?

  • Suggestions for IoT solution providers such as us. Ensuring scalability across all layers of the solution, such as software, hardware, and architecture are critical. You can design a system that can stretch easily when adding new devices while handling the workload in the case of increasing users.
  • Suggestions for education agency and school. You need to think ahead. Before you decide to combine IoT and education, you need to consider future growth in load, user growth, and other unpredictable circumstances. It would be best to work out all potential risks in advance rather than correct errors after the system is installed to avoid costs more money.

Universities and Higher Education

Compare to secondary schools, colleges and universities can benefit more from the utilization of IoT solutions. Aside from the incorporations above, university students are provided more learning opportunities with innovative IoT applications. Young people are available to a wide range of courses such as engineering, programming, literature, etc. with which they could select with ease and interest.

Moreover, IoT solutions offer asset tracking capabilities to professors and faculty members, allowing them to keep an eye on the device to ensure it’s in the right place, which helps a lot in the lab and library. Also, students and staff can easily find out if a conference room or study space is occupied, simply by pairing their smartphone or laptop with IoT occupancy sensors.

iot in education

IoT in Education during Coronavirus

The sudden attack of the COVID19 pandemic has had an unexpected domino effect on all parts worldwide. As a result of the crisis, schools have had to shuttered their doors, and distance learning has become the most common phenomenon for students of all grades. Meanwhile, teachers and students have had to adapt to the shift to remote learning, which relies heavily on the support of IoT technology.

To some extent, the coronavirus outbreak has just accelerated the gradual shift to distance learning in terms of IoT technology, and companies were in their attempt to grab the bigger pie in response. As large companies expand their services to schools, it’s important that schools can implement the distance learning solutions seamlessly and easily.

However, there are also some inevitable obstacles to online education. On the one hand, children’s social and play abilities are limited by the online environment, which is not conducive to their emotional and social intelligence. On the other hand, distance learning also limits the teacher’s ability to read a student’s body language, making it impossible for the teacher to make a proper assessment of the student. Furthermore, while these new IoT devices are available to most students, low-income students are still struggling to meet basic needs such as a reliable internet connection.

The future of IoT in the education sector: What to Expect

IoT is rapidly molding and evolving itself within the education sector at a blooming pace. While some educational institutions have experienced early adoption and are exploring the implementation of IoT solutions, as well as others are continuing to invest in IoT technologies to determine how they will shape the future of education.

Although the education sector is not yet at the forefront of IoT adoption, it’s optimistic that the IoT technology will be implemented broadly across schools in the coming years. There’s still some time to go before students can enjoy the latest IoT applications in every single school and classroom, but we’re certainly sure that the smart school of tomorrow is on the way and will post students a completely new way to engage themselves in studying.