rogerdnixon

We have recently started using Freshdesk which works well. Been a long-time user of Spiceworks - but the on-site solution is showing its age + we wanted G Suite integration as local AD is not something we do anymore.

It makes life much simpler if they are all on the same G Suite setup. We have 24 schools, 2 teacher training orgs, central team + various hangers-on. When a new school joins they have to migrate in - simple enough if they don't use G Suite, bit more tricky if they do. We sync O365 users from G Suite so they can login to InTune managed PCs where people still use PCs (most use ChromeOS). The only downside is that some policies can only be set globally - but not really a big deal in my experience compared to the massive time saving of not having to do things 30 odd times. One thing to get right is your directories - these can be based on Groups and each of our schools has a staff and a student directory based on some backend groups which are populated by scheduled GAM scripts. So staff get staff across the Trust + there schools students and students just get their school.

Depends on where you are really. Different operators might or might not have their kit locally. For leased lines we normally go for Virgin Media as they are pretty much the cheapest here (Oxfordshire). Once installed it just works - 0 downtime - never need support really.

You don't. There is no mechanism to deploy paid for apps atm. The app needs you to be able to download without paying and then licence per user when they sign into etc. Some apps have back end management for this sort of stuff.

With Chromebooks, just block all extensions except the ones you allow. Whitelist API access to the services you allow. Use extension based filtering service like Securly that works on any network. Deploy the network to the Chromebooks - which prevents them editing the settings and if the devices never go home - use the policy that restricts them to deployed networks only. On other devices you need an egress firewall that blocks outgoing ports that you don't want open and have some form of deep packet inspection/L7 firewall. On our BYOD gateway (ClearOS) we use the Gateway Management App and turn on the "don't talk to strangers" feature will kills all vpns.

We use Securly for all our filtering (so the paid-for product). Works great Trust-wide and good reporting.

I'd second Google Classroom. Works great and is easy to use. It manages all the folders etc in the background.

https://www.wheatleypark.org/index.php/get-involved/vacancies https://www.tes.com/jobs/vacancy/ict-technician-oxfordshire-1261577

This is great news. However, older Haswell based devices are now not getting updates - so 1st gen Chromeboxes and popular models like the Acer C720. Now, this does not mean they stop working - they just stop getting the latest and greatest features (like virtual desktops in ChromeOS 78). If you do want to pop another OS on them at this point I've got a few updates to the quoted blog post (as the John Lewis BIOS is no longer supported): https://wpsit.blogspot.com/2019/08/haswell-chromeos-devices-go-eol-asus.html & - an Acer C720 running Cloudready.

Strict Safe mode for students and teachers can approve videos/channels.

Around £9 a license per month I believe. You can gets quotes from any Google reseller - we use C-Learning. If you want desk phones - you need to use compatible polycom phones which start at around £80.

When out existing contracts are up - yes.

I've been part of the UK Google Voice trial (just ended yesterday). All works very well as far as I can see and has some really nice features. I especially like voice mail email notifications where it converts the message into text for you. Don't believe the headline prices - they have special Edu pricing which makes is similar in cost to other solutions - but quitea lot more flexible. It's nice just having one number you can use on any device.

We use Securly in some of our Trust schools and it works great. Have some unique safeguarding tools and is very easy to use and setup.

G Suite for Education across our Trust (26 domains). Dead easy to manage at scale, easy for users to use and effortless collaboration across the trust. We provision O365 account from G Suite - but thats just to sign into InTune managed PCs. G Suite is constantly evolving - very rapidly. Its changed beyond recognition in the last 10 years since we started using it. So the statement that its stagnant is a total fallacy - take a look at: https://support.google.com/a/table/7314896 https://gsuiteupdates.googleblog.com/

I did a blog post about this a while back: https://wpsit.blogspot.com/2018/10/adding-subdomains-to-g-suite.html Its a quick and easy thing to do - basically just some DNS settings to add and then you can create users on that domain.

Depend on the App. Some of the extensions can be quite big - so things like Screencastify and Nimbus or EquatIO - but a lot are just links - so will deploy quite quickly even on limited bandwidth.

If the Chromebooks are set to wipe user data and you have some Android apps force deployed, then the apps are cached on the device for the next user. Does not help the first time everyone logins in - but mitigates the issues somewhat over time. Downside is that if you wipe local users data, you also limit the available storage to download and install apps - so only force install the ones you really need as you won't be able to do many. Basically, android apps on ChromeOS are best in a 1:1 setup - not multiuser.

Chromebooks or any other technology won't, in itself make a difference. Its far more about the pedagogy, how the tech supports and adds to the learning. Just plonking a new device into a classroom won't work. Chromebooks work best if you have G Suite for Education embedded into how you work - so using Drive, Docs, Sheets, Slides, Classroom etc. So if you are not a G Suite school - I'd look at that first. However, generally speaking, the reason our primaries user Chromebook rather than another device: Cost-effective. Easy to use - primary students just login with QR code lanyards. Integrate closely with G Suite - so we centrally setup and manage Google Classroom for them. Work well as a multiuser device (better than iOS). Simple setup and all remotely managed by the Trusts IT Team (err mainly me). Apps all centrally deployed - managed PlayStore etc. Thats the basics.

If you want to see Chromebooks in action - you are welcome to visit - we are a Google Reference School (11-18 with 1:1 Chromebooks) - Wheatley Park in Oxfordshire and use ChromeOS devices across our Trust. Might be a bit far for you - but could be a nice day out! Otherwise, there are lots of good Google Partners who could help you - we tend to buy kit from C-Learning who are helpful.

There is no such thing as a user having the full PlayStore. As an admin you first have to authorise an app in "Device management > Chrome > Apps & extensions" and click on the yellow + button and select add from Google Play (or you can do it from https://play.google.com/work). That is where an admin can browse the entire store. Then in "Device management > Chrome > Apps & extensions" you can deploy an approved app to the who organisation or a specific OU. So you can Allow Install, Force Install or Force and pin. The Play Store will be empty for any user that does not have some apps at least Allowed Install. There is generally a sort delay from approving and deploying an app and it appearing in the Store for the user. The other thing to note is that while most apps work fine on a Chromebook, some don't and compatibility varies between devices. Incompatible apps won't show in the Store for users.

Papercut is well worth it and we use across our Trust. However, at a new Cloud-based secondary, we have just opened we are trying Printix, which appear to work quite well and is much cheaper.

SIMS provide a bulk import tool to do this. Just imports a CSV by running a database patch.

I think the basic answer is that you don't. But this is a move towards a totally serverless environment - so that does not matter. File storage is all in Drive, Printers are cloud-managed, MIS cloud hosted - authenticated against G Suite etc. Its the way we are going Trust-wide.

Not sure if any G Suite users are interested in this - but you can now signin to a PC with a G Suite account if you are using SSO to O365 with G Suite and using an Intune managed Azure AD joined PC. Settings is: OMA-URI: ./Device/Vendor/MSFT/Policy/Config/Authentication/EnableWebSignIn Data type: Integer Value: 1 It looks like this: Requires Windows 10 1809 and above.