BlueSteel Posted June 23, 2016 Posted June 23, 2016 I’ve been asked to investigate the use of Chromebooks for the teaching staff, I’m interested to hear which model other schools have chosen, especially size? Also do other schools use Chromebooks as a replacement for laptops for teachers, if so do they run the school MIS on the device e.g. registration and assessment entry?
pcstru Posted June 23, 2016 Posted June 23, 2016 We run several hundred for student use in classrooms. However, even the champion of all things Google at the time looked like the toys would be firmly out of the pram when I suggested he might like to hand back his windows laptop and try and go native.
sted Posted June 23, 2016 Posted June 23, 2016 can they run mis software if its web based yes if not no. Basically if you can run it in chrome browser on a pc it can run on a chromebook if you cant it wont work on a chromebook
zag Posted June 23, 2016 Posted June 23, 2016 They are much more suited to students really, Sims wont work in them unless you do some kind of remote solution.
theeggmaster Posted June 23, 2016 Posted June 23, 2016 We use the smaller ones (Acer C720/C730) for pupils, and tend to go for the HP 14 for staff. We use SIMS for our MIS, but have Bromcom Webfolder SD for web-based registration. Later this year when the Android App store is available, I'm planning to use the Android version of Microsoft Remote Desktop to connect to our RemoteApp server to run full SIMS.
sted Posted June 23, 2016 Posted June 23, 2016 We use the smaller ones (Acer C720/C730) for pupils, and tend to go for the HP 14 for staff. We use SIMS for our MIS, but have Bromcom Webfolder SD for web-based registration. Later this year when the Android App store is available, I'm planning to use the Android version of Microsoft Remote Desktop to connect to our RemoteApp server to run full SIMS. my only issue with android apps on chromeboooks is control will i be able to control it or if i want one app will i have to allow the install of all apps and end up with a fleet of chromebooks full of pants free games, will i even be able to say these 6 chromebooks install rdp or will it be manual based on existing android experience it will be a manual process
dhicks Posted June 23, 2016 Posted June 23, 2016 I’ve been asked to investigate the use of Chromebooks for the teaching staff, I’m interested to hear which model other schools have chosen, especially size? For pupils, we're probably going to go with the Asus C100PA. We picked one up from PC World for £200 (although that seems like a special offer, now around £250) and were impressed by its quality - 10.6" screen, so not huge, put it is proper 10-point multitouch and it turns in to a tablet by simply bending the keyboard out of the way. That particular model might prove a little small for staff use, though. For accessing Windows applications we use a HTML RDP client, currently Ericom's AccessNow, although I see Guacamole is now a Apache project and seems to be being activly developed, so we're trying that out, too.
pcstru Posted June 23, 2016 Posted June 23, 2016 my only issue with android apps on chromeboooks is control will i be able to control it or if i want one app will i have to allow the install of all apps and end up with a fleet of chromebooks full of pants free games, will i even be able to say these 6 chromebooks install rdp or will it be manual based on existing android experience it will be a manual process If you licence them to a GAE Domain, you can control what is installed. However it does remind me of one PITA issue. Google likes to update them quite frequently and does not like you getting too behind (automatic updates will stop working and you then have to do each one by hand). The problem for us has been that the updates break the integration with the smoothwall single sign on. At least that has been our experience.
fiza Posted June 23, 2016 Posted June 23, 2016 We use Viglen Chromebooks. £169 with the management licence and 3 years warranty. XMA - allLearn - Google - Viglen Chromebook
theeggmaster Posted June 23, 2016 Posted June 23, 2016 For accessing Windows applications we use a HTML RDP client, currently Ericom's AccessNow, although I see Guacamole is now a Apache project and seems to be being activly developed, so we're trying that out, too. I would absolutely do this, but our LA currently is only allowing us one external IP address, and that is used for our parent portal, Bromcom and RDP/RemoteApp. I have Guacamole installed internally, but no way of accessing it from home currently.
dhicks Posted June 23, 2016 Posted June 23, 2016 (edited) I would absolutely do this, but our LA currently is only allowing us one external IP address, and that is used for our parent portal, Bromcom and RDP/RemoteApp. I have Guacamole installed internally, but no way of accessing it from home currently. If you can control what sits on that external IP address, then Guacamole should work with a reverse proxy server, so you can have, say, several sub-domains all pointing at the same IP address (parents.school.com, guacamole.school.com, etc) and let the reverse proxy server figure out which web server needs to handle each request. NGINX seems to be the best known / most commonly used reverse proxy, and Apache has a mod_proxy module, but we use Pound and have found it nice and simple to set up. Theoretically, you should be able to reverse-proxy WebSocket connections, but if that is too complicated to set up you can configure Guacamole to use its own HTTPS-based tunneling instead, which should work with a standard reverse proxy setup. Edit: give your Guacamole server a DNS name along the lines of "remote.school.com" or something - no-one can spell "guacamole"... Edited June 23, 2016 by dhicks 1
gshaw Posted June 23, 2016 Posted June 23, 2016 (edited) Dell Chomebook 11, rock solid build quality (check out this teardown for comparison EdListen: Dell 11 vs Acer 720 Chromebook Disassembled: Choosing a 1:1 Chromebook ) but also nice and light. Last lot we got for around £160 ex. VAT, definitely shop around for these as the price varies quite a bit between suppliers and even Dell themselves. I'm considering a small-scale VDI deployment to sit behind the Chromebooks so we can get the best of both worlds: low cost, sturdy mobile device with good battery life use as native Chrome OS \ web apps for majority of the time when legacy Windows apps are needed fire up VDI session Seems a better way around the Windows problem than going with the Win10 "Cloudbooks" I've seen so far that are very basic spec-wise, still require AV etc. and nowhere near as well-built. Edited June 23, 2016 by gshaw
theeggmaster Posted June 23, 2016 Posted June 23, 2016 If you can control what sits on that external IP address, then Guacamole should work with a reverse proxy server, so you can have, say, several sub-domains all pointing at the same IP address (parents.school.com, guacamole.school.com, etc) and let the reverse proxy server figure out which web server needs to handle each request. NGINX seems to be the best known / most commonly used reverse proxy, and Apache has a mod_proxy module, but we use Pound and have found it nice and simple to set up. Theoretically, you should be able to reverse-proxy WebSocket connections, but if that is too complicated to set up you can configure Guacamole to use its own HTTPS-based tunneling instead, which should work with a standard reverse proxy setup. Edit: give your Guacamole server a DNS name along the lines of "remote.school.com" or something - no-one can spell "guacamole"... Our external address is already reverse proxied through the LA to get to us. I'll have to test and see if doing another reverse proxy would work.
dhicks Posted June 23, 2016 Posted June 23, 2016 Our external address is already reverse proxied through the LA to get to us. I'll have to test and see if doing another reverse proxy would work. What address is proxied - http://www.yourschool.com? Ideally, you want to be able to add DNS entries (or get your LA to add entries for you) so remote.yourschool.com points to your external IP address. If that's not possible you could proxy by URL, so you'd split traffic to http://www.yourschool.com/web, http://www.yourschool.com/remote, etc. You could, of course, buy another domain name and point it at your external IP address, assuming you are free to add a reverse proxy in there somewhere you could then handle that traffic however you like. You could even host a Guacamole server on an external server and simply have it connect to your public RDP service, although I can't help trhinking that will introduce too much latency. You'd think a nice, pre-built web-based RDP service is the kind of thing your LA should be handling centrally, all set up and ready to go for you.
theeggmaster Posted June 23, 2016 Posted June 23, 2016 You'd think a nice, pre-built web-based RDP service is the kind of thing your LA should be handling centrally, all set up and ready to go for you. I've sent you a PM
Haptic-Nathan Posted June 23, 2016 Posted June 23, 2016 (edited) We @Haptic ship more ASUS C201's than any other unit. I assume its the price point on them which makes this the most popular. ASUS are due to be releasing the C202 education ruggedised chromebook mid next month which will be more expensive but less repairs will be required so this may outweigh buying a cheaper lesser built unit - Spec Sheet - https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4GLYStYeHYkV1VkTUlWdjY2eE0/view MIS wise. Google will be releasing an app update for Classroom in the coming months. This update will allow Classroom to bridge between your MIS and Google as a heads up for all Google heads out there. P.S that info didn't come from me EDIT - New to Blogging and haven't mastered the hyperlink yet! Edited June 23, 2016 by Haptic-Nathan
fiza Posted June 23, 2016 Posted June 23, 2016 Dell Chomebook 11, rock solid build quality (check out this teardown for comparison EdListen: Dell 11 vs Acer 720 Chromebook Disassembled: Choosing a 1:1 Chromebook ) but also nice and light. Last lot we got for around £160 ex. VAT, definitely shop around for these as the price varies quite a bit between suppliers and even Dell themselves. I'm considering a small-scale VDI deployment to sit behind the Chromebooks so we can get the best of both worlds: low cost, sturdy mobile device with good battery life use as native Chrome OS \ web apps for majority of the time when legacy Windows apps are needed fire up VDI session Seems a better way around the Windows problem than going with the Win10 "Cloudbooks" I've seen so far that are very basic spec-wise, still require AV etc. and nowhere near as well-built. Our first lot of 40 Chromebooks were Dells but we found that Dell have let us down once the warranty expired. We can't get uk replacement keyboards and it's difficult to find replacement screens.
Swansfirst Posted June 26, 2016 Posted June 26, 2016 is that definite as we want chromebooks but have SIMS
FN-GM Posted June 26, 2016 Posted June 26, 2016 is that definite as we want chromebooks but have SIMS Pars Connect might be able to get around this. It can put SIMS data into a browser interface. TASC Software | PARS Connect 1
rogerdnixon Posted October 20, 2016 Posted October 20, 2016 All our staff have Chromebooks. Mainly HP 11 G4's and Acer C738T (touch flip ones). Students have C738T's mainly. We use locally hosted SIMS and as other offer Remote Services via Ericom AccessNow and Secure Gateway - both quick and simple to setup. If you are a G Suite school Chromebooks are a bit of a no brainer and way easier to manage that PCs. Just a make sure staff are fully embedded in the Google Eco system.
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