How many of you have actually gone 100% Google Chromebook (or almost)

[TwistedHelixis]

We have been using Google Workspace for many many years. All our files are in Google Drive, and we use most of their other main services.

 

Currently the school office (5 users) and 10 teachers are still using Windows devices, they also have Office LTSC installed. The support staff and all the pupils are using Chromebooks.

 

I was in a discussion with the head about going server-less, it turns out their main sticking point (apart from not wanting to learn something new), is they don't know of any other schools that have gone 100% Google and 100% Chromebook. All they know of is that they are OK for pupils to use.

 

So, if you are a school that has managed to move your teachers and office staff over to Chromebooks, would you mind just popping a very short message below. Perhaps including the size of your school etc and if you have needed to keep one or two windows devices onsite.

 

Thanks

[PotNoodleTech]

There are a couple on here that have gone totally 100% chrome i,e got rid of the PCs etc too. Hopefully they will chime in soon.

 

It is possible if you move all systems to cloud systems, accessible in chrome.

 

We're 100% chrome in that every teacher and pupil has a chromebook to use (and they do use them in every lesson) but we still use PCs and IT suites.

[rogerdnixon]

We have a number of primaries and some secondary's that mainly/all ChromeOS and where we have Windows in the Trust is cloud managed on the Google admin console. We look after about 14000 ChromeOS devices.

 

So everything on Google Workspace, Bromcom MIS, CPOMS, cloud based Snipe-IT for inventory and Securly for filtering. Unifi for network kit at most sites, centrally managed. We have one of our secondaries as a reference school - so we take visitors - near Oxford.

[gszech]

It's important to mention if your school is a primary, secondary or special school. I've talked with a lot of schools fully utilising Chromebooks just to find out that it was a special school with only 30 pupils.

Secondary school is harder to convert, ICT teachers will say that they require Windows / Office to deliver the curriculum (which is not true). The primary hurdle lies in converting existing teaching resources to Google Docs format. This requires dedicated time and planning for teachers, necessitating the involvement of school leadership to allocate resources for this transition.

[Ditto]

In a new all-through freeschool, we were almost 100% Chromebook and serverless, located on site and not generally taken home. That lasted until about the start of Year 10s, when a Windows PC based lab was setup. The PC part wasn't under my remit, but I do recall the effort of maintenance increased quite a bit.

[Danp]

Yes, 7 schools, all teachers and all pupils have Chromebooks. A few admins (me) have a Windows device or the odd Mac. Only onsite servers are a very basic print server to run PaperCut.

[TheHyperTechie]

Small MAT, consisting of 2 primary schools. Roughly 700 students, and over 100 staff members.

 

I removed their nearly 10 year old server when I joined and moved the main services away such as printing, DNS, DHCP, on-site files, shares. They already used Arbor, cloud printing, Google Drive, so to be honest the migration didn't cause many headaches.

 

I would say we have 90% moved to Chrome now, with students and staff using Chromebooks. A few windows devices here and there mainly for office staff, but I setup GCPW and enhanced desktop security from Google for these by upgrading our licensing tier to "standard". Worked well, and allowed single sign on for staff on windows devices to Google Applications.

 

Students use Chromebooks very successfully, most staff also like using chromebooks. I did get pushbacks from some, but once educated on how to use them efficiently, there were no further issues.

[1TF0rward]

Small MAT, consisting of 2 primary schools. Roughly 700 students, and over 100 staff members.

 

I removed their nearly 10 year old server when I joined and moved the main services away such as printing, DNS, DHCP, on-site files, shares. They already used Arbor, cloud printing, Google Drive, so to be honest the migration didn't cause many headaches.

 

I would say we have 90% moved to Chrome now, with students and staff using Chromebooks. A few windows devices here and there mainly for office staff, but I setup GCPW and enhanced desktop security from Google for these by upgrading our licensing tier to "standard". Worked well, and allowed single sign on for staff on windows devices to Google Applications.

 

Students use Chromebooks very successfully, most staff also like using chromebooks. I did get pushbacks from some, but once educated on how to use them efficiently, there were no further issues.

 

 

Would you have any guides or advice on the useage of Chromebooks. I'm starting the process with a primary school but it will students only at the moment. Due to budgets we are going to be using Chrome Flex OS on Windows machines to prolong the life before we change out for Chromebooks.

 

Had pushbacks from staff but everything they have brought up can already be done in a Chrome browser. Students used Google Classroom during covid so seems familiar with the setup.

[ITGuyNW]

What chromebooks do your staff use?

[PotNoodleTech]

Would you have any guides or advice on the useage of Chromebooks. I'm starting the process with a primary school but it will students only at the moment. Due to budgets we are going to be using Chrome Flex OS on Windows machines to prolong the life before we change out for Chromebooks.

 

Had pushbacks from staff but everything they have brought up can already be done in a Chrome browser. Students used Google Classroom during covid so seems familiar with the setup.

 

Go for it.

 

Only problem I would say is that flex doesnt let you use play store apps (currently) which may slow down adoption e.g. my art department use Photopea a lot now but if they had flex devices they wouldnt be able to use that and deliver the curriculum.

 

If you can buy chromeboks then it's wise to as you get the "full experience"

[TheHyperTechie]

Would you have any guides or advice on the useage of Chromebooks. I'm starting the process with a primary school but it will students only at the moment. Due to budgets we are going to be using Chrome Flex OS on Windows machines to prolong the life before we change out for Chromebooks.

 

Had pushbacks from staff but everything they have brought up can already be done in a Chrome browser. Students used Google Classroom during covid so seems familiar with the setup.

 

Fortunately for me, when I joined, the students had already been using Chromebooks for a while, so they didn’t require much training. However, if I were starting from scratch, I would likely run workshops for both students and staff to familiarise them with the system. If the budget allowed, I would also consider bringing in a company like Getech to assist with this process.

 

If you decide to go ahead with the migration to Chrome OS, I would recommend ensuring that the staff are equipped with the Chrome OS Educator Level 1 certificate. This certification covers the fundamentals of using Chrome OS effectively in a classroom.

[msi_school]

I work at a large MAT which is in the process of moving serverless I have moved 5 Primaries to a Google based system from Windows AD and I am planning to move a large secondary we have found the following issues:

 

* External agencies sharing files especially Excel files that don't work properly in their Google alternative

* Staff doing complex Powerpoint files and them not working correctly in Slides especially playing video

* Software being Windows/Mac only sometimes justified sometimes not

 

Our solution have been as follows:

 

* If the user has to use these documents which is a decision we let the schools make we have used GCPW on a windows machine, we are looking at other options but I think Excel is going to pin one or two members of staff to windows indefinitely

* Encouraging staff to only use Canva or the Google office suite for internal documents, this has met with various levels of success but with SLT involvement is achievable.

* Again we let the school decide and deploy GCPW or Google LDAP to Windows/Mac devices

 

As a MAT we do have the additional tool of funding to push schools in the direction we want to travel and we are centrally funding Chromebooks as a carrot, some of this money is being recovered by eliminating licenses, and others costs for on site hardware.

 

The process is ongoing and we keep finding issues but our on prem windows schools keep finding issues as well.

[Danp]

What chromebooks do your staff use?

 

A mix, depending on what's got a good price.

 

Senior members of staff have Acer Chromebook Plus 515 (CB515-2H, CB515-2HT)

 

Another "normal" teacher has a Acer Chromebook 314 (CB314-3H , CB314-3HT, C934, C934T)

[dhicks]

What chromebooks do your staff use?

 

All our teaching staff get an ASUS Chromebook Flip CX3, a 14" "full flip" device that can be used as a tablet, with stylus support and front-and-back cameras. I think these are a couple of years old now, they seem to have lasted well. The few staff that have used the stylus say it doesn't last very long (it charges inside its own little slot in the Chromebook casing, and lasts maybe 20(?) minutes in use, so not even a whole lesson), but I think that's about the only issue we've had reported.

 

We are a prep school, teaching from Year -1 to 11, although the primary sections of the school is larger than the senior. Classroom and office workstations are Windows machines (using Google credentials to log in), pretty much all our other machines are ChromeOS. That includes, as above, the personal devices for the teachers and the workstations in the staffroom and a few other places, which staff seem to use with no problem - I suspect most of the Windows machines are pretty much just running a web browser most of the time.

[TwistedHelixis]

Thanks to everyone for posting. Its going to be a really big help.

[STSM2113]

everything is chromebooks/ boxes, smartboard work with them. only windows box is the inVentry and a paxton net2 machine in site office