Chromebook Challenge: Week 1 Update

So I am one week into my Chromebook Challenge and for the most part it has been a smooth transition.  Printing has been fine and so has grades/roll/etc.  I am still impressed with the speeds of Chromebooks and have had up to 10 tabs open & split screen and have never noticed a delay.  And remember this is on an Acer c720.

Now it hasn't been all rainbows.  When I wrote up my initial post, I mentioned how my one concern was that our site privileges would be the same as students.  With that being said, I am unable to edit photos using Pixlr.  I have used Pixlr in my Google Drive on my desktop computer, so I know it isn't Pixlr.  But everytime I try and open a picture on my Chromebook with Pixlr, it loads to 93% and never moves again.  I am certain this is due to our districts restrictions for the login.

I have 2 possible workarounds.  The first is to just download the files I need and store them on the hard drive.  Once they are on the hard drive, Pixlr can open them right away.  Any site restriction our district has in place is gone because it is local.  The other option is to use another paint app called Photo Paint.  It does basic photo editing.  It doesn't automatically save them to your Google Drive either so that is also a hassle.

The other thing that I have noticed, once again due to our district's settings, is that our machines are made to totally erase everything on the hard drive when the Chromebooks are turned off.  So any files I downloaded are gone.  Also all my settings are gone as well.  I have to reset my Outlook Notifier app each time and other things like that.

Those problems are all related to our district's settings on the Chromebooks.  I am sure that if I got my own Chromebook that those settings wouldn't be in place for teacher's.  I am still impressed with the speed and overall usefulness of the Chromebook & Chrome OS.