Wednesday, July 22, 2015

Ready, Setup, Slowly

Ready, Setup, Slowly


Map of School District (Made by using mymaps.google.com)

District DESE Information

For those wondering what our school district is like, I have provided both a map and the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education data.  You will notice pretty quickly that we are indeed a small school district, at least student population wise.  We currently serve roughly 711 students K-12th grade, with 72 certified staff members.

Chromebooks Arrived!


Thanks to students Chase White and Briley King for helping me
get all the Chromebooks to my classroom!
Earlier this week the Chromebooks we order for the school district arrived!  Due to it being summer, I had to scrounge around the school to see if anyone was around to help me move them to my classroom.  Luckily the first session of weight lifting had just ended so I was able to pick up two students, Chase and Briley.  These two gentlemen used their ingenuity and found carts in the Cafeteria that helped us to move a greater number of chromebooks in a shorter time period.

With all the Chromebooks in my room, I began the setup process.  I took one of the power supplies from a box and used it for all the Chromebooks (for efficiency purposes).  Sadly, before I could begin I had to figure out why the outlet in my room did not work.  After getting a hold of our maintenance crew, we realized they had tripped the breaker while cleaning the floors. 
 
After the start-up screen

Setup

Initially I would open one box at a time, and begin the setup process.  I later learned to open a larger number of boxes, and then do the setup process of multiple Chromebooks at one time.

Then I started the Chromebook unboxing, and began setting them up.  These Chromebooks are designed to not turn on (even if opened) until they have been plugged into a power source (thus the one power supply to rule them all).  Once plugged in, it would begin the load-up process.  The first question it asks you is for your network ID and Password. *Side Note: Once the power has been turned on, you can unplug it and finish the process as most Chromebooks battery is at 70+% power.

A few Chromebooks said this when trying to enroll them.
After it accesses the Wifi, it will bring you to the standard sign-in.  Note For Chromebook Management: Do not sign-in without the "enterprise enrollment" screen, otherwise you will have to reset the Chromebook. To access the "Enterprise Enrollment" screen, press CTRL + ALT + E, which should immediately bring you to the enrollment screen.  If for whatever reason it says "opps..." instead of the enrollment screen, simply access as a guest.  Then sign-out of guest and press CTRL + ALT + E again, which should work like a charm now.



My setup for the afternoon.

Suggestion

As I mentioned earlier, I have three different schools that these Chromebooks are being sent to, each with their own "Organization" I created on the Google Apps Admin Dashboard.  So what I did was create a generic user (ex. Deploy@domain) with the administered role of "Services Admin" (which allows enrolling Chromebooks into management).  Then go to Device Management > Chrome Management Sidebar Link > User Settings > Enrollment Controls (Picture down below).  Then have the settings as followed: "Place Chrome device in user organization during manual enrollment," and set it to "Place Chrome device in user ogranization."  Finally, move the generic user to the desired organization of the Chromebook.  

Overview:  What this does is put the Chromebooks into whatever organization you plan on distributing them too.  Keeps you from worrying about locating the correct Serial Numbered Chromebooks in the future (For settings purposes, etc).

Progress

At this point, I am half-way through enrolling all the devices into the management console.  Hopefully I am setting it up properly in order to avoid frustration later down the road.  I'm sure there are even more tricks/tips that I could be using to help expedite this process, but for now all seems to be going well.  If you have any ideas or tips, feel free to comment!

Needed a system to help keep the Chrromebooks
separate by building.
Easy way to keep track of the Power Supply



Start-up Screen
A lot of boxes...
Progress being made but slowly...

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