Devices for students

[Manny-Tech]

As a school we're looking at purchasing devices for around 80-100 students who are fairly disadvantaged in terms of money and being able to afford a device. We anticipate that at some stage we may well have a bubble isolation, or even worse a local lockdown, in which case we don't want these students to go without. We have dived in with Google Classroom for home learning and continue to do this for homework currently. I've been asked to look into devices, should I be going a Chromebook route? I know teachers don't always use Google Docs, Slides, Sheets etc.. and still upload the Microsoft variation to their classes. Would Office online be sufficient through the browser or do I need to be looking at a Chomebook with the Play Store so we can get the apps downloaded?

 

As a school we've never trialled Chromebooks, I have no idea how intensive they are - what I would say is these devices would be mainly kept offsite, we'll look to provide filtering to ensure we meet our safeguarding policy. Is it fairly straight forward to manage these devices through G-Suite? I take it there are device licenses so they can be managed from the admin console.

 

Any guidance much appreciated.

[Ditto]

I'd say yes, Chromebooks. It would be better to persuade/train the teachers to use Docs/Slides/Sheets, but I know that resistance can be tough to overcome. Ideally, get one or two teachers to get a GSuite Education Level 1 and 2 certification - it should be able to count as there CPD. They can then 'champion' the platform use as a teacher which is far more powerful than us from IT. I'm sure you can use MS online products, but I've little experience of that, but I still better to try to coax people away from their dependency! Setup is straight-forward and you can learn to tailor the setup as you go. I believe some suppliers can help with pre-setup. Also, some will lend out devices prior to purchase. Order a few spares to cover damage/breakage. Look at Securly for safe-guarding needs. Yes, managing the devices is through the admin console based - you'll be getting a license for each Chromebook. There is lots of online training that will help. There are few G Suite Administrators on Edugeek nowadays, so I'm sure lots more advice will be on it's way. You might even have some people suggest you get Windows laptop and go for the full MS stack - you can ignore them (to be fair, I'm semi-joking, let's see what others have to say.)

[Ditto]

In the spirit of a impartiality - here is a recent article comparing the option of Chromebooks and ChromeOS against Laptops and Windows 10. The latter wins hands-down! All I would do is point out in the first couple of paragraphs, it says "...to update Windows 10 with new tricks, revolving around an ever-improving Start menu and the helpful Cortana assistant". Hmmm...

[djm968]

You might be able to get some help from the DfE, have a look at this. https://www.gov.uk/guidance/get-laptops-and-tablets-for-children-who-cannot-attend-school-due-to-coronavirus-covid-19

[Ditto]

You might be able to get some help from the DfE, have a look at this. https://www.gov.uk/guidance/get-laptops-and-tablets-for-children-who-cannot-attend-school-due-to-coronavirus-covid-19

Thanks for this - it looks like a significant change from the summer offer. I asked at my governance school (a primary)about this, but was told the offer only applied to secondary schools. In fact I researched and learnt children with social workers were included but don't think we have any like this. Our catchment area is generally highly privileged and as a result I think it is especially important the less well off in the area (we have small pockets of deprivation) get access to resources in the event of home education.

[keyboards]

I'd go chromebooks all the way, so easy to manage, enroll, everything just a breeze

[Manny-Tech]

I know Chromebooks come with a device license so they can be managed. Is there anything I need to purchase for our G-Suite Admin Console to manage the devices or is the Chromebook license sufficient?

[caffrey]

The Chromebooks don't come with the device licence, they are purchased separately