Koldov Posted June 20, 2022 Posted June 20, 2022 Feels like I asked this question a while ago at the start of lockdown, but can't find the post (or the answer if there was one)... Recent changes in Google Drive prompted me to check how ours is doing. Long story short, user wanting to store more than her allowance on the server, so I told them to use Google Drive. They asked what the limit was and to be honest I wasn't sure... I seem to remember it wasn't a 'per user' thing, more of a 'per org' thing (which is ridiculous if so). Anyway, I had a quick look at the 'Google Dashboard' only to find a couple of worrying things: a) One teacher has managed to ram 14GB in... b) A number of students have used a fair chunk, one at 1.64GB and another at 1.59GB etc... Now, the teacher in question is a known hoarder (given the size of their folder on the server and some of the file dates - either that or too lazy/busy to ever do any housekeeping in the last 15+ years), but I can address this directly with her. The students are always going to be students and thus far have found at least 20 .mp4 files in one users drive, which I imagine are of them just generally goofing around... 99% of it won't be homework or actually even schoolwork as we don't use Google Drive like that here. At most I would expect a few MB of docs, slides etc. Bit difficult to see what's in their drives easily and vault doesn't seem to be very forthcoming with the file size... As you can tell I'm not really a Google user, so I need to know if I can: 1) Limit file types in a (free education) Google Drive.... and my $diety, if not, why not? 2) Limit drive size per user... see above.
ThatBoringBloke Posted June 20, 2022 Posted June 20, 2022 Google Fundamentals schools have pooled storage of 100Tb (or they will have shortly). As a school we store practically everything in Google Drive and have used about 2.4TB of pooled storage. From memory (may be wrong / have changed), Google file types (Docs, Slides, Sheets, etc) don't count towards total storage. To answer the question though, yes you can set limits. In the Admin console go to Storage > Manage. 1
Koldov Posted June 20, 2022 Author Posted June 20, 2022 Many thanks, I had just found the settings and implemented quotas after posting! So, now I am looking for a way to restrict file types... or at least file sizes... or maybe even have 'any' control over what they put in there... or visibility of what's being uploaded... One student seems to have 30 .mp4 files (of unknown size, origin, content). I've brought this to the attention of the Headteacher, who asked another couple of questions... Students who use Google Classroom need Google Drive is that right...? Also from a safeguarding angle.... Can students share these 'videos' between themselves?
localzuk Posted June 20, 2022 Posted June 20, 2022 14GB? I've got teachers using 90GB in Google Drive. Across our entire Trust, we're still only using 3.6TB of space. So I can't really see the value in limits tbh.
JATSO Posted June 20, 2022 Posted June 20, 2022 500Gb here for the whole school and the biggest user is using 40GB+ small by comparison.
paulkerton Posted June 20, 2022 Posted June 20, 2022 8.74TB. One staff member has 500GB... Think I need a conversation about that!
colly72 Posted June 20, 2022 Posted June 20, 2022 14GB? I've got teachers using 90GB in Google Drive. Across our entire Trust, we're still only using 3.6TB of space. So I can't really see the value in limits tbh. I think limits are useful as a flag. So even if the pooled 1TB is way more than you'll ever need as a school, setting individual limits is a good way of checking that their are no "rogue" users that are abusing the pooled storage.
IrritableTech Posted June 21, 2022 Posted June 21, 2022 From memory (may be wrong / have changed), Google file types (Docs, Slides, Sheets, etc) don't count towards total storage. I believe after Google brought in the storage cap of 100TB google documents created after that limitation are included in your storage allocation. Those created previously are not. 1
paulkerton Posted June 21, 2022 Posted June 21, 2022 From memory (may be wrong / have changed), Google file types (Docs, Slides, Sheets, etc) don't count towards total storage. They do now. Well anything you create/edit now does. Any Google file types you don't touch from the point limits are put in don't count until you open them again. 1
ThatBoringBloke Posted June 21, 2022 Posted June 21, 2022 They do now. Well anything you create/edit now does. Any Google file types you don't touch from the point limits are put in don't count until you open them again. I think our storage usage may be about to increase somewhat then.
Koldov Posted June 21, 2022 Author Posted June 21, 2022 (edited) That's great, always nice to hear other people's opinions and about how they run their network/infrastructure/cloud platforms... But does anyone have any idea about the following before I spend my day trawling through Google help pages (without using 3rd Party apps/api hooks etc - just through the standard Admin Console), bearing in mind I have limited experience: 1) Does a student using Google Classroom need Google Drive enabled (I'm guessing yes to save their work)? 2) Can I limit file types uploaded to Google Drive (to stop them uploading hundreds of TikTok style videos or worse)? 3) Can students share (as default) between themselves (and if so can I stop it)? Edited June 21, 2022 by Koldov
paulkerton Posted June 21, 2022 Posted June 21, 2022 1) Does a student using Google Classroom need Google Drive enabled (I'm guessing yes to save their work)? 2) Can I limit file types uploaded to Google Drive (to stop them uploading hundreds of TikTok style videos (or worse)? 3) Can students share (as default) between themselves (and if so can I stop it)? 1) Yes. 2) You could using DLP, but then you'll be stopping them uploading legitimate video content also. 3) Yes and yes, but if you're not letting students share then you're basically crippling the point of having a system that is designed to allow collaboration. 1
Koldov Posted June 21, 2022 Author Posted June 21, 2022 Yeah, thanks that's pretty much what I thought the answers would be. I appreciate some schools choose a more liberal view on how best to encourage students to embrace that sort of thing, but could you just elaborate on point 3, as we are only a small Junior school and don't have any requirement for students to share between each other (only between themselves and the teacher). Alternatively from a safeguarding point of view (as I'm putting together an email to the Headteacher and Safeguarding Lead), how can I ensure students aren't uploading and sharing bullying/inappropriate content to each other?
jthompson Posted June 21, 2022 Posted June 21, 2022 3) Yes and yes, but if you're not letting students share then you're basically crippling the point of having a system that is designed to allow collaboration. Can you prevent students from sharing items with other students? You can certainly prevent them from sharing outisde of the org, but I don't think there's a control for restricting internal sharing, is there?
DGardiner Posted June 21, 2022 Posted June 21, 2022 Can you prevent students from sharing items with other students? You can certainly prevent them from sharing outisde of the org, but I don't think there's a control for restricting internal sharing, is there? What we did to get around this was use custom directories, the Kids addresses arent in the directory for kids so they have to type it out manually, it makes it a bit less abusable
Koldov Posted June 21, 2022 Author Posted June 21, 2022 (edited) Can you prevent students from sharing items with other students? You can certainly prevent them from sharing outisde of the org, but I don't think there's a control for restricting internal sharing, is there? No idea, that's why I came to ask those who know (we have sharing outside of the org set to off). There must be massive safeguarding protections available in a 'made for education' platform (including protecting children from themselves... or each other)... no? What we did to get around this was use custom directories, the Kids addresses arent in the directory for kids so they have to type it out manually, it makes it a bit less abusable Good shout, but if I go to that setting it says: "To apply these visibility settings, enable 'Contact sharing' in the sharing settings" Unfortunately, there it says: Directory settings Sharing settings Contact sharing Enable contact sharing OFF No idea what that means in practise.... do I have to enable contact sharing in order to hide them, or are they already hidden because it isn't enabled...? Edited June 21, 2022 by Koldov
DGardiner Posted June 21, 2022 Posted June 21, 2022 No idea, that's why I came to ask those who know (we have sharing outside of the org set to off). There must be massive safeguarding protections available in a 'made for education' platform (including protecting children from themselves... or each other)... no? Good shout, but if I go to that setting it says: "To apply these visibility settings, enable 'Contact sharing' in the sharing settings" Unfortunately, there it says: Directory settings Sharing settings Contact sharing Enable contact sharing OFF No idea what that means in practise.... do I have to enable contact sharing in order to hide them, or are they already hidden because it isn't enabled...? Quick skim over this: https://support.google.com/a/answer/60218?product_name=UnuFlow&visit_id=637914121928139953-4138758074&rd=1&src=supportwidget0 seems that the contact sharing checkbox just turns on the managed directory. 1
paulkerton Posted June 21, 2022 Posted June 21, 2022 Can you prevent students from sharing items with other students? You can certainly prevent them from sharing outisde of the org, but I don't think there's a control for restricting internal sharing, is there? Not with a simple setting no, but you can use things like DLP, labelling and hiding directories to make it difficult. However, limiting these things is, to me, an absolute waste of time and effort anyway!
jthompson Posted June 21, 2022 Posted June 21, 2022 No idea, that's why I came to ask those who know (we have sharing outside of the org set to off). There must be massive safeguarding protections available in a 'made for education' platform (including protecting children from themselves... or each other)... no? My response was directed at @paulkerton, really. I'm pretty sure that you can't prohibit internal sharing, but I was just wanting to get confirmation. To answer your query about safeguarding, as an org you will always be able to use Google Vault to inspect anything that does come to light. That, I suppose, is the fallback, even if there's no technical means to prohibit uploads and sharing in the first place. It will seem like a bit of a weak answer, I'm sure, but perhaps better that any such material being shared around is at least being shared around on a platform that the school has oversight of, rather than on one which it doesn't?
paulkerton Posted June 21, 2022 Posted June 21, 2022 but perhaps better that any such material being shared around is at least being shared around on a platform that the school has oversight of, rather than on one which it doesn't? This! I would rather them do something mean on my system that I have audit, control and evidence of than do it on one where there is no evidence collecting ability and no right to do so.
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