dhicks

How / where will the Chromebooks be charged? We have limited space in our main building, with a compact storage / charging unit in each form room - if you have a bit more room you might have a locker area or similar which you might prefer to put storage in. Check you have enough power in each location, and (if you are storing devices on-site overnight) check what your insurance company requires by way of security. We found ours required the storage units to be bolted to the floor, so there was that to consider during installation (and any subsequent moving of units around). As pointed out above, most new Chromebooks will come with USB-C charging ports. If you have children bring in phones to be held at school you could have them swap their phone for a Chromebook, with the phone left on charge during the day - this would probably need to be closly supervised, though. Something we've recently found: better to put a short USB-C extension on the end of the original power connector, ideally just long enough (and possible a right-angle connector) to reach the charging port of a single device, otherwise you wind up with a tangle of cables everywhere. Having a detachable extension means you can replace it easily if it gets mangled in a door or similar.

Oauth is a standard, implemented by various identity providers (Microsoft, Google, Facebook, Twitter, etc). It's the protocol that the "Log in with Google" buttons or similar you see on some sites use. Most schools will probably have Office 365 or Google Workspace set up with accounts for each child and member of staff - Office 365 in your case, by the sounds of it, so you want vendors that provide a "Log in with your Microsoft Account" button.

We currently use NFC-capable Ubikey 2FA dongles for key staff and are planning to roll out to the rest of staff soon. With a printer system refresh coming up, we figure it would be a good idea to make sure any readers on the printers could also read those NFC dongles, so there'd just be the one dongle to issue per staff member. Ideally, that would also work for the Paxton door-entry system.

An excellent point, and one that many "low code" solutions seem to be missing - it's not neccesarily that people find programming difficult, it's the messing around with build environments / library installation / obtaining data files that makes for the barrier-to-entry for a lot of beginner programmers. You can teach someone a bit of Python (or whatever language you prefer) easily enough, and get them enthusiastic about applying it to some kind of real-world problem they want to solve, but they hit a point where they need to install a library or figure out how to get a CSV file from their desktop into their application and that's where a lot of people give up.

What do you have CPOMS syncing with? We use iSAMS, which provides an API endpoint for CPOMS to call, so nothing for us to maintain / worry about at this end. However, now you mention it, looking at the API dashboard in iSAMS I see the last API call from CPOMS was on the 26th of April, which might imply something at their end needs prodding.

Just looking up the IPEVO V4K on Amazon, it looks like it just works as a generic USB camera, and therefore should work with pretty much any computer / web browser (except, of course, iOS). If it's any help, I have a very basic browser-based camera test / preview application available here: https://www.sansay.co.uk/pi-view The above is simply an HTML camera preview pane with a couple of control buttons, but it should suffice to display what is in front of the camera. I can probably add a snapshot button easily enough if needed.

Not a solutuon to your problem, but if it's any help Replit supports Pygame: https://staging.replit.com/languages/pygame A browser-based system for editing and running code, it might make for a less bothersome way of supporting Python programming - no local installs to manage, and children can potentially work from home on any web browser.

They just released a snazzy new "apps" feature yesterday: https://blog.replit.com/apps It's starting to look like a pretty comprehensive development envrironment, similar to Glitch (https://glitch.com) or Roblox (https://www.roblox.com). Replit runs, if I understand correctly, in the browser itself, having implemented a browser-based interpreter for any language they support, so for instance your Python code runs in the browser rather than on a server. If you want something that runs on a curated server instance (all the library installs taken care of for you) then maybe try PythonAnywhere (https://www.pythonanywhere.com), although I'd have thought that would be less apppropriate for IT lesson type stuff.

Ticketing: we use Spiceworks - it's a simple, and therefore popular, choice. I've used a couple of other systems in the past and I find Spiceworks is about the right level of functionality verses complexity - other systems can take a while to fill in the details for each ticket, but Spiceworks makes it nice and easy to edit / change / close tickets. It helps us organise our work, although it doesn't allow us to prioratise - I'd like a system that just lets me drag-and-drop tickets into the order I'm going to do them in, maybe with a time estimate and finish time / date summary. O365 v . Google Workspace: we use Google, although there really isn't much difference is functionality bteween the two systems as a whole. I find Google Classroom nice and simple to use - it handles classroom functionality, integrates wirth Meet, and not much else, meaning there's less to go wrong. Chromebooks: as I've mentioned in a couple of other posts recently, I'm quiet impressed by the new model Chromebooms we've received recently - the Asus C214 and the Lenovo 500e. Both are full-flip (so can be used as a tablet by simply folding the keyboard right back), have a world-facing camera in the keyboard for use in tablet mode and can be specified with a stylus included in the keyboard. The C214 is very well built, with padding all the way round, the Lenovo seems a bit lighter, which might be better in tablet mode. Both are around £340 (price includes VAT), but don't foget you'll also need to pay for a management license - around £30, one-off fee, so really it's just part of the purchase cost with no on-going yearly fee for a separate MDM. Google's own tools for managing Chromebooks are absolutly fine, although you'll probably want to add a (paid) solution for filtering.

Actually, most newer devices seem to have standardised on 45W USB-C cables which should, as far as I can tell, be interchangable between models. Those charge at 20V because, it turns out, the USB-C standard includes negotiable voltage levels. However, devices do seem to charge, if rather more slowly, from a standard 5V-only supply - if you have devices charging overnight you might be able to manage with a single decent USB hub per half dozen devices, which should cut down on the amount of cabling / chargers in the cabinet.

If I remember correctly, Kami costs around £1,000 (per year) for the whole school, which is quite affordable compared with some similar solutions. We've not got the new Chromebooks in circulation quite yet - I've just got back from taking them over to our senior school section, where we'll have the same model for easch of our senior school pupils, so hopefully we'll get them up and running in the next few days and see how we get on. For charging this set of Chromebooks, we have all the charging cabinets sat in one room which the pupils collect their devices from in the morning. We use Loxit charging cabinets there - lockable, solid, and again quite affordable when compared to some of the others on the market. We find they're probably the better option for children who will be taking their own devices out - the units with removeable buckets of devices work better in classrooms where the teacher or assistant will be getting them out and putting them on tables for children to collect.

Ooh, handy link, thanks - those look like useful devices for specific setups, they even have a 4K version.

We are using Timetabler with iSAMS. Timetabler looks like (and is) an older piece of software, but it is very much in active development and has a scheduled release every year, it just still works like older software. It isn't document-orientated - there's no "File, Open..." dialog for the end user to open up a Timetabler "document", it simply loads up the timetable data from its own internal database. There's no multi-user capability, and if you want to edit several different timetables you'll need to make multiple copies of Timetabler. The above pretty much puts Timetabler into the so-old-it's-new category - we've found the easiest way to run it is to give it it's own dedicated VM with web-based remote access and let people run it from a browser.

We've just had a very similar problem - we have CloudReady installed on a number of devices, most of which work very nicely with no fuss. However, on a couple of older desktop PCs I couldn't get the USB WiFi dongles to work properly - Cloud Ready seemed to recognise them, but we couldn't get a reliable connection to the WiFi network for more than a few seconds at a time. These were the Edimax EW-7811Un N150 Wireless Nano USB Adapters - we probably use several dozen around the school, they've generally been very reliable, I couldn't figure out what the problem might be. I've bought some TP-Link AC600 adaptors to try - similar (small) size, I don't know how different the insides are.

We've just purchased 45 Lenovo 500e Chromebooks - full-flip design so the keyboard just folds back to turn into a tablet, complete with world-facing camera in the keyboard for use in tablet mode, plus there's a stylus in the keyboard for handwriting. A bit lighter than other similar devices, too, so should be quite usable in tablet mode, although we find our pupil's rather like "tent mode" if using a tablet on a desk. They cost us £340 each, that's including VAT, add £30 for the Chromebook management license. Edit: for your share-worksheets part of things, we are planning to use those new stylus-capable Chromebooks with Kami, allowing teachers to set PDF (or other print documents) as exercises in Google Classroom and for the pupils to hand-draw answers with a stylus (if they prefer, they can use the keyboard). The teachers can then mark work with a stylus as well.

We use a couple of Panasonic camcorders we've had in the cupboard for several years - searching through previous posts, it would seem I've been recommending them since around 2015: http://www.edugeek.net/forums/av-multimedia-related/163324-recommend-me.html http://www.edugeek.net/forums/av-multimedia-related/217200-video-camera-recommendations-please.html They still work perfectly well, manage 1080p video, can take power from an external power supply or USB battery charger to last pretty much all day, and even work with a £17 HDMI-to-USB cable to plug in to a computer to use as a USB webcam for live streaming. I prefer to use them on a nice, solid mic stand with a screw thread adaptor and positionable ball mount (or a fancy fluid head, if you need to track something in motion) rather than a camera tripod. If you already have an iPad or two around, the Padcaster might be what you're looking for - adds a better lens and an external mic, plus more mount points for other equipment like lights, to an iPad. We are getting on quite nicely with a £30 phone mount on a mic stand, I guess it depends on whether you need something with a zoom lens or whether you can get a bit closer to the subject you're filming.

With VAT, they were around £340 each (again, don't forget the additional £30 per device management license fee). For that batch we got the version without stylus support, there's a version with stylus support (and, actually, a stylus in a built-in slot under the keyboard) for another £30 or so. Supplies can be a little variable at the moment, best to check with your supplier if "in stock" means actually in stock in a warehouse somewhere or whether that means "on their way in a shipping container". For the pros-and-cons bit of iPads-vs-Chromebooks, iPads might be easier to find parts and repairs for - you can generally find a high-street shop somewhere that will stick you a new screen on an iPad.

No formally-written studies to hand, but some points I can think of: - GSuite's built-in management of ChromeOS devices is pretty good, avoiding the need for a separate MDM. You do need to pay for a management license for each ChromneOS device you want to manage, now around £30, but that's a one-off fee (so not a yearly subscription), probably best considered part of the purchase price of a Chromebook. - We've just purchased a yeargroup's set of Lenovo 500es - full-flip hinges (so your laptop turns into a tablet by simply folding the keyboard all the way back), world-facing camera (i.e. embedded on the keyboard) for use in tablet mode, and this particular model support stylus and actually has a stylus fitted in a slot under the keyboard. £340 each - price includes VAT, don't forget to add £30 to that for management license. We've also recently bought some Asus Chromebook Flip C214s, which have a similar specification, including (on the correct model) a built-in stylus. The C214s seem a bit heavier than the 500es, although I've found the C214s to be impressibly robust so far - I dropped a couple when I was getting them unpacked and they pretty much just bounced off the floor with no damage, so maybe the extra weight is simply padding. - If new hardware cost is an issue, using CloudReady to reformat existing hardware might be an idea. The nice thing about buying new hardware is that they'll all use the same charger, which is going to be a consideration if you're charging them in school - most newer devices seem to be standardising on 45W USB-C chargers. If you're buying charging cabinets, make sure they fit the devices - some Chromebooks can be a little chunkier than iPads and just a little deeper. If the devices are staying in school and pupils want a ChromeOS device for home, then a re-formatted CloudReady device is probably going to be the cheapest option there. If you use a filtering solution that works on the client device, you should find that as long as your children are logged in with their school account they should have school filtering applied, which can be useful if you're wanting them to be using devices from home.

Which edition of Windows 10? If you're using the (I think) business / education edition you can replace the default shell (Windows Finder) with another application (e.g. Chrome), so the machine doesn't even start finder, it just loads straight into a browser.

Do you mean you have VS Code installed on a Windows machine and you want the user to be able to hit a button and have their code compile / deploy to a connected / associated Raspberry Pi? If so, I imagine that's what the Powershell part of things is doing - getting compiled code from the user's workstation to the Raspberry Pi. In which case, as suggested, if you don't want to allow Powershell for users in general you should be able to allow just that specific (signed) script. Sorry, I don't have any details of how to go about that, but it shoudl at least give you something to start Googling for. If the children are using Raspberry Pis, they could also use VS Code directly on the Pi itself.

CCTV and/or desktop phone handsets - you'll need edge switches with PoE capability and (ideally) UPS-backed power so these stay up in an emergency. Depending on your location and provider, a 5G backup service might do. I use a 5G ISP at home and have, occasionally, seen download speeds of 100Mbps, and I think maybe BT were offering a 5G backup service for some of their home connections if their main connection went down - you'd want the business version of that. Also, the new satellite ISPs might work quite nicely as a backup connection, and on a completely separate input mechanism from your standard cable. An advantage: with ChromeOS, with a force-installed app doing the filtering on the client side, the filtering works on whatever ChromeOS device a pupil logs in to, whether at school or at home. So you can say to parents that, as long as children are logged in with their school account, their connection should be filtered. You can run SIMS (or any other application) on a server in a datacentre somewhere and have users log in via a web-based remote desktop connection. Ideally, your web-based remote desktop would support Google / Microsoft login and be able to run SIMS as a remote app, so as far as the user is concerned they open a web page, hit the log-in-with-Google-button and SIMS runs in their web browser. You would still need to host, license and maintain a suitable server somewhere to run SIMS and any associated remote desktop connection, but it's do-able if moving MIS is not an option.

Ah, good point. You could run FMS on a remote server, accessed via a remote desktop session presented in the web browser so as far as the average end user is concerned it's "cloud based", but it'd still be you maintaining that server (and the remote desktop / web access / authentication mechanism). If, as others have suggested, the issue is simply being able to get data out of your preferred system (Arbor) and into FMS then SalamanderSoft might be the people to ask about a data conversion script of some kind.

Depends on what, exactly, you mean by "cloud based" - you don't have to use an AWS / Azure style charged-by-the-CPU-cycle setup, you can just rent a plain server, basically like having a server in your on-site server rack but someone else takes care of sorting out power, storage and so on for you. OVH's Windows server start at around £8 per month, although you'd probably need something with a bit more RAM and you'd probably want to pay the extra for regular backup snapshots.

I've seen Ecosia's advertising on a couple of "six-sheet" posters at bus stops and similar. They could maybe do with someone checking their search engine hits requirements for use in schools - forced safe search support (just support for "safesearch=true" to be inserted into all queries, as above, but they'd need to make sure support was there for common filtering solutions used in schools). Might be worth emailing their support, if available, to check if that's possible.

I don't think there was any way to force safe search in the same way that you can for Google or Bing on some filtering packages (filtering package basically addes "safesearch=true" to each Google search request it sees go past), so some keywords could turn up some questionable results.