A very interesting week at work today with my Chromebook Challenge. When I did my post on what is needed to go paperless, the very first thing was a strong network. Well, this week our district's internet service provider had some major issues and they played havoc with the challenge. Now the perception is that if you have no internet you have a fancy paper weight. That of course is a misnomer, it is well documented what Chromebooks can do offline. Unfortunately for me, I am using a Chromebook with student permissions, so I can't store anything offline because of those settings.
Now even if I was on my computer, I would have been dead in the water too. Since the shift in education is web based programs, and I saw plenty of evidence of that this week. Once the internet goes down there isn't much you can do.
Other than that it was a great week. I am trying to get another teacher to join me in the challenge. It's great because he is a different subject, so it is a different point of view. Two things he noticed. When he converted his PowerPoint to a Slides presentation, none of the sounds came with it. The slides themselves he said looked fine, but he likes sounds. This is a problem when moving PowerPoints anywhere. The sound files aren't embedded in the actual file. They are pointed to an address, and for most that is on the computer. I believe he would need to either a) resave them as html pages to get all sound files or b) re-insert the files once converted. The other thing is that he can't view his personal gmail account when logged in. He could log out and back in, but he doesn't want to. He could go incognito, but that function is blocked by our district.
As you can see to go Chrome OS our district has to differentiate between teachers & students, just like our pc log ins do.
Even with student devices, there is a lot you can do offline, but the steps need to be setup in advance. Offline settings are found in the Drive settings of the Admin Console. When this setting is enabled, the chromebook will sync the most recent 4000 Docs, Sheets, Drawings, and Presentations as well as allowing you to create new documents of the same. The are also a host of growing NaCl offline apps that can be used on and offline. The key is preparation.
ReplyDeleteEven with student devices, there is a lot you can do offline, but the steps need to be setup in advance. Offline settings are found in the Drive settings of the Admin Console. When this setting is enabled, the chromebook will sync the most recent 4000 Docs, Sheets, Drawings, and Presentations as well as allowing you to create new documents of the same. The are also a host of growing NaCl offline apps that can be used on and offline. The key is preparation.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the tips. I agree. There is a lot that can be changed , but that doesn't seem to be an option right now. Hoping ext year we can change it a bit.
ReplyDeleteI have really enjoyed reading about what you are doing here. I just finished a month long pilot at my school where I took my algebra honors class and made it paperless with chromebooks. I can't imagine teaching math without it. Would you recommend google classroom? I have developed a routine where students create their own document and then copy and paste the daily materials from a template document I share with them daily. Exciting to hear other math teachers out there trying to use chromebooks!
ReplyDeleteI would recommend Google Classroom. Simply because you can assign an assignment and they can create the page from within it. You can see who turned it in on time and it creates all the folders in your drive for you. Plus all shearing is done automatically. I would give it a try.
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