Professional development

More professional development needed I think. Staff like the chrome books, they use the chrome books regularly but there's so much more that they can do with them. I think they just need to be enthused. First session next Thursday. 

5 months on and the Chromebooks are holding up really well.

2 have developed video faults and been replaced under warranty. 1 had something left on the keyboard it and the screen was closed, hard. 1 broken screen. But other than that we have plenty of working chromebooks. They are used for at least a few hours every day that school is open.

The hammering these things take and survive is a marvel. One of them had a milkshake dumped in it. It went right through and was oozing out the bottom. Yes, it took 3 hrs to strip it down and clean it out but 3 months later its still running. Not one battery is showing signs of not holding a charge. I hate to think how many have been dropped on the floor but they just keep running. Yay SSHDs!

As for our crappy internet connection. We are doing ok. We have limits. Khan academy can only be used by 10 or less students at a time. Youtube is listed as a no go areas for students. Our connection hits 3 instances of you tube and thats it. Things stop working. But, they can all use google apps without issues.

Now heres a bit of a plug http://www.ubnt.com/unifi we got 6 of these unifi A.Ps and it made a huge difference. They really can handle a lot of users at each point. Quite easily doing 30 users per access point and I would imagine they could handle even more. And, they are cheap. The initial setup is a little annoying but once you get the software going and 1 access point running its simple to add more.

Its been a while

I havent said anything for a bit.  Tawhero School has now got 90 Chromebooks. They are almost ready to go. Just need to finish setting up a place to charge them all.

90 Chromebooks running off a single adsl2+ connection is not going to go all that well I suspect. What would life be without little challenges. Hmmmm. The school 2kms away can get Fibre broadband and they have said they would be cool with us putting some gear in there. I wonder how much a link up to Tawhero is going to cost since we dont get fibre for another 2 years. Come on New Zealand technology, catch up dammit.

I could always ban all non educational video games in the school. I wonder if I would survive the riot? May discuss it with staff.

The problem with tablets

Just a little note. Tablets are fun. I like 'em the kids LOVE them, but. and its a big BUT, all you can do is use text in google docs. No inserting drawings or pictures. I tried to get around it. It dosen't happen.

Back to chromebooks. Pity, tablets are fun. And half the price of chromebooks. Still, chromebooks feel more serious and less of a toy.

What have I started?

This google thing is growing. Fast.

What started out as me signing up a couple of schools is rapidly turning into a HUGE thing.

I got 2 schools running. Then I showed it to another school and they got excited too.  Next thing I'm sitting in a meeting with 6 schools who are forming a trust to oversee implementation of google apps and getting devices to students. I hear there are other schools already waiting for the trust to complete its setup and they will join up too.

Then.... I get told yesterday that the secondary schools want a look in too and will I be available to help answer the technical aspects on Google apps for education during an upcoming presentation.

I hope they go for chromebooks. Last count was over 1200 students initially and more coming on board later. Administering that many will be nasty if its not chromebooks.

Wireless Access Points Part 2

Ok, In setting up wireless I have found a few things on the way. When you are running just a few devices on wireless just about anything works. But when you want to run 30 devices in the same room it turns out not all devices are equal.

I have found access points have processors in them and a slow processor just doesn't cut it when they are trying to service 30 devices. If you are going down this road the first rule its don't get a domestic access point. Spend a few extra dollars and go for the commercial ones. They are more up to the task.

Also I found putting a 2nd access point in the room works well too. When a device is taking too long to hook to the first one as its loaded up they will go looking for another less loaded access point.

And one more thing. Chrome books and 802.11N. Make sure you have your security turned up (WPA, not WEP) or they refuse to connect. G is fine, do anything you want, but with N they refuse to connect. They see the AP but that's it.

Windows 8

Microsoft released Windows 8 to those of us with volume licensing today. I happend to be building up a machine so I thought I would give it a try.

Booted up, and got that old familiar error. Windows was unable to find drivers for your cd/dvd device. Dammit Microsft. You can boot with a cd so why cant it use those drivers to run compatability style instead of making me find drivers. Anyway I couldn't be bothered shagging around finding drivers. Went back to windows 7. Started fine.