Device Trolleys Ugh

[petben]

Hello, once again we are having to look at trolleys of devices, I think 3 options, we have the infrastructure setup for all 3 but they all have their problems:

 

Windows Surface/Intune - Slow to start, login, applying updates etc

iPads - Nice but shared devices seem not to quite work, I remember looking at this and students had to have a PIN as well as logging in with their account. There was something that made us give up.

Chrome - May be OK but we need to commit to Education Standard license per student/per year

 

Can someone please comment on what they do?

 

Thanks

[Cazab]

With Shared iPads, you create accounts & classes either automatically using software such as Salamander, or manually in Apple School Manager.

 

Then signing in, Students just need to find their class, and tap on their name.

They still need to set a PIN when logging in for the first time, but they shouldn't require using their whole AppleID to log in with each time.

[PotNoodleTech]

Chrome every day of the week for me. Unless you have specific IOS apps you must use?

 

IOS absolutely terrible at shared devices a big data breech/cybersecurity incident waiting to happen (especially if used for staff) Also fairly difficult to set up and manage often needing ££££ spent on a MDM

 

Windows laptops just plain unreliable and much harder to set up and manage plus you've still got licensing implications depending on your setup.

 

Chomebooks - blooming fantastic. Take the licenses on the chin and you won't look back! Been building momentum with it for the last 10 years but now totally 1:1 for all staff and pupils and boy did it pay off during covid.

 

I avoid trolleys full stop now. Saves £1000 per classroom approx which just buys more chromebooks.

Edited April 30, 2024 by PotNoodleTech

[DrCheese]

Trash any ideas you have of running Windows on these - Unless you are spending £500/600 a device & can get something decently spec'd

If you are buying cheap £250/£300 (or in our case, reusing leftover DFE stock) Just ChromeOS Flex them - Yes it costs around £35 extra in Google Education licensing but trust me it will save yourselves lots of headache.

 

We tried the Windows route at first but with the specs of these devices it just could not cope & the monthly windows updates would kill them entirely. Once we Chrome'd them it made life much much easier.

If you are a 365 shop you can essentially butcher the Google stuff out of them - Our Chromebooks logon via Azure AD & have all the Gsuite stuff hidden for students & replaced with 365 alternatives - When they go offsite they are protected with Smoothwall Cloud filter.

[petben]

I think this looks most likely yes, can you explain your licensing setup? Do you need to pay for OS Flex and what's the £35 extra?

 

Thanks

[jthompson]

No experience of deploying iOS devices here, but I can safely say that Chromebooks are an absolute dream for us.

 

The more embedded Google Workspace is in your school's way of working (particularly Drive, Docs and Classroom), the easier Chromebooks will slot in. If the Google life is all very novel though, then it may take a little bit more mental gymnastics for people. In many cases for us, they are a fit and forget.

 

I notice that you say you'd need GWfE Standard licenses. You won't necessarily need that for deploying Chromebooks, but you would need an Enterprise Upgrade license for each Chromebook in order to manage the device. The pricing for that is less clear these days: most web search results indicate that it's an annual cost, but edu tenancies can still purchase them as a one-off perpetual license for the life of the device - https://support.google.com/chrome/a/answer/9147838.

 

-- Edit

That's all with regard to Chromebooks, and not ex-Windows devices running Chrome OS Flex. AFAIK Chrome OS Flex is a £35 annual license per device in order to mange them within Google Workspace, which you'd need to do in order to do any locking down of the devices' settings.

Edited April 30, 2024 by jthompson

[petben]

thanks, this is all really useful. Presumably you can get keyboard-less tablet style chromebooks?

[Millgate_Victoria]

Hello, most chrome OS devices I have seen are in a laptop style from vendors like Asus, Acer, Lenovo, HP, Dell.

[Rob_D]

What are the devices going to be used for?

We have a couple of trolleys of laptops (mostly HP Elitebooks from ICT-Direct) for people to do actual work/content creation, and a couple of sets of iPads which are just set up as general access internet browser/content readers.

[DrCheese]

I think this looks most likely yes, can you explain your licensing setup? Do you need to pay for OS Flex and what's the £35 extra?

 

Thanks

 

Ah sorry I didn't say what it's for - The £35 is for a Google workspace license that lets you admin the devices properly & lock them down. Although students can use your school accounts to logon any random Chromebook, you won't be able to lock them down without the license.

 

In answer to your other question about tablets - No, most Chromebooks are normal laptops. A lot of education focused ones are in 2-in-1 however so you can touch the screen and flip them over.

 

With iPads/tablets I've often found when giving them out the first things people ask for is a keyboard anyway - Although it will depend on if you are secondary or primary.

[DavR]

That's all with regard to Chromebooks, and not ex-Windows devices running Chrome OS Flex5. AFAIK Chrome OS Flex is a £35 annual license per device in order to mange them within Google Workspace, which you'd need to do in order to do any locking down of the devices' settings.

 

My understanding from a presentation by a Google rep a couple of months back is that Chrome OS Flex is free for education, it's just the one off Edu upgrade license at approx £35, if you want to manage the device in Google Workspace, which you will in the case of classroom devices.

 

There was an annual license cost with the precursor product to this, NeverWare CloudReady, although whether that was payable in Edu settings was somewhat open to interpretation.

[Danp]

Chromebooks are the way to go. I don't think I would work with anything anymore.

[jthompson]

My understanding from a presentation by a Google rep a couple of months back is that Chrome OS Flex is free for education, it's just the one off Edu upgrade license at approx £35, if you want to manage the device in Google Workspace, which you will in the case of classroom devices.

 

There was an annual license cost with the precursor product to this, NeverWare CloudReady, although whether that was payable in Edu settings was somewhat open to interpretation.

 

Would that one-off license for ChromeOS Flex be transferrable between devices, do you know?

[DavR]

Would that one-off license for ChromeOS Flex be transferrable between devices, do you know?

 

That one-off Education Upgrade License would be tied to the hardware, same as it is for regular Chromebooks - it's a license to use 1 x Chrome device with Google Workspace device management, doesn't matter whether it's a Chromebook or Chrome OS Flex device.

 

The only way it can be transferred, I think, based on what I've seen in the admin console, is that you can transfer an Edu Upgrade license from a Chrome OS Flex device to a regular Chromebook, if it's been in use less than 12 months. The idea being, I suppose, you can use any old device with OS Flex for up to a year, whilst you budget for and purchase a "proper" Chromebook, and only pay one license cost. I've not seen this in action, though.

[SimplyJade]

I think this looks most likely yes, can you explain your licensing setup? Do you need to pay for OS Flex and what's the £35 extra?

 

Thanks

 

Chrome OS Flex is a free download to the device/a in question. The License you buy is to manage the device itself through Google Workspace. They retail for £30 so if someone is selling them for £35 it could be worth having a look around.

Edited April 30, 2024 by SimplyJade

[DrCheese]

Would that one-off license for ChromeOS Flex be transferrable between devices, do you know?

 

No, this is something that really bugs me. If a device dies you can transfer it to another device of the same model. You can't trash say.. a bunch of 2018 Dell Chromebooks off, buy some 2024 HP Chromebooks and pull the licenses over. It's fine, just have to account for the extra cost in the total purchase cost (I miss the license cost being like £5!)

[jthompson]

No, this is something that really bugs me. If a device dies you can transfer it to another device of the same model. You can't trash say.. a bunch of 2018 Dell Chromebooks off, buy some 2024 HP Chromebooks and pull the licenses over. It's fine, just have to account for the extra cost in the total purchase cost (I miss the license cost being like £5!)

 

RE: Flex, I'd be worried about burning through licenses when machines need the OS reinstalling. With Chromebooks that's not really an issue as on the odd occasion where a device has needed to be powerwashed, the license sticks to it after reenrollment. I don't yet know whether Flex devices would behave in the same way.

[DrCheese]

RE: Flex, I'd be worried about burning through licenses when machines need the OS reinstalling. With Chromebooks that's not really an issue as on the odd occasion where a device has needed to be powerwashed, the license sticks to it after reenrollment. I don't yet know whether Flex devices would behave in the same way.

 

Yeah it does behave in the same way - The device ID is tied to hardware so it doesn't eat another license.