HWB Transformation Grant

[3s-gtech]

Where about is the setting to deprovision hiding then.. I don't seem to have that option!

In the normal place - Devices, Chrome devices, drill down on the OUs at the side, then you should see the list of devices by serial number. De-provision is an option on each one.

[Optimus]

I seem to be missing devices.. in one section says I have 75 - but when I drill down none are appearing with my filter all cleared! I'll email then now! Thanks.

[Olliekai]

I seem to be missing devices.. in one section says I have 75 - but when I drill down none are appearing with my filter all cleared! I'll email then now! Thanks.

 

Might be another hidden OU. The have a million.

[GrumpyGeoff]

We've very much been given the impression that the intent Wales wide is to do away with as much on site server kit as possible with everything being cloud/hwb based.

 

Bit of a pain after blowing several grand updating our NAS, Virtual Host, server licenses...

[SayLHP]

Anyone moved onto the phase with IWBs? I haven't even been able to roll out the PCs from Wave 3 yet as I'm term-time only and not allowed access to classrooms within the schools at the moment, only during break/lunchtime when the kids aren't in there.

 

Getting things done is slow at the moment.

[3s-gtech]

No inference of any extra funding for now, nor interactive screens (though they're available for us to purchase at a good price).

 

Slow progress here, as doing our Wave 3 PCs will involve some infrastructure work and feet are being dragged!

[SayLHP]

Yikes, we've got the infrastructure in place. but since our council has cut all funding for primary IT support - I have been informed there is no job for me in the spring. But so much still needs to be done.

[GrumpyGeoff]

Weirdly, due to supply chain issues, our interactive screens have arrived before the PC's.

When we had the last wave of PCs arrive earlier in the pandemic I had all of them stacked up in my office - I made a model castle out of them and worked my way through them a few at a time WDS deploying them so that "all" I had to do was dash into a room when there was a gap and swap a ready-to-go computer out for one destined for the scrap pile.

[SayLHP]

That was the intention, unfortunately all my cluster have limitations of number of staff in a room so everyone has spread through the buildings and I have no dedicated space at any of my sites.

Not to mention the Network Manager at the high school refuses to help with anything to do with the primary sites. So I rarely get chance to get them sorted in his office unless he's on holiday - which is never, the man never leaves.

[Olliekai]

We have the same issue. 200+ PC's that have to be installed ASAP but when? We can't get into IT suites, have nowhere to store them. Etc. We haven't been moved to the IWB phase but I think our LEA are doing it separate to the Hwb money.

[mikes]

WG have started to issue Chromebooks to schools.

 

These come with Enterprise Management Licenses and are pre-tied to Hwb.

 

The Admin interface in Hwb Google Workspace allows you to de-provision them.

 

I don’t see a downside.

 

Ours are technically still provisioned with HWB as otherwise we'd need to buy licenses for them all, but our LEA set it up so the HWB provisioned chromebooks allow us to log on to our actual school domain - the user must turn on the chromebook, choose "log in with a different account" and then our schools domain is pre-filled in. This means we don't have to use HWB usernames (which would be a nightmare as our google stuff is provisioned on our own domain) and we don't have to buy our own licenses.

 

But the problem is the management is crippled, pushing apps / checking who last used the chromebook doesn't really work as you have to log in to the HWB management section and it barely shows you anything. Struggling to get Impero onto our hwb provisioned chromebooks.

[SayLHP]

Ours are technically still provisioned with HWB as otherwise we'd need to buy licenses for them all, but our LEA set it up so the HWB provisioned chromebooks allow us to log on to our actual school domain - the user must turn on the chromebook, choose "log in with a different account" and then our schools domain is pre-filled in. This means we don't have to use HWB usernames (which would be a nightmare as our google stuff is provisioned on our own domain) and we don't have to buy our own licenses.

 

But the problem is the management is crippled, pushing apps / checking who last used the chromebook doesn't really work as you have to log in to the HWB management section and it barely shows you anything. Struggling to get Impero onto our hwb provisioned chromebooks.

We had ours without any ties to HWB. I manage them, I enroll them. Granted we had to buy licences, but it's been so much better for us.

[PotNoodleTech]

Hmm there seems to be massive variability across wales.

 

Here we only had funding for 50 new pcs (our of a fleet of 500) and no news about anything to do with interactive whiteboards. Has anyone actually got any documentation or links to websites that say what the actual plan is??

 

I use the term plan loosely.

[SayLHP]

No plan other than a mention of wave 4 from the LEA and we had to request the catalogue to see what was even being considered. But we've heard nothing about it since.

 

Whilst we were on wave 3, a batch of my devices were delivered to a neighbouring county in error. When I went to collect, their project officer mentioned that they were already purchasing wave 4 with IWB/projector replacements [emoji24]

[mikes]

Anyone know anything about getting damaged units repaired ? I also have 2 out of the box with faults with warranty but not sure how to get them fixed?

[SayLHP]

I've had it with a couple of Chromebooks and couple of the laptops. With the laptops, I've just logged it direct with Lenovo as it picks up the warranty from the serial number:

 

Lenovo Warranty Repair

[PotNoodleTech]

Anyone know anything about getting damaged units repaired ? I also have 2 out of the box with faults with warranty but not sure how to get them fixed?

 

Yes they have manufacturer warranty return to depot so contact lenovo or acer.

[mikes]

What about smashed screens I was guessing it wouldn't be covered as it is accidental damage anyone know anything about it?

[3s-gtech]

You contact the manufacturer, pay a fortune, and they'll fix it for you. Or you buy a screen and fix it yourself. There's no funding for that.

[PotNoodleTech]

Yes we repair them in house using a mixture of any new parts we can get online plus combining various different broken Chromebooks back into working ones.

 

The out of warranty repairs costs are totally insane - I've been quoted prices of 100% to 150% of the new price of the chromebook for repairs that can be done with a scredriver and a bit of patience!

[SayLHP]

Just discovered this with Lenovo for the E495's - had one pupil laptop back with bend network port pins and they're classing it as 'customer induced damage'

 

I dread to think.

[3s-gtech]

I had a bill for a dropped E14. It wouldn't charge anymore, and the case was bent. Staff member hadn't told me about this, just that it had stopped docking.

 

£450 bill.

 

I don't expect WG to cover that!

[SayLHP]

Ouch!

 

A teacher refused to take their laptop home as they were scared of causing damage. They spilt a hot drink over it, in school and continued to use it for a few weeks until it ultimately died, then reported it to me.

 

Repair came to over £600. Cheaper to order a new one.

[mikes]

Yeah I figured it would be a large cost, I've got a pile of 8 now on my desk and management are complaining that they are being wasted. I'd combine parts to get a few working, the problem is we have about 6 different types!!!

[PotNoodleTech]

You need to make sure management are aware mike that manufacturers are treating chromebooks as consumable items and that is not your fault. They expect you to either tie yourself into absurdly priced warranty or just buy new ones. They are not designed to be repaired really - parts availability is very poor (compared to mainstream Tier1 business desktops that we've all been used to).

 

Your doing the best you can (and over and above the call of duty) by amalgamating bits of broken ones into hopefully working ones!