TheHyperTechie

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.

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.

Depending on how many endpoints you want to monitor, you could use something like Action1 which is free for up to 100 devices. It would allow you to see when a device is online/was last online. Also tells you how many updates are pending on the device (good way of knowing if it was turned on recently!) You could setup email alerts for when a device becomes online/goes offline so you can gauge how long their session time is.

Chrome wins for me. Some of the main reasons below. 1. Chromebooks are generally cheaper (brand new) compared to the latest Windows devices. We could buy 2 x student chromebooks for the price of 1 Microsoft Surface for a student. 2. Licensing is cheaper than Microsoft, £30 to manage a chromebook until it is EOL, in my experience this is normally around ~5 years. The actual chrome user license is free if you choose to stay on the fundamentals licensing tier. 3. Ease of management, takes me about 5 minutes from opening a chromebook box, asset tagging it, and enrolling it into our tenant, then its ready for the student/staff member to use. I have used Microsoft Intune in the past, and while it is also simple, Chromebooks just feel more streamlined. 4. This is another area where Google stands out for me. The integration of their programs such as Classroom, Drive, Docs, Slides, seems to perform better than Microsoft. Collaboration between students and teachers is much easier, therefore I feel that creates a stronger sense of connection and engagement for students within the system. Just FYI, this my own opinion. I don't particularly think one is "better" than the other, just listing why we use and like Google.

Yes, you can attach multiple iPads (Sign in points) to a single location. However... the buildings would need to be located within the same post code. Else you would need to buy additional site subscriptions. EDIT - Looking on their website for confirmation, it also looks like you would only have a single fire evacuation list. But... you could buy further site subscriptions to enable multiple fire lists for one site.

+1 Sign in App. Our groups integrate with Wonde > Arbor to pull staff through, I don't ever touch it. Excellent support, and pricing is good in my opinion. They offer different packages and add-ons e.g. the RFID "Tap" option. Or you could just opt for the more basic sign in setup with an iPad and Bluetooth badge printer.

Yes, this is because you have the iOS management platform enabled. You can't have both, you either turn on the MacOS platform, and disable the rest - or vice versa.

Are you sure? their website states the free tier supports Full MDM protocol for MacOS. You have to go to My School > Preferences > Other Settings and then enable the MacOS platform.

If the school doesn't have an MDM already, I would be looking at the Mosyle free tier to manage it. If the school plans on buying iPads in the future though, you would need to upgrade your Mosyle licenses to allow for simultaneous management of both operating systems (MacOS/iOS) At least with this route you can lock it down correctly and manage it effectively.

You can manage one or the other. So either you manage iPads/iPhones/iPods or Macs. They can't be managed simultaneously, at least with the "free" tier.

You are limited with Google Workspace for management of MacOS devices. You would need drive for desktop installed on it, this would allow you to carry out basic tasks e.g. block the device from accessing work information (fundamental management). It isn't a suitable management platform on it's own... What Apple MDM do you use? you may be able to manage it through that. This is what I would do, you could even setup a free Mosyle tenant and manage it there for free.

The support chat can be a bit of a pain. You have to keep clicking "this is not my issue" and "continue to support" to actually connect to a live agent.

Do you have any fundamental licenses available? Go to billing > subscriptions. If you need more, you can speak to Google support through the console to request them.

Yes, there are a few firewall rules/ports that need opening on your network. Have a look at this guide - https://www.action1.com/documentation/firewall-configuration/

Can't fault Action1! I have been using it for about 1.5 years to manage 50 windows devices so currently still on the free tier. It's full of features, and it keeps growing. They are constantly adding more tools and services. Support are very helpful too.

We use our MIS (Arbor) for all parent communications.

Hi Chris, Out of interest, how does the model you described fair up against the RE7503A model(s)? Thanks!

Agree with this 100%. You don't need to have a split - quite frankly I get frustrated with the whole "You need to move your school to Microsoft and use Intune and Office 365". They don't even see Google Workspace as an option. Therefore schools only see a single solution. I don't think people understand the power of Google Workspace in schools until they have seen it in practice.

I had a stonebook pro in my previous role. Was solid, and could be upgraded quite easily. I popped in an extra stick of ram and a second SSD (if I recall) Never had any issues, their warranty is great to. Always came to us next business day to fix any issues.

I have been running a DS423+ for the past year and half and it's been solid. It backs up our central Google Workspace tenant with multiple domains and nearly 1000 users.

Stone have always been good for me. Good support and warranty offerings. Prices always seem fair and competitive as well.

Thanks everyone. I managed to get my hands on a Macbook Air M3 model with 16gb of ram. I won't be replacing this for a while!

I would imagine this is SPF/DKIM/DMARC related as you mentioned. I would run your domain through a checker to just to ensure it is nothing on your end.

Yes! I forgot about the iOS app. Thanks

This is correct, devices will only be supervised automatically if purchased and enrolled straight into Apple school manager. You will have to use an old mac with AC2 to add them manually into ASM and supervise them. However... by following this method users have up to 30 days to remove any MDM profile assigned to the device, making it un-supervised. This was added by Apple as a security measure.