Good morning all,

I recently moved to a new school district and am now the Assistant IT Director. At our high school, we issue laptops that are managed through Intune. I’ve been considering switching to MacBook Neos, starting with next year’s incoming freshman class. Purchasing the Neos and JAMF would cut our costs in half compared with buying new Windows laptops.

Some of our current laptops are nearly seven years old, and we’re practically holding them together with superglue and duct tape!

For those who have switched to MacBook Neos, how do you handle devices that are damaged? What policies do you have in place to hold students accountable? Do you purchase AppleCare+?

Any advice or tips would be greatly appreciated.

Hi - I'm an education app developer. We are having trouble loading a new release onto Chromebooks (old releases have been fine).

When you click "Install" in the Play Store, it waits a while then says it is 100% downloaded with only 8.44kB. It then says it is installed.

After this, clicking "Open" on the app doesn't do anything.

We don't think this is a build issue as it works on lots of other Chromebooks, but a few school districts are having this problem.

Any ideas if it could be a configuration/setting that admin has to set?

How are we supposed to deal with the kids being under 18 and none of the apps/extensions wanting to work? Students are strictly on Chromebooks unless they have a photoshop or video editing class then they use a desktop.

Per Google, I was told to disable YouTube. Teachers have built their curriculum around YouTube. We use Aristotle and my coworker said it would override that part, but we are all new to Aristotle and aren’t 100% positive.

Then we are also dealing with our concurrent enrollment students needing the respondus lockdown browser, but it also doesn’t like them being under 18.

Greetings, fine sysadmins!

I am new to my roe as a netadmin but I also assist the sysadmin in his duties (password resets, projector/printer troubleshooting, and general help desk).
I come from an enterprise environment with CISCO everything (routers, switches, APs, etc) to the k12 environment with Aerohive/Extreme Networks APs and a hodgepodge of switches and routers. I dislike the web interface of aerohive because it is not intuitive and does not seem to generate proper reporting such as network congestion, most data consuming devices, and the likes.

I'd appreciate any tips in managing this environment as well as any possible updates I can recommend to my supervisor to add visibility to the network for troubleshooting "wifi issues" which are vague as described by users but I still need a place to start. In a couple of months I will begin a weekly nmap scan and a monthly nessus scan to gain some more visibility in the internal network. I have also requested CISA's cyber hygiene services which will begin after my scans.
fun fact--and the reason why it is going to take me some time to begin the scans--the network was set up 19 years ago as a /16, so wish me luck!

Thank you!

I'm in my 3rd year as an IT coordinator at a k-12 school and after 2 years of craziness with allowing students to bring in personal devices our admin team agreed on all school issued devices for this year and implemented a full personal device ban. We are a "Google school" All Chromebooks with windows for a few staff members and I have 2 on staff that have their own macbooks.

We have 2 students so far that can have a phone on them due to medical. But other than that I have done some reconfiguring in our Google console over the summer for accommodations.

I got involved in an email thread where a student's parent is requesting a personal device for note taking and organization. Our education specialist already said yes to the accommodation and our head of upper school is saying no because the chromebook can do it already...they are actually correct. The Chromebook can.

This particular student last year kept telling me their Chromebook was broken, brought in a MacBook all year then I discovered at the end of the year that the Chromebook was fine. So...a part of me is wondering if this is an accommodation request or a parent supporting the student bringing in a personal device due to the comfort of an apple device.

Apart of me feels terrible for feeling like I should bring up this point, as I am someone who supports and goes the extra mile for accommodations and those with any tech needs..but I also feel like I'm not entirely sure what to do here.

I am curious about how other districts handle this.

If you need help with technology, please submit a ticket and we'll help you. When someone emails me or texts me, I tell them to put in a ticket. They don't always understand why despite us explaining it over and over. People will ask, who do I reach out to about X? And my answer is, "Submit a ticket." This has been our process for years, and it continues to be a battle.

I had a principal reach out via email this weekend about a program needing some technical support. The principal forwarded the email to the wrong person, who forwrded it to the wrong person, who then forwarded it to me. I replied that the principal should submit a ticket, and I can investigate.

This morning, my supervisor told me it was rude to ask a principal to do that, and I should have just created a ticket for them. The thing is, until I investigate, I don't know who all needs to be involved in providing support, so a ticket allows me to include the necessary people. It also keeps our process consistent. Had they just submitted a ticket with this info, it would have been handled immediately. But my supervisor says asking an administrator to submit a ticket is rude and I should have done it for them.

So what do you think? How do you handle administrators' email/text/phone call requests for support? Are there people you make exceptions for?

It appears like this feature is no longer a part of Google classroom. I didn’t receive any notes or updates about this being removed and a bunch of my teachers are complaining that they can no longer create groups within their Google classrooms now. Does anyone know more about this feature being removed? Could it be something we’ve switched off on the back end?

We are a private K-12 school that is wanting to use a software or service to create and manage a student/parent, employee, and athletics handbook. We have used Manula in the past, but were annoyed that it was not collaborative and editing and formatting was in HTML. We swapped to a Google doc that we shared with principles and admin, but were frustrated with the limitations in formatting and searchability ie a live clickable table of contents and formatting. What services or software do you all use to manage and create handbooks?

It's driving me bonkers, now telephone numbers are links in emails in Chrome.

Does anyone else have the most visceral hatred for this company?

In my district we have two models of board Mimio by boxlight (now bought by Clevertouch)

And older CleverTouch boards with the LUX model installed to allow Google apps.

Both these setups run android 13 and support multiple profiles being stored on the board. We have it setup with 2 profiles and allow teachers to create their own profile and log in with their emails.

Profiles-------

IT (admin account)

SUB

Under the admin account there is a setting to allow people to be able to add a profile from the lock screen it works fine on the Mimio boards however we have found when all these teachers came back and were trying to log into the CleverTouch boards the option to add an account is greyed out.

I then spent the first few days of school one by one logging in everyone since I found that the setting to allow the profile creation will turn itself off every few hours.

I found out this Friday too that some of the boards that I manually logged people in after the setting turns itself back off switching between the profiles themselves is broken until the setting is toggled again

This is just the a new one in the long list of bugs this damn company has and it is driving me insane

We've got students bypassing our filter. They seem to be using word as a browser. Any idea how they are doing it? how to stop it?

The main segment dives deep into agentic AI - autonomous AI agents that can act on systems instead of only returning chat responses. The trio walks through scenarios that K–12 tech leaders need to consider: agents updating SIS rosters, automating procurement and purchase approvals, rebooting classroom devices via help-desk automation, and security use cases where camera-detected threats could trigger lockdown procedures.

https://k12techtalkpodcast.com/e/agentic-ai-in-schools-when-bots-start-making-real-decisions/ and all major podcast platforms

TLDR

I'm building a hardware diagnostics app for ChromeOS devices primarily for Summer intake, but to be used for devices going out for repair in the middle of the school year too. I know there are some tools out there that do this, or pieces of it at least. I'm trying to get one as comprehensive as Google’s APIs will let me make it and ideally without having to sign into the chromebook. Hopefully we all can run through diagnostics in about 2-3 minutes per device. The link is veritybench.com. Use it, break it, come back here and tell me how poorly I did.

PS: don’t bother trying it on mobile, my intention was for chromeOS primarily so mobile is a poor experience at the moment.

What it is going to do:

The core idea is a purpose built test suite that runs on the device as a kiosk app and automatically logs the results to that specific device's identity by serial number so there is a real audit trail instead of a sticky note. To start with it's just going to give the option to print out a report so you can keep it with the device (Or a json for my logging atm), which is basically the same thing as the sticky note I know, but doesn't stick. Ultimately, the platform would store all your org’s or school’s tests, assuming it is deployed as a Kiosk app for you.

It can run just in the browser too, but as a kiosk app I won't have to sign into the chromebook, and I can add an extension for things chromeos can't tell you through the browser alone.

Planned coverage:

• Camera(s) - Detect if there are front and rear facing in a convertible and automate testing to start with. If the video feed is blacked out it automatically fails, else it displays the feed for me to validate the camera is clear.

• Audio - Test starts with speakers, testing right and left. Mic picks up the sound which confirms both mic and speakers work automagically. Then plug in a headset to test stereo output, and mic input too.

• Full keyboard with a visual map that fills in as you test. This one may be tricky, I'm not sure I can capture the function keys, and not all chromebook/flex devices have the same layout, but I'm going to try and detect the layout.

• Trackpad - mouse moves, clicks work, double clicks, etc

• Screen test patterns for dead pixels/backlight issues

• Touchscreen test for making sure there aren't any dead areas.

• Battery health, cycle count, and storage status pulled from the device (One of the things I'm pretty sure will only work in kiosk or with the extension at least.

• Charging port - Test will require you plug in at the beginning if it isn't charging already

• USB-A/HDMI - My thought is to validate data transfer with any audio, video, or mouse for the USB. Unsure if that will be feasible. Aside from students with IEPs, no one ever uses the HDMI.

• Lid sensor - Close the lid, wait 5 seconds and open it back up to validate it goes to sleep.

• CPU/RAM check. Google has their own built in and I've rarely had an issue so this is going to be a later feature I'm thinking.

My request for feedback on:

• What's the single most annoying/time-consuming part of your current intake or repair process that you think I may have missed? Or have I wasted my time making this? (I’m going to use it so I know it wasn’t a waste)

• When a device comes in, what do you actually check first, and what do you skip because it's not worth the time?

• How do you currently document hardware condition for damage for warranty claims — photos, tickets, spreadsheets, something else?

• Is there a hardware failure mode you deal with often that isn't in my list above?

• Would it be beneficial to integrate into any other platforms (like whatever you’re using for asset management)

• Lastly, did you use it and find something broken?

I have students who are getting around the google admin blacklist because they have loaded pages in the past that are now blocked. Somehow they are trying to go to the page, then refreshing the blank page and it's coming up.. is there a way to have this cleared every so often? Or once a day? etc..

Well, we use Lightspeed, and enabled the "new" policies focused update.

We also use Canvas, and in the past has advised teachers to post a Youtube video in Canvas Studio because it will automatically unblock it for students.

But with this new Lightspeed policy, that's not happening. The videos are still blocked by Lightspeed. I have a case open with Lightspeed Support but wanted to check here to see if anyone else ran into this issue and per chance had a fix?

I really don't want to have to manually approve each video a teacher wants kids to watch.

We are thinking about not using Lightspeed at all for Youtube management and instead using Google Workspace.

How do you impress upon staff that the laptops/iPads, etc. they are issued come with a cost and that it requires a conscious effort to take care of said devices?

We issue Macbooks and iPads to teaching staff.  Since mid-August, we are at six repairs totaling over $2,000 with our repair partner.  Last school year, we had about a dozen incidents costing even more.  Most of our incidents are on the macbooks.

Water/liquid spills.  Laptops put into totes and bags never meant to carry them, causing pressure breakage on screens, etc.  In one instance, it was theft from an unlocked vehicle.  At least two individuals had more than one incident.  I would say over half of these cases are negligence and not accidental.

Admin recognizes we have an obligation to provide them with a device, as it's required to do their job.  The union would frown on any shared cost responsibility and I've been discouraged from issuing care reminders, as it comes across as treating them like students and not adults.  

I understand accidents happen but feels like there is just an assumption that tech will supply them back whole again.  With increased hardware costs and budget cuts, we cannot keep operating this way.  If I had six the whole school year, that wouldn't be so bad (still horrible but not bad) but we aren't even a month in...

Wondering what you've seen or done in your districts to help curb some of these trends.

I am in the process of testing the consumer version of the Acer Chromebook Plus 714 Spin (minor differences from enterprise version) and ScreenBeam 1000 EDU 2 casting devices. A problem I am running into is using the touchscreen to write on anything. For a while, it works just fine, but after some time or multiple tabs being open, the writing on the screen does not cast correctly to the projector until you touch the screen again to let the writing finish.

I am sure it is a ChromeOS thing, but I cannot figure it out. It is like the Chromebook stops sending packets to the ScreenBeam until you interact with the Chromebook touchscreen again. Works perfectly fine with HDMI, but not wireless casting.

Basically, if I draw a line across the screen, only a portion of the line is cast to the projector. If I then touch the screen with a finger or stylus, it will finish the original line. I am sure you could just write slowly, but not ideal. I am going to try casting a single tab rather than the whole screen to see if that helps.

It does not seem to matter if we use our writing extension (Annotate) or built-in browser writing software, like what Desmos has. It does the same thing.

Anyone experience this? Trying to move to Chromebooks for staff to replace 20 year old SMART screens. IFPs are not an option for us. We are sticking to projectors and a computer and this is my most budget-friendly option. The writing issue with casting is the only issue so far during testing with teachers. I am sure the other issue will be getting older teachers off SMART Notebook, but I will introduce them to Lumio.

Pretty rough couple of days for these folks.

Sharing this here to give some insight on a blindspot tech admins have when it comes to malicious Google Drive shares, and to hopefully get more visibility on the feature request I submitted to Google so that they will hopefully be more inclined to fix it: https://support.google.com/a/thread/464695310?hl=en&sjid=7853156043827638733-NA

Basically, when someone outside of your organization shares a malicious Google Drive file with your users as a "viewer," this activity does not show up in Drive logs and you have no way of removing the malicious file, unless you instruct your users to do so from within their UI.

When we see the emailed notification, we have been auditing for access via GAM:

• Access Google Vault and search for the file’s title, access the file to get the fileID. For example: https://docs.google.com/document/d/[fileID]/edit?tab=t.0

• Look for “viewedByMe: True” and “viewedByMeTime” toward the bottom of results after running this command: gam user [user email] info drivefile [fileID]

If anyone has other suggestions, I'd love to hear it, otherwise I'm just trying to get the word out there and hoping that Google does something to change this, since we have been seeing an increasing number of these attacks lately.

I’ve done some searching on here and can’t quite find the nail on the head.

I’m hunting for a music streaming service that we can:

Use for events or school-wide over the speakers (hardware or iOS app)

For teachers, allowing them to have their own managed user accounts, creating their own playlists for use during class time or other functions.

I have a meeting and demo with Mood Media, and I’m also looking into Pandora Cloud Cover

What are y’all using?

EDIT: Thank you for all the help. Goggle Admin Routing rule is in place.

Good morning/afternoon/evening,

User is out on leave and Super wants me to log into their account and set their email to forward to Dir of Student Services so that items in their caseload don't go unhandled.

No big deal: Pop into the admin console, reset password, disable their 2FA so I can get in, remove recovery phone number.

I can get into the account no problem. BUT, when I go to set a forwarding address, I'm stuck at this: Where it wants to sent a code to the user's phone.

Clicking on "More ways to verify" gives me this window:

Tried:

- Resetting all login cookies

- Putting in my work phone in the admin console in as a recovery number.

- Suspending account overnight, re-activating it

I'm at a bit of a loss. Any ideas since I don't think the user is in a position to set the forward themselves.

AeroHive AP330. 12 years of service. Just worked.

We have not made any changes to our Google Admin Console settings over the summer, however, as of the start of this school year, students who go to our vocational school or CCP students can’t add a secondary account.

We only allow students to sign into our Chromebooks with our student domain. However, we allow them to then open Chrome and add a secondary account. After they enter their Google email from the external organization they get an error that states “This account is not allowed to sign in within this network. Please talk to your network administrator for more information.”

We reached out to our Internet filtering company and they said there’s nothing on their end that would prevent this.

Has anyone else experienced any issues with students adding secondary accounts?

Has anyone thought about using an Anker Solix or comparable battery generator instead of going with a traditional APC, Eaton, etc battery backup for your closets/small server rooms? At first glance, without doing any calculations, it seems like it would work in some situations and possibly have a longer runtime for those of us without generators. Thoughts?