Google Home System within a School

[NickoTheSicko]

Hello,

 

I don't know if anyone can help or has any knowledge on this but the school i work for want to implement a Lock down System, we have been looking around at some companies that offer this but have found them to be really expensive. Are deputy head has suggested we try using Google Home Mini's in classrooms to which he can send out a message through his phone and then can alert the staff and children of any danger. Has anyone else tried this and do you think it could be possble?

 

Thanks

[FishCustard]

I would never recommend using consumer grade kit for something safety-critical.

[Jawloms]

Hello,

 

I don't know if anyone can help or has any knowledge on this but the school i work for want to implement a Lock down System, we have been looking around at some companies that offer this but have found them to be really expensive. Are deputy head has suggested we try using Google Home Mini's in classrooms to which he can send out a message through his phone and then can alert the staff and children of any danger. Has anyone else tried this and do you think it could be possble?

 

Thanks

 

You would have to advise parents that you would be putting these in classrooms as there will be those that will object to "one of those permanently recording my child". I am aware how these things work so I am not suggesting it is, but that is what you will get.

 

I also wouldn't rely on them anyway. They are clever pieces of kit, but they do have glitches and I cannot say I would depend on one for such a critical purpose.

[sted]

i wouldnt if for no other realson than kids could work near one and say "hey google broadcast mr tyler smells" (or worse) and every device on your network would suddenly be repeating that message (and thats just 30 seconds of thought) in THEORY they support recognizing whos talking to them but unless me and my sister/nephews (and the nephews accent is welsh mines yorkshire) sound the same thats advertising speak

[NickoTheSicko]

This is issue that im thinking about, there is no way to monitor or restrict the Google Home Mini's so it will be a very big safety risk with the children especially as they are voice activated.

[Jawloms]

This is issue that im thinking about, there is no way to monitor or restrict the Google Home Mini's so it will be a very big safety risk with the children especially as they are voice activated.

 

A thought has just occurred though;

 

If it is simply there to receive a message and announce it, you can turn the mic off. I still wouldn't rely on it though, plus you probably wouldn't hear it in a particularly noisy class.

[NickoTheSicko]

A thought has just occurred though;

 

If it is simply there to receive a message and announce it, you can turn the mic off. I still wouldn't rely on it though, plus you probably wouldn't hear it in a particularly noisy class.

 

Yer neither the staff or students would need to talk to it, it would simply just be used as a speaker to broadcast a message or whatever the deputy wants. Are classes are very small, 8 students in each class so noise wouldn't be so much of a problem.

[fiza]

A thought has just occurred though;

 

If it is simply there to receive a message and announce it, you can turn the mic off. I still wouldn't rely on it though, plus you probably wouldn't hear it in a particularly noisy class.

 

Wouldn't take much for a student to switch the mic back on. It's only a toggle switch on the Google Home Mini.

[NickoTheSicko]

Wouldn't take much for a student to switch the mic back on. It's only a toggle switch on the Google Home Mini.

 

Oh is it? i thought you could turn them off via the app.

[sted]

Wouldn't take much for a student to switch the mic back on. It's only a toggle switch on the Google Home Mini.

 

and if they ever got on the same wifi you can use the google home app and your phone to trigger then anyway (or cast to them etc) and iirc once seen i can on mine turn on my lights and broadcast messages from other locations (to test this ive just turned my living room lights on from the other side of leeds)

[NickoTheSicko]

and if they ever got on the same wifi you can use the google home app and your phone to trigger then anyway (or cast to them etc) and iirc once seen i can on mine turn on my lights and broadcast messages from other locations (to test this ive just turned my living room lights on from the other side of leeds)

 

well there is no way a student can access the WIFI that we would use it on anyway so that wouldnt be an issue.

[Meldrew]

For around the same price you could buy some IP phones, host a 3cx phone system, then use its broadcast facility to message all phones at once. Then you've got a phone system too.

[NickoTheSicko]

For around the same price you could buy some IP phones, host a 3cx phone system, then use its broadcast facility to message all phones at once. Then you've got a phone system too.

 

We already use an IP Phone system within the school but i had never thought of using it as an alert system.

[FishCustard]

We already use an IP Phone system within the school but i had never thought of using it as an alert system.

 

We do this for general announcements (e.g. buses are ready for boarding, etc.) - works really well.

[NickoTheSicko]

We do this for general announcements (e.g. buses are ready for boarding, etc.) - works really well.

 

Oh cool, ill look into this Thank You!

[nahtan]

We use NetSupport Notify to broadcast messages. The messages are sent from a console which can be installed on any amount of machines and then the sent messages pop up in the foreground of everyone's screen or those who you'd like the message to appear to. The messages can also be set to close automatically or the user has to acknowledge and play a sound of your choice when a message is received.

[NickoTheSicko]

We use NetSupport Notify to broadcast messages. The messages are sent from a console which can be installed on any amount of machines and then the sent messages pop up in the foreground of everyone's screen or those who you'd like the message to appear to. The messages can also be set to close automatically or the user has to acknowledge and play a sound of your choice when a message is received.

 

I'm not sure that would work personally as sometimes there wouldnt be a device to broadcast that message to, if a teacher is outside with students there's no way for them to know whats going on, Its a good idea tho and i have suggested something on the lines on what you have talked about.

[nahtan]

I'm not sure that would work personally as sometimes there wouldnt be a device to broadcast that message to, if a teacher is outside with students there's no way for them to know whats going on, Its a good idea tho and i have suggested something on the lines on what you have talked about.

 

I agree. I think they'll always be limitations with how much technology can help with this situation. I believe we also use the school bells as part of our lock down procedure so that could be something you could incorporate?

[NickoTheSicko]

I agree. I think they'll always be limitations with how much technology can help with this situation. I believe we also use the school bells as part of our lock down procedure so that could be something you could incorporate?

 

We dont use a bell system at our school, the only alarm system we have is the fire alarm, but we wouldn't want to use that as when activated all the doors within the school will unlock because at my school we use RFID scanners to open every door.

[bald_pig]

I'm not sure that would work personally as sometimes there wouldnt be a device to broadcast that message to, if a teacher is outside with students there's no way for them to know whats going on, Its a good idea tho and i have suggested something on the lines on what you have talked about.

 

So they wouldn't have a laptop or iPad, but they'd be walking about with a Google Home Mini?

 

You can get IP speakers that can be paged from the phone system, I'd be looking at that.

[NickoTheSicko]

So they wouldn't have a laptop or iPad, but they'd be walking about with a Google Home Mini?

 

You can get IP speakers that can be paged from the phone system, I'd be looking at that.

 

I mean the deputy head dosent really think much, he just says whatever he thinks is best, there are a lot of limitations to any system when not using an actual lock down system, we are just looking to see what other options we could use.

[Knil92]

There's a way to send text to speech to remote computers using powershell, I'm sure you could find an example if you google it, but you could use that and invoke a command that opens a window on the remote PC as well in case they have the sound turned off.

[DavR]

Surprised no-one else has mentioned it yet, but surely something like NetSupport Notify is what you're looking for? It's a client that sits on every PC, and you can broadcast messages from a console, which pop up and make a sound on each PC. We scripted a panic button for lockdown, it sits on the desktop of SLT / Admin.

 

It only cost us a couple of hundred quid, much cheaper than buying hardware for every room.

[bald_pig]

Surprised no-one else has mentioned it yet, but surely something like NetSupport Notify is what you're looking for? It's a client that sits on every PC, and you can broadcast messages from a console, which pop up and make a sound on each PC. We scripted a panic button for lockdown, it sits on the desktop of SLT / Admin.

 

It only cost us a couple of hundred quid, much cheaper than buying hardware for every room.

 

First post of this page!

[DavR]

First post of this page!

 

Ooops - missed the entire second page of this thread!

 

As you were ladies and gents.....