We're inside Google HQ - Your chance to ask questions...

[Arthur]

Didn't Classroom launch in U.S. first?

Classroom was invite only initially. IIRC, it was limited to US schools.

 

http://googleblog.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/previewing-new-classroom.html

 

http://googleforwork.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/more-teaching-less-tech-ing-google.html

Edited June 12, 2015 by Arthur

[mjk]

2) is peer to peer chromebook updates going to be available anytime ? Again, bandwidth sucking

Response: The Google staff were genuinely interested to hear more, they requested more info on the types of update you refer to. However they were quick to highlight the update process is completely configurable by Network Staff, using the admin console and calendar function.

 

There was a project https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/google-chrome-anz-education/8UBDPTJqpWk working towards allowing one CB to download updates and the others to download from a local client on the network. Seemed like a good solution to me but I've not heard any more about it. At the moment we just stagger updates.

 

Google+ is recommended for 13+ however you can restrict sharing, not outside of the domain. A suggestion was to use Google Sites as an intranet instead?

 

I was rather hoping we could have a completely restricted G+. At the moment there is one major problem: strangers can befriend students. I'd like to see an internal G+ for our domain only, with no age restriction. It would be awesome for sharing and for teaching students about social networking.

 

Thank you for asking these questions.

[Arthur]

Seemed like a good solution to me but I've not heard any more about it.

ChromeOS does do P2P updates at the moment, although if you have a non-managed device the feature has to be enabled manually.

 

https://plus.google.com/+FrancoisBeaufort/posts/9wKfokmgbnj

 

As you may know already, Auto Update for managed Chrome devices use, when possible, a peer-to-peer network that reduces Internet bandwidth and allows faster update from nearby devices.

 

[...]

 

Last but not least, you can also manually enable P2P System Updates on your non-managed chrome device by simply opening a Shell with ++T and entering "p2p_update enable". As you guessed it, "p2p_update disable" will disable P2P System Updates.

 

Chrome OS P2P Updates Chrome App is available now on the Chrome Web Store at https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/hhhfapgdnelmcieoeldcpipdjfebgcfg

 

^ If you download the app mentioned above you can see which updates Chrome OS has cached for other devices.

 

http://vgy.me/1Vtjy2.jpg

Edited June 12, 2015 by Arthur

[mjk]

ChromeOS does do P2P updates at the moment, although if you have a non-managed device the feature has to be enabled manually.

 

Thanks for this. It says that it uses a built-in feature "p2p_update enable" Which suggests that it is a Google feature as opposed to third party.

I don't see any management console options for this though... Seems unlikely that Google would develop a feature and require a 3rd party app to turn it on unless it isn't stable ?

 

I'll start another thread about this

Edited June 12, 2015 by mjk

[Arthur]

Thanks for this. It says that it uses a built-in feature "p2p_update enable" Which suggests that it is a Google feature as opposed to third party.

As per the description above, it is a Google feature that is enabled by default for managed Chrome OS devices so you don't have to do anything to enable it.

 

For unmanaged devices you have to specifically turn on P2P updates via the shell. The feature is probably of limited use for non-managed devices so I reckon that is why it's turned off for them.

 

I don't see any management console options for this though.

I don't think there are any, although I'm not sure why you would want to disable it?

 

Seems unlikely that Google would develop a feature and require a 3rd party app to turn it on unless it isn't stable?

That third-party app is actually written by a Google employee, but all it does it let you see if your Chrome OS device has cached any updates for other devices on your network. You wouldn't use it to enable/disable the P2P updates since a Chrome extension wouldn't be able to anyway.

[mjk]

I don't think there are any, although I'm not sure why you would want to disable it?

 

I don't: it is disabled already. I started another thread here: http://www.edugeek.net/forums/nix/155162-chromebook-p2p-updating.html as we are going a bit far off topic.