Chromebooks and Office 365

[Alis_Klar]

Hi,

 

We are evaluating Chrombooks. Are any EduGeekers using Chromebooks with Office 365? How are you handling the fact that Chromebooks require a Google account to login?

 

What about using Google Cloud Directory Sync so that the students don't have to remember another set of passwords. We don't currently use single signon with our Office 365 tenancy but we could do this also hopefully.

 

Am I crazy to try and attempt a mixed Office 365 / G Suite environment?

 

The reason being is I really like chromebooks but we are fairly heavily invested in Office 365 (also prefer O365 to G Suite)

[rogerdnixon]

There is an option in the G Suite management console to setup SSO (in Apps - SAML Apps) and Office 365 is one of the options - never used it myself as we are a Google Reference School - but are 1:1 with Chromebooks. Might be worth a look.

 

I generally advise people to do one thing or the other - having many systems tends to lead to fragmentation and user confusion. If you are totally sold on 365, then Chromebooks might not be the best option.

[Michael]

Other considerations are what will actually run on a Chromebook? For example last I checked there are no Smart Notebook or Promethean solutions and there are many other 'Windows only' solutions, especially in Education.

 

No doubt this'll change in future, but it's certainly worth thinking about.

[Alis_Klar]

@rogerdnixon Any positive/neg comments about Chromebooks in Education? What model did you go for?

@Michael We are looking at 30 shared Chromebooks in a trolley for students only at the moment as an alternative to iPads as they have Flash and keyboards.

[Michael]

That makes some sense, but I hope you see where I'm going with this. I've seen it happen with Macs, only to realise most of the applications are Windows only. Yes you could Bootcamp or virtualise, but it takes a great deal of time and training.

[ADMaster]

Chromebooks are great for student use 90% of our student devices are chrome. Teachers still have windows machines for the IWBs, gradebook etc. We also have some suites with the full Office, Adobe and Autodesk for the classes that teach that software.

Students not enrolled in a Office applications or Digital art, or robotics courses can do all there work on a chromebook.

We are a google school and I have no plans of adding O365.

[Sylv3r]

We've got a bank of 12 Chrome Books used in our student support centre and we are also a Office365 school.

 

Yes, we've setup SSO via RM Unify for our GApps as well as Office365, but once logged in the students access their documents via either the online versions of Office365 or via OneDrive.

 

Seems to be working well.

[mbuk70]

One of our schools have 150 Chromebooks (Toshiba) and work really well, the computer science department have just started using Codio for Python and SQL, the kids and teachers love it. They are also used as thin clients that connects to Citrix XenApp servers, this used to be the preferred option for teachers, but now they use them just as a Chromebook due to the speed and the ability to mark work online.

Another School is O365, they have just setup a GAFE account and have purchased some Chromebooks, they don't bother with SSO, both office and Google passwords are set the same. If they forget their email password, IT Support just charge both. I believe you could setup ADFS as a single sign on option, but as Sylv3r says, RM Unify works well and isn't that costly.

[rogerdnixon]

@rogerdnixon Any positive/neg comments about Chromebooks in Education? What model did you go for?

@Michael We are looking at 30 shared Chromebooks in a trolley for students only at the moment as an alternative to iPads as they have Flash and keyboards.

 

We have been largely ChromeOS for a few years now. Our most recent devices have been the 4Gb version of the Acer R11 - the touch/flip ones. Students really like them - have been pretty durable and we are now testing managed Android Apps on then for Google. All staff have Chromebooks and most teacher devices are Chromeboxes in classrooms. For an IT point of view it makes management of devices a breeze, allowing us to reduce costs and focus on things other than looking after devices.

 

From a teaching and learning point of view, students have devices that are quick, give then easy access to their stuff anywhere with unlimited storage. Collaboration between staff and students is a world away from where it was before G Suite.

 

I'll be on the Google Stand at 3.30 on Friday at BETT with some students and their R11's demoing managed Android Apps and Cast for Education if anyone is around.

[RMGAfE]

A nice solution is to use Public Session settings in Chrome (https://support.google.com/chrome/a/answer/3017014?hl=en). No need to have Google accounts. Instead push out a Single Sign On solution such as Unify which the user can then authenticate into o365 (and other Apps). This solution gives you the ability to manage the device (you will need a license on each Chromebook) through Chrome Management, although of course it won't give you user settings. Device management in Chrome still gives you a bunch of controls (https://support.google.com/chrome/a/answer/1289314?hl=en).

[Alis_Klar]

I am planning to use groupcall IDaaS as we already use that for O365 (BGfL365)

 

I wanted to trial Chromebooks by buying 6 and seeing how it went down with staff and students. Only issue is we will have to pay again for IDaaS to work with G-Suite and not worth the cost for 6 devices only. Would have to get at least class set to make it worth the cost for IDaaS.

 

Guess the public session is another solution. Do you know if this totally stops any tracking e-safety platforms you may be using with the Chromebooks such as Netsupport and Impero.

[gpjt]

Just bought 40 Chromebooks Asus C202's and so far i'm impressed. We have O365 for staff email, yammer etc but students don't really touch the online services they offer at the moment.

As i'm new to the school and really have a blank canvas to start with, so far staff/pupils have chosen the Chromebook route as i got in a number of devices on trial from Haptic networks who have been brilliant. Had a few devices on trial for a few weeks and passed them around to students and staff.

 

At the moment i'm fine tuning the management of them and so far i'm really impressed with how straight forward and easy it is.

 

If anyone needs to speak more get in touch!

[lafleur1977]

Just bought 40 Chromebooks Asus C202's and so far i'm impressed. We have O365 for staff email, yammer etc but students don't really touch the online services they offer at the moment.

As i'm new to the school and really have a blank canvas to start with, so far staff/pupils have chosen the Chromebook route as i got in a number of devices on trial from Haptic networks who have been brilliant. Had a few devices on trial for a few weeks and passed them around to students and staff.

 

At the moment i'm fine tuning the management of them and so far i'm really impressed with how straight forward and easy it is.

 

If anyone needs to speak more get in touch!

 

Hi, I just wondered how you have found the asus c202's in terms of reliability and if needed, warranty repairs? I am looking at buying 200 shortly as part of our 1:1 scheme, and the device looks great. It comes with a 3 year warranty which has been a big pro, but have been reading lots of horror stories when it comes to asus honoring the warranty.

 

Thanks

[gpjt]

Had them about 6 months now and touch wood none have had an issue. So far so good!

They're used daily mainly by Year 5 and 6 pupils and i too was sold on how child friendly they are.

[Brimstone]

@rogerdnixon Any positive/neg comments about Chromebooks in Education? What model did you go for?

@Michael We are looking at 30 shared Chromebooks in a trolley for students only at the moment as an alternative to iPads as they have Flash and keyboards.

 

So these will be defunct when Flash dies, good forward planning there....