Chromebooks required for isolation room

[Starbug1]

We have a requirement for a set of Chromebooks for our isolation room.

 

This means the devices would be used by the most 'challenging' pupils in the school, i.e. we would want the devices to be durable and repairable.

 

Does anyone have any recommendations for a device that would be suitable?

 

For example, the Acer Chromebook 511 appears to be designed for an education environment, and may meet our needs, but I'd be interested to hear if anyone has had any experience of this type of Chromebook before we go ahead and make a purchase.Also, does anyone have any suggestion for a trolley that can take 30 Chromebooks; for example, we currently have Compucharge trolleys which we are happy with, however the exact model is no longer available, and I'm not sure if we would want 'electronic power management', which appears to be offered on some models.

 

I think we need to place an order early next week, so we don't have much time to spare unfortunately!

 

If anyone can share their experiences and/or provide any suggestions, that would be much appreciated.

 

Many thanks in advance!

Edited November 15, 2024 by Starbug1

[TheHyperTechie]

I was in a similar situation a while ago when it came to refreshing our 1:1 devices. I wanted something where parts were readily available and not mega money.

 

I settled on the Dell 3100 chromebooks, replacement keyboards are roughly £20 (link) screens £30 (link) and can be purchased easily when needed.

 

Trolley wise, I would recommend Zioxi.

Edited November 15, 2024 by HyperTech

[BKGarry]

I got loxit trolleys from ICT Direct, they are great, take a bit of setting up, but cannot fault them.

 

What I also do is get refurbished chromebooks from ICT Direct as well, as you can source very cheap screens from AJ Parts (I paid £14 a screen for my last lot, but that was a bulk bulk order)

[Millgate_Jon]

Hi

 

If you need a quick turnaround on quotes please drop me a line - we can price up all the major vendors for you.

 

Lenovo and Dell are the most popular Chromebooks we supply however it`s ASUS that gets the best feedback from clients, mainly for their after sales care and warranty efficiency.

 

Happy to help if you need me......

 

Thanks

 

Jon.

[dhicks]

Does anyone have any recommendations for a device that would be suitable?

 

Nothing too specific, but Lenovo have recently been emphasising that their newer devices are more repairable / recyclable than perhaps previous devices have tended to be. I would also recommend getting devices with two USB-C ports that can be used for charging - it seems to be our most common breakage, someone managing to break a USB-C port (generally, we think, by pulling the device out of the cabinet without unplugging the cable first), so having a spare available is handy. We use Lock-n-charge charging cabinets, but tend to find the 5-device baskets they supply a bit too heavy for a smaller child to carry, we prefer the "toastrack" wire slots instead. You can hacksaw off a few of the internal wires if you want to fit more than 10 devices in a cabinet - we can fit 15 or more devices in a "10 capacity" cabinet.

[Starbug1]

Thanks all.

 

Unfortunately we are struggling to get NetSupport to work with Chromebook devices (well, we have it working but all Chromebooks appear in the same room, which is no good!) and therefore we may need to obtain Windows devices for our isolation room, instead of Chromebooks.

 

We have a budget of £250; I see refurbished laptops are available within this budget from various suppliers, however does anyone have any recommendations in terms of a model that we could get within this budget range that would actually be reasonably durable?

 

As the kids who are in our isolation room can exhibit challenging behaviour at times, the most important aspect for us for any device we procure is that it is reasonably durable and that parts such as keyboard keys are replaceable.

[BKGarry]

I have had great success with both T series lenovos and HP pro/elitebooks from ICT Direct.

 

May be worth giving @ICTDirect_Dave a shout to see if they are able to work on with you.

[whartomt01]

Thanks all.

 

Unfortunately we are struggling to get NetSupport to work with Chromebook devices (well, we have it working but all Chromebooks appear in the same room, which is no good!) and therefore we may need to obtain Windows devices for our isolation room, instead of Chromebooks.

 

We have a budget of £250; I see refurbished laptops are available within this budget from various suppliers, however does anyone have any recommendations in terms of a model that we could get within this budget range that would actually be reasonably durable?

 

As the kids who are in our isolation room can exhibit challenging behaviour at times, the most important aspect for us for any device we procure is that it is reasonably durable and that parts such as keyboard keys are replaceable.

 

Is this DNA or classroom.cloud.

I just manually put chromebooks into a device group which is accessible for all staff rather than a rule (couldn’t seem to get rules working either).

DNA similar too

[mrstrong]

we have been happy with acer 311 / C723, they have two usb c.

also like the cable management with our Zioxi trolley

[ICTDirect_Dave]

We have a budget of £250; I see refurbished laptops are available within this budget from various suppliers, however does anyone have any recommendations in terms of a model that we could get within this budget range that would actually be reasonably durable?

We can definitely help. Drop me a PM and we'll see what options are best for you