IT Ideas

I've just been trying out two of the latest touch/flip 11" Chromebooks - the Acer R11 (2017 model) and the Viglen 360. On paper these are very similar devices: Processor: N3060 RAM: 4Gb Storage: 32Gb SSD Both touch/flip - IPS 1366x768 displays Keyboards - identical Both around the £200 ext VAT price range. Features that differ: Viglen 360 Has a removable battery - not convinced of the point of this in a Chromebook. 3 USB3 ports Ruggedized design - built like a tank. Heavy Screen - slight movement when touched. R11 (2107 model) Has Android Apps available now on the stable channel. Lighter Screen - little movement when touched - feels more solid. Only one USB3 + one USB2 Which would I buy? Well as a private buyer, the R11 without a doubt (the Viglen is Edu only...) - Android Apps and its a much nicer looking device. If I was looking for a trolley device, I might consider the Viglen for the warranty (3 years) and the tank like build (its weight does not ma...

If you have domain joined PCs that can be managed via group policy and you use G Suite, then you might want to restrict the use of consumer accounts on your machines. If a user can use a private account, they can do a range of things that can potentially bypass content filtering and other policies you have set in the management console in G Suite. The best way to prevent this is at the network level - see the Google help page here . This means that all devices on your network will be prevented from using consumer accounts. Many firewalls and content filter providers (e.g. Securly) have this as a setting now. However, if you are not able to use this approach, or want to set it on specific users only, then the lastest Group Policy Templates have policies to enable it. There are two policies for this. One to block signin to Chrome from non domain accounts and the other to block non domain login to things like GMail. Restrict who can sign into Chrome: Restrict who can sign i...

If you install Sketch for Keep, Google Keep and Handraw on a flip Chromebook (R11 in my case), you can turn it into a whiteboard/drawing pad that saves your notes and doodles to Google Keep. If you use whiteboards in the classroom - you could use these apps if your students have R11's or similar.

Android Apps via the Play Store have been available on consumer accounts for some time on selected devices. We have 1:1 Acer R11's and have recently had the opportunity to trial them on G Suite Edu accounts. From the point of view of the end user, they see the Play Store App appear on the shelf and have to agree to the terms and conditions. After that, force installed and pinned apps are immediately installed and they get access to the Google for Work Store. This only contains apps you have approved for that user. For the administrator the steps are: Enable Play Store Apps for the domain Enable access to the Play Store for specific Sub-OUs or users Add apps to Play for Work Set permissions for each app - can install, force install or pin to shelf. This can be done differently for each app and each OU and is therefore very granular.  Issues so far Apps take a while to appear in the Play Store for users. Initially only force installed apps appear. You cannot set the ...

The file upload option appeared in Google Forms a few days ago. Its got a some neat features beyond just collecting files. Restrict the type of file upload Creates a folder in the owners Drive with a folder structure for each question. If you collect user names, it adds the persons name to the uploaded files filename. If you make a spreadsheet, it pops hyperlinks to all the uploaded files into the sheet. Brief demo:

Server 2016 was released a couple of days ago so I thought I'd spin up a Server 2016 RDP VM and see how it all works. I've also installed Ericom AccessNow on the machine which is the application that allows web access to a Windows desktop - important to us as we are largely ChromeOS. I've used a few local group policies and to lock stuff down and made a mandatory profile (made by copying the default profile) to give users an appropriate experience. I'll test it over the next couple of weeks and then maybe switch from our older 2012R2 setup to this. Gives users a nice Windows 10 feel. Brief demo of what it looks like so far. And after a few more tweaks.....

Hangouts on Air disappeared as a thing a little while back. However, its really just moved to 'Live Streaming' in YouTube. Apps like Screencastify are great for quick videos, but for longer videos and ones that switch between screencasting and webcam footage, this is a better option. You can also record up to 8 hours of video (on a verified channel) with no limitations of local storage. Brief video guide below: