dmj

Can the stands hold the monitors vertical? ie for reading code?

I suppose. I'd just try and teach people the 'right' way to do things. Nobody ever has time to go back and fix things!. It's also a really good methodology for servers and cloud systems too - and any place that has more than 100+ servers will look for these skills.

If you don't mind me saying, I think you are going about this the wrong way. This sort of problem should be handled using an 'infrastructure as code' methodology - keep all of your configs in a git repository and to backup that repository. This method has several advantages: You can see who has made changes to a configuration, the configuration is version controlled, you can rollback configurations. Then, periodically, apply these configurations to your switches with a configuration management tool. If anyone makes unauthorised changes directly on the switch they will be overwritten with the correct configuration.

it's working (for me) now.

yep. I can't load.

We provide a mysql service for students to use; it's a basic Centos machine with mysql and phpmysqdmin. I don't see why it would create any more of a security risk than any other service we provide. That said, If I were to do it again I'd probably run it in GCP/AWS/Azure these days and get the dept to pay for it - but that's more to do with saving the trouble of maintaining it.

I don't think you'd want to buy Digiexam for the whole school,I can't see it being used for yeargroups who are not taking public examinations. IIRC we just bought for year 10,11

it was about three years back, and I've moved on from there, I really can't remember - but I do recal they were a really good company to work with and their products worked really well. Teachers would use digiexam for mocks and in class tests. I understand that schools in Sweden use it for public exams.

did you try: https://www.digiexam.com/ ?

Hey, try not to be so patronising. It doesn't come across well. I did look at those links, but I failed to see anything that fundamentally couldn't be done in with a android/chromebook. I mean programming using an ipad is a bit niche.

To me, that sounds like "buy ipad because apple has a better marketing department". Personally I'd go with touch enabled Chromebooks, which can also run Android or even Linux and has an MDM 'built into' google workspace

If you are talking about "Network" in the literal sense rather than general IT configuration, then I find the best method is to dump the configs of the switches/routers into a private git repository. config dumps makes equipment replacement much easier as it is fairly straightforward to convert configs from model to model and any Network engineer would be able to read the configs as the best source of documentation. You can even throw in some diagrams to keep management happy. It's also the hands down best method for recovering from corrupt configs. Git is particularly well suited to this kind of task because it holds revision histories and makes it simple to see who has made changes and when.

I moved from a college where we maintained our own print server/papercut fleet where we ran at cost to one provided by annodata which runs at deficit. If you have even an iota of technical competence you will be able to do a better job than annodata. By all means get them to manage the printer fleet, but don't let them near the print servers and certainly not near papercut.

I think the best value machine at the moment is an ARM64 mac mini M1. 8GB, 256 SSD 8 core CPU, 7 Core GPU for £580 The benchmark speeds on these things is insane for their price. and a 4 year warranty! https://www.theedustore.co.uk/mac/mac-mini/mac-mini-apple-m1-chip-with-8-core-cpu-and-8-core-gpu-256gb-ssd-4-year-warranty

It's been a while since I've done this, but they way I've solved this in the past is to tunnel the users traffic via the school internet filter when they login to their Gsuite account on a home connection. I used Fortigate but I know smoothwall also works, and there are a number of other filter solutions for chromebooks available commercially. or you could use family link - but you would be managing it not the parent. https://support.google.com/families/answer/7680868?hl=en "Important: For school accounts and school-issued Chromebooks, G Suite for Education administrators determine which Google services their users can access while signed into a G Suite for Education account. This may include some features or services that your child was previously unable to access using the Family Link supervised account. Learn how to add a school account as a secondary account." yes, you can set it to delete the profile on logout if you are using them as shared devices.

The students should loginto the chromebook (rather than the browser) using the school gsuite account. Doing this will automatically create a new profile.

Google were really pushing Cloudready to schools a couple of years back, I remember seeing some email spam from Google about it. I can't see why they would increase the value of a product by endorsing it, then buy it, just to kill it ??? I doubt google make a lot of money per 'proper' chromebook, IMO It is the market share and 'google users' they are after. CloudReady provides both.

ah ok, I misunderstood the issue and added an edit to my previous comment

I was thinking about the slowness, with regards to eMMC, that the majority of chromebooks run on eMMC and are a bit more efficient than windows with slower hardware. edit: if the problem is just with the USB, just mount the files over a network share

Has anyone tried neverware or another linux on these, it might just make them usable?

I don't think it is best practice to ask for consent in this case. You can't have a situation where parents withdraw consent if the service is essential for how the school operates and communicates with parents - thus consent isn't appropriate in this case.

Lucy FTW!

"running windows", that is a bit of a stretch. Given enough time, they could load windows as long as you didn't need any applications!

AzureAD, Google both have SAML/OICD implementations. specifically: https://portal.azure.com/#blade/Microsoft_AAD_IAM/StartboardApplicationsMenuBlade/AllApps/menuId/

There is a tickbox in GCDS that forces users to change password at first login. You probably have that as on. here is some more info http://www.edugeek.net/forums/cloud-services/208196-g-suite-forces-students-change-their-password-first-sign.html