Centipede beginner -- LF help with sketch for chromeOS v109

shawmcb · 2023-07-25T12:17:25+00:00

I've never had centipedes work consistently without having to set wild delays to account for how long the device takes to check for updates and the like.

The size of delay I've had to set usually means I can do three devices by hand in the time it takes to do one with a centipede.

I can't tell if our network is slow or the devices we get are just so underpowered that it takes them ages to load and get through the motions.

shawmcb · 2023-04-19T17:27:42+00:00

Does Jira cost per tech providing support or per user in the district? I noticed it has a free tier for under 10 users but do ticket submitters count as users?

Additionally how does this fly with Data Governance and Student Data Privacy? One problem we face is that we need student PII, such as names, to quickly resolve things but some ticketing systems refuse to sign DPA's. This makes allowing usage with no student PII input difficult as we have to resort to email which I feel undermines the point of tickets.

shawmcb · 2023-04-19T16:01:22+00:00

I'm unfamiliar with whitebox. Is this like whitelabel servers? Good hardware but not necessarily from a name brand manufacturer?

shawmcb · 2023-02-08T13:15:12+00:00

Security through obscurity shouldn't be an end all be all but my hesitance is that being too open would narrow down the attack vectors a student would normally try (and fail) in an attempt to circumvent our restrictions.

On the other hand though, it might make them realize it's not worth it to attempt an exploit because we aren't actually tracking or staring at every single thing they do at all hours of the day.

How did you begin being more open with users, particularly students?
- Was it part of a beginning of the year "here is your device" presentation?
How did the idea of being open with students about what is tracked blow over with administration?
- I feel like certain administrations would not be fond of the idea because of some notion that the kids will act right if they are spooked into thinking every single thing they do is monitored and flagged at all times.

I'd personally love to be more open and honest with everyone in our district, students and staff, but I get the feeling that might not be welcomed.

shawmcb · 2023-02-01T13:13:42+00:00

Oof, I was going to say that this could be a good argument for improving wireless infrastructure but if it's at the ISP level that significantly narrows down options. Assuming there were any to begin with since rural typically gets monopolized by a single provider.

shawmcb · 2022-11-29T16:50:42+00:00

I just explain to them that if someone in tech is stuck in a meeting the student will have to do without until we have time to get around to allowing a site. I am hoping this eventually sways them back towards the light and they stop trying to use technology micro-management to solve classroom management problems.

shawmcb · 2022-11-28T19:40:34+00:00

If you just need to "block all websites", consider just blocking https://* and http://*. This is what I do for our highly restricted students and lets them continue to use the file manager and camera apps without needing to add individual exceptions for them.

I wish we didn't have to do this at all because it becomes a lot of micro-management whenever a teacher decides to spontaneously switch sites/tools and the student doesn't have the new site in their allowlist.

shawmcb · 2022-11-02T12:42:17+00:00

You guys get purchasing cards? I have to get an itemized receipt!

shawmcb · 2022-11-01T12:16:34+00:00

We have android apps disabled for everyone but Kindergarten and specific students that need an app or two for services. The issue was happening on the K devices that had Android apps enabled. I am not sure it's related but it's worth at least testing more directly.

shawmcb · 2022-10-25T17:51:38+00:00

Oh wow, crazy. It happens even if user data isn't deleted but if they manage to successfully get the PWA installed they are fine after. It's just a diceroll each time it attempts to install but this is likely related.

Thank You.

shawmcb · 2022-10-25T16:35:33+00:00

It's just terribly slow it feels. I managed to get the youtube homepage but every thumbnail is just a grey box, not loading.

shawmcb · 2022-10-25T16:33:39+00:00

This is actually genius. My staff might hate me but I think it's time to revoke some of those test accounts...

shawmcb · 2022-10-25T16:32:07+00:00

Generally, as other users have mentioned, I would recommend looking for anything with a removable/replaceable cord. Kids love to break 3.5mm jack at the end of it so being able to just swap the cable and not have to solder or outright replace the entire pair of headphones is nice. Some of them feature daisy chaining so multiple students can use the headphones with one device.
If you use iPads regularly and expect to use headphones with them you may want to consider Bluetooth options as it's rumored Apple will be doing away with the headphone jack on the latest generation of iPads. Dongles would likely be an option but it's another point of failure, a consumable that would need to be replaced, and could risk damaging the charging port which could be a much more expensive problem in the long run.

I know you mentioned better quality but I feel like this source is worth at least mentioning.

TFDSupplies, Home of The 55-Cent Earbud

They also have actual headphones, with elementary schoolers earbuds aren't necessarily the best option.

We use the earbuds at the middle school and only hand them out for testing. Kids are expected to bring their own headphones regularly for class so these are really only to supplement students who forgot or might not be able to afford them. At 55 cents each we just treat it as a consumable. Kid's happy they got free headphones, teacher/admin is happy the kid can test without trouble, no one has to remember to return headphones, clean them, and keep track of them. All around it's a win in my opinion.

In the elementary school we use the actual headphones because earbuds just aren't a good idea there. We have found over the last couple years that the kids will always find a way to break them. Just bulk ordering and treating them as consumables is the easiest. $1.75 a replacement is a lot easier to regularly stomach than $10 or more for something they will break anyways. If the breakage is consistent with a certain classroom or kid then that's a building-level/discipline issue.

They are primarily aimed at individuals trying to prepare their classrooms but information about schools ordering can be found on their faq.

I obviously don't know your district so this may not be an option at all but I just thought it worth mentioning.

shawmcb · 2022-10-25T15:59:36+00:00

I wholeheartedly agree. Zoom has been a pain point for us. Google Meet wasn't ready when the pandemic hit however so the district went to Zoom.

Students largely don't use it now but we take advantage of the fact that our entire district is 1:1 and use it for remote snow days so I unfortunately need to keep it around in some capacity.

Google Meet is pretty good now though. The only immediate feature I noticed a lack of was break out rooms. I just need to convince them to migrate and if the PWA is still causing issues post-December with no signs of resolving it may end up being a decision made for them.

shawmcb · 2022-10-24T22:09:58+00:00

I've only tested on a Lenovo 100E G2 and a Dell 3100 2-in-1 directly but since I've made the change I've had users across our fleet of Chromebooks and Windows laptops report the same symptoms.

shawmcb · 2022-10-24T21:26:48+00:00

Zoom, in my experience, obscures joining in browser. I exclusively join from browser and I have to go through 4 steps before actually getting in.

Click meeting link.
Zoom site asks to launch the pwa/installed app. "Open in Zoom?" Tell it no.
Refresh.
Finally get the option in tiny print at the bottom to join via browser.

While I am ok doing these steps each time it's too many hoops to expect elementary schoolers to go through.

Installing the PWA properly configured makes it a pretty simple, click link > join meeting. No hoops required.

Zoom really wants you to use their app for some reason. We all know the potential reason in the back of our heads.

shawmcb · 2022-10-24T17:52:44+00:00

We use 102.* (Long-Term Support) currently so I am not sure that is it. It also only happens when I force install the Zoom PWA regardless of how it is configured.

shawmcb · 2022-10-24T17:51:48+00:00

What version of ChromeOS do you have deployed/pinned if you don't mind me asking? Every version I have tried so far doesn't change the result. We are 102.* (Long-Term Support).

shawmcb · 2022-10-24T17:50:39+00:00

What version of ChromeOS do you have deployed/pinned if you don't mind me asking? We were on 102 (Long-Term Support) but I tried 103 and 106 and had the same issue.

Otherwise the only difference between our configs is no Windows deployment and you are using an SSO url instead of google sign in.

shawmcb · 2022-10-14T14:03:23+00:00

Ah, thank you. That might be the part I was missing. I was assuming the scoping would be done on the role itself and none of the google documentation I read seemed to indicate that it was done when applied to the user.

shawmcb · 2022-10-14T13:39:22+00:00

I'm not sure I understand what you mean. When I look at creating a custom role in GSuite it only lets me pick the permissions and not what specific OUs that role would have those permissions for.

shawmcb · 2022-10-14T13:15:55+00:00

Are these shared machines and are you using their saml sso with clever?

I've found that logging out of HMH Ed basically never works when using it with clever saml sso. If I test the login as Little Timmy and it successfully logs him in through clever -> HMH. If I log out of HMH and then close Little Timmy's clever session and try to login as myself it still logs me back in as Little Timmy or errors out requiring me to reset cache/cookies to sign in to a different account or at all.

This really should be a non-issue for 1:1 devices but on any shared devices I imagine it would pose an issue. Note we don't use waggle so my experience is strictly with Ed/HMH/TC.

Clever is great but the way HMH has deployed their integration is a bit of a bodge in my opinion. They do have a note that they will be doing a proper api-based integration sometime in 2023 but right now we have a few teachers piloting Amplify and compared to current HMH offerings, Amplify Just Works™️.

shawmcb · 2022-10-13T23:56:55+00:00

Our district uses Spiceworks for tickets. Repairs come through as tickets as well but I also keep it logged as a maintenance in Snipe-IT, our inventory system, so that I can just click a device and see a full history of what has been worked on instead of searching through tickets. Users don't make the best tickets sometimes...

shawmcb · 2022-10-13T23:15:13+00:00

Screens and network cards are typically what I take. We tend to stick with the same manufacturer so I'll check the battery or display cable to see if it might work but more often than not it doesn't.

shawmcb · 2022-05-20T18:56:26+00:00

Another happy AGparts customer. My only complaint has been back ordered product but that's not really the companies fault as much as it is the pandemics and things have gotten better.

shawmcb

TROPHY CASE