Secure, equitable access to technology is foundational to digitising education.
The UK Department for Education’s provision during the pandemic increased access to devices for staff and students. Unfortunately, many of these devices are now too slow to adequately facilitate learning activities or can no longer run antivirus software. ChromeOS Flex reinvigorates old Windows laptops, desktops, and Macs, transforming them into fast and secure devices running ChromeOS, a cloud-based operating system. With ChromeOS, updates happen in the background, so lessons aren’t delayed by old devices taking more than 20 minutes to load or running software updates mid-task. Converting old devices with ChromeOS Flex extends their lifespan, and it’s simple to deploy with a bootable ChromeOS Flex USB drive. Data is stored in Google’s carbon-neutral data centres.
Update to a Secure Cloud System with Chromeos
Did you know there have been no reported successful ransomware attacks on a ChromeOS device, ever? Ransomware files are automatically blocked by ChromeOS, which means your institution’s data is protected even if someone tries to open an infected file.
The device that you’d like to install ChromeOS Flex onto.
A second device running Google Chrome (either a PC, MacBook or Chromebook).
A USB flash drive with at least 8GB of storage.
A preloaded ChromeOS Flex USB key can be obtained free-of-charge from Google for Education by filling out this form. A second device is not needed if you get a preloaded key.
Central Fleet Management
Another challenge facing education is limited access to IT administrators. ChromeOS Flex devices can be centrally managed on the Google for Education Admin Console by purchasing a Chrome Education Upgrade licence and enrolling the devices into the domain.
With a few clicks, IT administrators can deploy schoolwide settings for safe browsing, such as allowing or blocking access to websites and restricting downloads. Disabling students’ access to browse the web during an exam, use external storage, take screenshots, and print ensures ChromeOS devices can be used for secure digital testing options such as locked mode with Google Forms quiz features. It’s useful to set user data settings to “Do not erase local user data” for the duration of the assessment period to avoid student data loss if the device needs to be rebooted or loses power.
ChromeOS device management is key for tracking lost devices or
preventing theft by forcing devices to re-enroll. If the device is enrolled in your organisation, you can remotely wipe local device and user data for troubleshooting,
data removal, or other reasons. Deprovisioning or disabling devices is a great way to remove management from devices you no longer need, such as students who have left or old devices. Some of those Chrome devices may have sprung back to life with the increase of auto updates from eight to ten years.
Disabling guest browsing and enabling sign-in restrictions can control which accounts are allowed to use the device, ensuring data is shared in a responsible manner. You can set device off hours to a weekly schedule to define when guest browsing and sign-in restriction settings apply or don’t apply to managed ChromeOS devices.
Scheduled updates, screensaver, and power management settings help IT administrators manage how devices use power in a sustainable manner.
Reduce Waste
So why not reduce e-waste and extend some old devices’ lifespans with ChromeOS Flex? Or polish up your ChromeOS device management settings to save energy and maximise security?
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