Office365/Chromebook + BYOD

[jonathan.lees]

We use Office 365 for all students in our school and are thinking of rolling out BYOD where a chromebook will be purchased by each student. The downside is that we don't use google education so they won't have school gmail accounts so to use the chromebook they'll need to create a google account. Once logged in though they can just login to Office 365. Has anyone done anything similar or perhaps know of an alternative to chromebooks? We're in W.Yorks so if there's any schools local doing byod with chromebooks for every student we'd like to come visit.

[jmak]

I really wouldn't go for Chromebooks without school Google accounts. It's free and simple to sign up and you'll be able to federate the O365 accounts they already have, so no extra login details for them to remember. You don't need to give them access to Gmail or any of the other parts of the site if you don't want to. Being in control of the user accounts and having the option to manage the devices centrally has got to make sense for protecting your sanity.

[3s-gtech]

...but it's not free - you will also need to buy management licenses.

[jonathan.lees]

thanks all for the replies. Is it around £12 for each device? I have no need to manage the Chromebooks since the pupils will be buying them outright but I do like the idea of SSO for the chromebook and Office365 if that can be done for free. It's a bummer that MS don't do something like a "Edgebook"

[Arthur]

It's a bummer that MS don't do something like a "Edgebook"

They will soon (although they will still be more complicated to manage compared to Chromebooks)...

 

New Windows 10 Devices Offer Great Alternatives to Chromebooks

 

There's also a new edition of Windows 10 called Windows 10 Cloud which is more like Chrome OS...

 

http://www.zdnet.com/article/microsofts-coming-windows-10-cloud-release-may-have-nothing-to-do-with-the-cloud/

[Arthur]

Is it around £12 for each device?

IIRC, £19 + VAT each.

[rogerdnixon]

We buy management licences for £16.50 - shop around. I'd not use Chromebooks in school without management as there is nothing then stopping them from just signing in with a private Google Account + the heap of other controls and stats you get. If you want them to make an impact pedagogically then use them with G Suite - then they become very powerful educational tools and can transform learning (in the right hands). You can also deploy managed Android Apps now.

[jonathan.lees]

My concern though is that the students will be buying the chromebooks and therefore owning them, so I'm not sure what rights as a school we'd have to manage and control them. At least with a chromebook they'd have no viruses or malware, hopefully our UTM will block any VPN extensions installed and we can control web filtering. I think moving away from Office 365 to G Suite will be too much for our teacher, we've made some progress using Office 365 unlike VLE's in the past and I might face revolt if I suggest moving to another platform!

[rogerdnixon]

Our 1:1 chromebooks are bought by use and parents have the option to buy them (we get about 60% buy rate). However, we make it clear that while the devices are at school they are managed by us. Once they leave school, we remove the management and they become consumer devices. We foot the bill for the licences.

[jmak]

You'll have various options to use Office 365 on Chromebooks, obviously there's the browser interface, but you also have the office extension for Chrome which is pretty good and now that Android apps are available on Chromebooks, the Office 365 suite for Android. That works well on my mobile devices and I'd expect it to be pretty good on a Chromebook.

 

Even if you don't choose to manage the Chromebooks, I'd still set up Google accounts through school for pupils. You can then make sure everyone has an account and control/sync passwords.

[Sylv3r]

Not for a BYOD setup, but we've got a set of 12 Chrome books here. Students have all been given a Google account linked to their AD as well as an Office365 account which they logon to, once on the Chromebooks.

 

GMail is disabled for all users - so they use Office365 for their mail.

 

It's working well, with the Google management licences too and we've found them pretty light touch with regards to support since we set them up for September.

 

We are using RM Unify, to create both Office365 and G suite accounts.