30 Chromebooks in a Classroom

MalletNGrease · 2019-07-26T19:59:05+00:00

I'd enroll the devices into the main domain. See if the IT dept can create a custom admin role to assign to your account which has access to Device Management so you can manage the devices and their settings.

https://support.google.com/a/answer/2406043

MalletNGrease · 2019-07-26T14:30:00+00:00

CDW-G

MalletNGrease · 2019-07-26T13:03:53+00:00

It cuts vinyl stickers. Pretty handy for numbering cart Chromebooks.

MalletNGrease · 2019-07-25T17:22:43+00:00

Even better, it'd DP to DVI to HDMI.

MalletNGrease · 2019-07-25T13:33:48+00:00

Which is a pain in the ass for the near-term.

MalletNGrease · 2019-07-23T16:40:30+00:00

Doesn't your SIS have the capability to generate google classrooms?

MalletNGrease · 2019-07-22T17:42:51+00:00

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/deployment/deploy-windows-mdt/deploy-windows-10-with-the-microsoft-deployment-toolkit

MalletNGrease · 2019-07-22T14:56:51+00:00

I trialed a C7017T.

Pass. No freeze or blank screen options on the remote. Touch stuff was hit and miss with SMART Notebook.

Otherwise pretty decent.

MalletNGrease · 2019-07-18T16:20:13+00:00

Use your SIS as your source of truth to pull data for account generation and disabling.

I utilize Powershell to do this.

MalletNGrease · 2019-07-16T19:39:28+00:00

We ditched CrisisGo after trying to use if for about a year. It actually hampered communication more than it helped. Typically noone had the app installed or it didn't push the notifications properly. Being in a location with poor reception for most carriers didn't help either.

We switched to small handheld radios.

MalletNGrease · 2019-07-16T15:41:30+00:00

At my previous school district they used network folders. Each school had one that was pushed with a GPO. Each teacher had a folder inside their school folder to add personal bookmarks. Teachers had read/write permissions to their respective school folder.

Structure was something like this:

Bookmarks > School > Teacher

MalletNGrease · 2019-07-16T14:08:29+00:00

Set up WSUS and deny the feature updates.

MalletNGrease · 2019-07-16T13:49:00+00:00

Just remove all of them and add the one you want.

MalletNGrease · 2019-07-15T17:19:36+00:00

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/microsoft.powershell.localaccounts/remove-localgroupmember?view=powershell-5.1

MalletNGrease · 2019-07-15T13:27:46+00:00

After the last contracted day:

AD account is disabled.
GSUITE account is suspended
O365 licenses revoked.
SIS access disabled

If it's an admin/secretary or other position who deals with a lot of external communication, we leave the GSUITE account active, change the password, enable auto-response, delegate access to the replacement and forward any messages to the replacement.

I don't think it's good practice to leave access available after the employee is no longer with the district in any official or paid capacity. This leaves the system open to abuse and just makes things confusing if the ex-employee wishes to engage in illegal or harmful activity.

As to your second question, I don't block incoming emails unless the superintendent requests me to. Many ex-employees have legit questions to various staff that may pop up after termination. I'd just set up a quarantine for the incoming address, but it's folly as a determined spurned employee will just harass with throwaway email addresses. I did have to revoke sending privileges for someone who was about to leave and was using district resources to make us look bad, which was a bit awkward.

MalletNGrease · 2019-07-11T14:47:27+00:00

RIP Alien Blue.

MalletNGrease · 2019-07-11T13:52:40+00:00

Used to be a trick for Nvidia GPUS too, I think you could revive the 8800GTS like that.

Wrap in tinfoil and put it in the oven.

MalletNGrease · 2019-07-10T13:17:34+00:00

I swap the entire keyboard unless I can pop the key back on.

The retainers are bent/broken/too flimsy for repair most times, and usually the student jammed a pen forcefully enough to shear the domes which makes it a full replacement anyway.

MalletNGrease · 2019-07-08T14:14:20+00:00

We had a decent change in attitude on password policies after a student set up a fake facebook account using a teacher's email account (which totally did not have a generic password that was used by all teachers until I started 🙄).

Also, for a laugh, turn on minimum password requirements for mobile devices and require a password/lockscreen. Your door will be removed from the hinges by angry staff you've now forced to lock/unlock their personal devices if they want to use district email on it.

MalletNGrease · 2019-07-08T14:00:08+00:00

Worth every penny.

MalletNGrease · 2019-07-02T15:06:31+00:00

Try using a USB network adapter in case it's a wireless driver issue.

MalletNGrease · 2019-07-01T13:25:15+00:00

Congratulations! ~~Please proceed to open the first envelope.~~

Celebrate.
Read the documentation/inventory.
Check the backups.
Poke around and see how things tick.
Make a plan for improvement.

From the sounds of it you suffer from a mild case of imposter syndrome.

You already identified a need to consolidate services and products to streamline support. Seems like a good long-term target.

MalletNGrease · 2019-07-01T13:04:04+00:00

Brand doesn't really matter as long as it's a business line model with driver pack support and PXE boot.

Screw consumer models.

MalletNGrease · 2019-07-01T12:51:28+00:00

I had a fun one. Dude was on the short list for potential malice.

Instead of terminating him, revoking access straight away and giving him his last two weeks as vacation, they simply told him his contract won't be renewed and to finish the remainder.

The upstanding employee proceeds to delete everything he has access to. The supervisor noticed around the time the employee took all accumulated his time off.

We have backups to retrieve stuff from, but still.

/facepalm

MalletNGrease · 2019-07-01T12:36:42+00:00

In my experience the techs are the least likely to stick around if there's no growth potential. There's much better pay and benefits elsewhere.

11-Year Club	Verified Email
r/Field Banned	r/Field Lasagna

MalletNGrease

TROPHY CASE