DfE devices - which is better?

[Koldov]

I know this is probably a very subjective question and therefore the answer will vary depending on what age range of children you have and what they need to do with the devices (also what kind of remote learning is used in the school and whether you are GSuite or O365 etc.)...

 

But out of the devices available from the DfE, what did you choose and why?

 

Our Year 6 bubble has burst.... and I've just had the Head on the phone demanding to know which devices to order....

 

Now, bearing in mind how long the devices will take to get here and how long it will take me to set them up and then how long it will take for them to actually get to the child, it will mean they will probably be back in school before it gets sorted...

 

Also, what have you done in regards to off premises filtering if you don't have any kind of fancy set-up that deals with it?

 

We had one Chromebook thing months ago that got a free version of Cisco Umbrella installed and that was all I've had to deal with (the child was leaving the school 2 weeks later anyway). Is that still a thing?

 

We are an LGfL school so might be able to use 'Home Protect' but I don't know if it's any good...

 

We do use GSuite, but only minimal use just so they can access Google Classroom.

 

We do have Cisco Meraki MDM that deals with our on-site iPads.

 

We don't have any off-site filtering, or any any off-site MS cloud products like Azure or In-Tune.

 

This leads me to think maybe Chromebooks or iPads - but how do you filter these? I have heard iPads are quite difficult as you might need to disable Safari and use a 'filtered browser'...

 

But aslo, with an iPad it might be less of a cr*pshoot as to the quality of devices..?

 

Also what does 'DfE Restricted' actually mean?

 

Edited December 8, 2020 by Koldov

[sted]

well ive seen the windows tablet its a naff toshiba with very little storage and a really bad touchpad, the unmanaged windows laptop is a terrible cheap nasty thing with a very bad trackpad and no storage (spot the recurring theme cheap and nasty) the managed windows laptop was actually a reasonable dell laptop. id honestly go for the chromebooks or ipads depending on your system if you have to go for windows go for managed and get the bios passwords etc as they are just setup with .\localuser

[synaesthesia]

I would absolutely say the chromebooks over and above anything else. Easier and quicker to get in place.

[psydii]

What is your remote learning platform? Go with what ever device supports that the best. Based purely on the information you have provided above - ChromeBooks seem to be the better choice for you.

 

We have Microsoft 365 E5, which gets us Intune and a basic (but adequate) content filter, so we went with Windows devices (iPads weren't even offered at the time). Needing a filter makes Unsecured Windows the obvious choice for us. iPads have poor filtering options (basically you can only do it at the network level - off device). I do not know what options are available for Chromebooks - I would lean into the LGfL offer to secure these. E5 also gives us a huge amount of telemetry from the machines and Office 365 so we can really see what people are getting up to, and trigger alerts on certain events and conditions.

 

When running previous 1:1 programmes we generally engage with parents to raise their awareness of internet content risks, and get them to accept responsibility for the use of the devices outside of school.

[Boredguy]

All our devices have been the Secure windows laptops that come straight from DfE and we give them to students along with some paperwork about damage, expectations etc.

They all login as Sted said with the .\localuser account and it has the web filtering setup and device restricted via the DfE InTune settings.

 

Students use the web browser to access Office/G-Suite to do their work and save it straight to the cloud as the devices.

 

If you go for iPads, you can add them to your existing infrastructure using the DEP code, and filtering is then down to what you already have (if anything) for external use.

[paulkerton]

Which is better?

There's only one way to find out...

[Mujja]

I would avoid any tablet device, the current ones are all Dynabooks (Toshiba) with or without a keyboard. As much as MS would want you to believe, Windows isn't ready to be used on a tablet device.

 

For Windows laptop you could end up with a Dell Latitude 3190, a HP 250/255 or the Tactus GeoBook 1E (GE109 or GE114). Some GeoBooks comes with a gloss display which look way better than the matte display.

[saggu]

Dell managed windows laptops was better.

[paulellam]

We opted for the laptops (managed but used admin rights to tweek) seem good enough, been in an out like the okey cokey and holding up well.

[Sylv3r]

We went with the Chromebooks but are a O365 school.

 

You'll be surprised how quick they arrive - I placed the order one day and they turned up the next.

[gmonks]

We opted for the DfE Secured Windows laptops as they were Dell and not some other brand I've never heard of with the unsecured ones.

 

They're okay and run pretty fast. DfE Secured means they're locked down and have the filtering on which is what we need when sending devices home to students.

[BushPig]

I've been ordering for our Trust (5 Schools)

 

The answer actually changes daily, depending on what they have in stock.

 

We have been unlucky enough to get some of the Tactus Geobooks, which I ordered as non secured from DFE. but then noticed the secured ones were DELLS, if you have the safeguarding and filtering software, you can remove the management from a DFE managed one anyway, you just have to ask them for the passwords.

 

When I get the go ahead to order, I look at the model of laptop available, and order what looks best, and what will survive - the Geobooks are awlful flimsy bits of kit avoid them at all costs - Very are flogging them for £180 a shot. The Dells are okay selling for £380 on the Dell site currently, and the HPs are fine.

 

We strip of the DFE management and do our own thing with them.

 

If you are a Google school, get the Chromebooks

[FragglePete]

We went with Chromebooks this time round and they've proved very popular. We're an O365 school generally but signed us up as a G-Suite school about a year ago to take a look, sync'd it all with Azure so they students can sign in with their network credentials - glad I did as it works really well. Just had two weeks where we had year groups out so dished out a lot of the devices where needed and students loved them. Just got them all back ready for the next time (except for a few which are long term loans).

 

We had the HP 250 G7's as well which are ok - they do the job but very basic. Looking to put these on Intune in the next week or so to control them better, but they are just ok - nothing special.

 

If we had the chance for more, I'd say Chromebooks all the way at the mo.

 

Pete