pentlandsl

Is it just the chromeflex machines? Have they updated to the latest version of Chrome? If they have can you try pushing a couple back to a previous version in the admin panel? See if that makes a difference. Another thing to try is to manually put them on the Google DNS servers rather than your internal ones.

We have recently deployed SENSO filtering (V2) and have a big issue with the snipping tool. Teachers can snip but cannot paste the snip into a Docs document, it just gives a grey box with an exclamation mark in the middle on a black background. Has anyone else had this issue or worked out how to resolve it? I have raised it with Senso but I get the feeling it will be a while before they investigate or resolve it.

If it an old Smart IWB then you can calibrate them from the screen itself, without the laptop. Turn it on and select the source as OPS HDMI and then click on the Diagnositcs link - there is then an option to calibrate from there. Hope that helps and glad it is working now. One thing to bear in mind is that touch capability is effected if you have a really long USB cable.

We have had no issues with touch working from chromebooks to our Smart IWBs. We also use USB B to A cables. Is it worth trying a different cable?

alordcharlie, we decided to go ahead with this and I have 95% of the school (including SLT) converted to chromebooks (with the other 5% moving over after hectic September - all admin staff) and plan on switching off our windows server in the October half term. We were also using smart notebook and have moved to using Smart Lumio instead. It opens the majority of Smart notebooks with just a few with embedded videos/audio in the wrong format causing an issue. It took over 18 months of planning and relentlessly talking up the benefits to the staff to get Governor/headmaster approval but the case for the change was overwhelming. In reality the changeover has been considerably smoother than I had anticipated and the buy in from the teachers was significantly enhanced when we purchased and provided them with touchscreen, 15" chromebooks (Lenovo flex 3 - £249 ex VAT at the time!). They love the almost instant on nature of them and the touchscreen was a huge factor in convincing them we were going in the right direction. We now have 35 teachers teaching with them. I mapped alternatives to all our software used in the school and found alternatives that were better/cheaper than what we had been using. Printix was ok but not particularly well featured for the MFPs and after testing with Printix we have replaced our onsite PapercutMF server with Directprint.io instead (brilliant print server by comparison!). Administration of the chromebooks is so much easier for a non-techy person through the Google Admin panel and in a small school environment this should not be underestimated in terms of cutting external support costs. We have a small Windows 11 PC (under £250) on the network to run our Paxton software and as a bridge for converting e.g. Publisher files. With proper planning, converting to Chrome is definitely a good decision. If you want buy in then find a couple of receptive teachers, put them on Chrome and let the speed of the laptops compared to Windows laptops drive a bit of envy amongst the other teachers. I purchased 2 of the 15" inch touchscreen chromebooks and gave them to 2 of the more receptive teachers and within a week I was being asked by other teachers when they could have one too! As a school our upfront savings on not having to buy Windows PCs and a new server (ours was end of life) was over £30K in the current year with ongoing annual savings of over £8000. Good luck and if I can help in any way with advice then please don't hesitate to pop another message on here.

We are currently investigating the feasibility of moving the whole school from Windows devices to Chromebooks/Chromeflex. I have done quite a bit of research into this but out headmaster is now asking for feedback from any schools that have gone down this route. Both positive and negative. Has anyone else gone down this route or are thinking/planning a similar change? I would be grateful for any feedback you have that I can pass on to my headteacher. Thank you in advance.

Hello, I needed a change of direction after Covid killed my small business support company so I ended up, ath te age of 57, applying for an IT Manager's job in my local (very large!) primary school. Based near Southampton UK. Didn't really know what to expect but it has turned out to be one of the best jobs of my life! Look forward to trying to help if I can.

In a circuitous route that is how I ended up in a school as well! Outsourcing killed my career in mainframe programming and then Covid killed my small business support company so at the age of 57 I decided IT manager in a school might offer a more rewarding experience than trying to retrain again and I wasn't wrong!