Chromebooks! (The student ones)

Chromebooks may have come and gone for teachers and admins, but they're a mainstay for our student body and as long as they are we may as well delve into why we use chromebooks and how we in IT manage and repair them.

Also, be sure to check out the helpful cheat sheet at the end for shortcuts and tricks to keep in your toolbox when your kids run into Chromebook issues.

Why Chromebooks?

That's a question I've been asked a lot. It is true that different districts use different hardware, even some close to us here in Western Mass. But the reality is that as of 2019 about eighty five percent of school districts in the US utilize chromebooks. In fact the vast majority of US chromebooks sales are in education as of right now.

However, there is a growing concern that the short life-spans and lack of repairability of Chromebooks will end up costing disricts more money in the long run than more expensive devices. Time will tell what the financial statements say but there is a valid concern about Chromebooks contributing to a growing amount of E-waste.

Fortunately we do things in a productive and economically friendly way in Westside where we minimize our E-waste footprint while being fiscally responsible. I'll go over a little later how we handle repairs, recycling and insurance.

The wild success of Chromebooks in education is really due to two major factors. The first is that most school districts utilize Google products and services, and with a heavy google environment Chromebooks are a very easy and seamless addition. The second is the ease of use and functionality of Chromebooks in regards to how students use them in a school setting.

They are simple, straight forward and powerful enough to handle any kind of workload asked of a student, from first grade right up to a high school senior. Whether it's writing papers, watching a video, or using Google Classroom. This changes when students graduate into college and university level education as their academic demands become more involved and complex.

Elementary Schools

Our approach to how our 1st through 5th graders use Chromebooks differs from how we handle them at the middle and high school grade levels. Where WSMS and WSHS are what we call one-to-one (meaning chromebooks are assigned and go home with individual students) the elementary schools have carts that house Chromebooks appropriate for their classroom size. Our current model is enough chromebooks for each student in a class plus two more to spare.

If you work in an elementary school and have a chromebook cart and are expecting a new student during the school year, all you need to do is put a ticket in with IT and let us know you're getting a new student and we will make that accommodation.

Throughout the year classroom chromebooks are going to have issues. It could be that they do not turn on, the camera stops working, a screen breaks or keys fall off. A lot of the things that happen at the elementary level are relatively easy to fix or repair.

Middle and High Schools

When it comes to WSMS and WSHS our approach to Chromebooks is a bit different. Where we address individual tickets for chromebook issues for 1st through 5th grades, with the middle and high schools we show up about every two weeks with a few stacks of repaired chromebooks!

Because of the larger student bodies who are one-to-one with their Chromebooks, issues with them happen at an exponentially faster rate. To help us with this both the middle school and high school have Chromebook liaisons. Para-professionals that do basic troubleshooting and when that fails swap out the chromebook for the student then and there. The broken ones go into a pile with a note and when their pile of repaired chromebooks begins to get low and the problem chromebooks get higher we then get a ticket.

From there we load a small cart with around 30 or so chromebooks and drop them off to their respective libraries while taking back with us their stacks of non-working chromebooks for repair and the cycle repeats itself.

Repairs and Recycling

That image to the left there? That's where the magic happens! And by magic I mean a lot of lost screws, swearing and wondering if replacing the camera will fix the issue this time when you know, deep down, you're going to need to change out the whole camera cable.

I found it kinda funny reading some articles on Chromebooks in preparation for this blog topic and seeing that their repairability is often used as a detractor for them.

In my experience they are very repair friendly, at least in terms of actually swapping out various parts.

Some of the plastic hooks and things that keep Chromebooks together can be quite fickle, but I think perhaps because of the overall cost and sheer amount of them in any given district they would soon chuck them and buy another then repair.

In Westside though, we don't go that route. Maintaining, managing and repairing chromebooks is one of the biggest areas that we work on in our department. We make sure that we get the most life out of those little machines that we can before retiring them from the fleet.

But when it is time to retire a chromebook along with any of their older, broken parts we don't just toss them in the trash so they can sit in a landslide contributing to E-waste. The last several years we have contracted with UpCycle to come in and pick up our surplus of chromebook material to be recycled responsibly.

Repairs and recycling is one way that we ensure we are getting the most out of our chromebooks as well as being economically responsible. The other…

Insurance

With middle school and high school being one-to-one with their Chromebooks, it becomes the personal responsibility of those students to look after their chromebook. On the one hand this helps teach them the value and importance of personal responsibility and taking care of your things. On the other hand, kids will be kids. We know and we expect chromebooks to break or stop working, especially when they are going home with students. Accidents happen! To help with the financial cost of buying, maintaining and repairing chromebooks we offer our own in house insurance option that parents of students can opt in or out of.

By opting in, the parent pays a flat fee for the year ($30 by doing it online, $40 if in cash) that covers...

Broken screens
Spills
Missing keys
Natural disaster
Damage from electrical surges
Theft

What it does NOT cover...

Normal wear and tear
Intentional damage

But what is intentional damage? Basically we gauge this based on what we know of Chromebooks as well as obvious signs. Gouges, cuts, coloring in and on the Chromebook would be intentional. Missing keys pop off all the time, but what does not easily come off is the rubber contact underneath the plastic key. Those need to be intentionally peeled off, and once gone the whole keyboard needs replacing.

If a student is not insured and an accident or damage occurs to the chromebook the cost towards the parent comes in the form of labor and parts. The same process is used for intentional damage. We take pictures of all damage, document everything and assess the total cost of repair. The cost of this goes towards the students unpaid fees and the parent or guardian has until graduation to pay it or dispute it.

By self insuring and recuperating some of the costs in buying, maintaining and repairing our chromebooks we are ensuring we are being as fiscally sound as we can. This means that every year we are able to purchase a bulk order of brand new chromebooks to replace older phased out models or just ones that are beyond repair.

Tips and Tricks

So, I'd love to end this blog post with a handful of useful tips and tricks that you can use when one of your students chromebooks starts to act up. Sometimes these won't work and you'll need to put a ticket anyways but it's worth giving it a shot and saving yourself the trouble!

Soft Reset (REFRESH + POWER) - This is our go to move. Resolves most isses 90% of the time. From blank or black screens, not turning on or frozen.

Caps Lock (ALT + SEARCH) - If a student says that all their letters are all in caps, try this. Chromebooks don't have a caps lock button like laptops do, but they do have a keyboard shortcut for it.

Change language (CTRL + SHIFT+ SPACE) - A very common issue that happens is when the keys start typing in either another language or the character coming up does not corrospond with the key being pressed. A lot of the time this is becaue the language was changed from "US" to "CO" or something else. A quick key combination to cycle through these is ctrl+shift+space.

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