1:1 Contribution schemes for schools

Haptic Networks have worked extensively with Education since we began trading in 2007 - we've seen many innovations in technology but none have excited us as much as Chromebooks. For those that know, Chromebooks are simple to use, fast and low-cost devices for schools. They provide a wide range of education resources. All Chromebooks come with a Google License (Formally known as Google Apps for Education.) This is a suite of free applications which includes: word processing, spreadsheet work, presentation, calendar and G-Mail. These are all designed with school children and the classroom in mind.

Working alongside our finance partner, we assist schools and colleges in the deployment of G Suite and Chromebooks. Offering a parental contribution scheme that puts the devices in the hands of pupils so that they can benefit from their use at home as well as the classroom. For more information visit our partner's site here

Haptic Networks Google Learning Festivals are "much better than school"

Google learning festival
Google learning festival

by Darrell Raynard, Cloud Services Specialist

If you don't know what a Google Learning Festival is, it's an education programme created to help end-users understand the power of Chromebooks in the classrooms and see the impact on the real users of the technology - the learners.

After seeing teachers and leadership staff coming to other IT channel events and being talked 'at' all day, with no context or application being delivered to them, we identified the gap in getting the message and value across to the learners and BANG! - the Haptic Networks Google Learning Festivals were born.

youtube lnk
Click here for YouTube interview

Friday, 8 November 2019:

" It's not often I'm excited to be out my front door in the freezing cold at 5:30 am, but today was another one of our Google Learning Festivals at the awesome Google reference school Aylesbury High School. So with my other half's travel mug “borrowed” and not nearly enough coffee in it I was merrily on my way.

09:00: After wrestling with the slightly frustrating marketing stand, and getting a superb amount of support from Caroline and the team at Aylesbury High School, the kids and their teachers started to file in. Everyone collected there own Wonde magic badge and sat at one of the 4 colour coded desks in front of a Lenovo 300e Chromebook for them to use for the tasks at hand.

learners
Click here for the YouTube Video

We told everyone to login using the Wonde badge by holding it up to the camera and in the words of one of the kids, Boom I'm in, that was easy!. After a brief play around with Google experiments, our Google guides, Hardeep and Joe from Tablet Academy UK, got everyone started on the tasks:

All of the tasks and resources were distributed to students using Google Classroom, with instructions in Google sites. Learners were allowed to work at their own pace and explore the tools independently and with their peers.

I'm always in awe of the feedback and soundbites we get from teachers and learners who come to these events, you can see for yourself from the video testimonials included in this blog why we love doing them.

teachers
Click here to view the Youtube video

In summary, today we hosted 50 learners from Years 6 - 8 and there wasn't a moment in the day where they were disengaged or looked to be at a loss with the technology.

The Haptic Networks Google Learning Festivals are always well-received, senior leaders and learners alike are inspired and excited about the possibilities available to them, and I have a fulfilling day at the office. "

Till next time,

Darrell Raynard

Cloud Services Specialist

Interested in hosting a Google Learning Festival with us?

Please click below to register your interest

New G Suite Services

G Suite is a monster. Currently taking the world by storm, utilising lower cost hardware (in the form of Chromebooks and Chromeboxes) G Suite is improving productivity, reducing repetitive workloads and improving student outcomes at hundreds of thousands of learning establishments. Our journey with all things G Suite began way back in 2015, since then Haptic Networks have been pioneers in how Education and businesses learn to adopt the applications, providing specialised consultancy and support to users adopting the technology.

Today we're proud to unveil our newest range of G Suite Services :

Origin , Launch, Migrate

Designed to assist with different user cases, here's a quick overview.

Origin

Optimised for schools working with a limited budget, Origin acts as a starting point for any G Suite journey. The base package is offered at £895, for a full breakdown of the service and what it includes take a look at the dedicated page here.

Launch

Our Launch service covers all of the vital areas required for a successful G Suite adoption project. It takes a modular approach to helping any site that wants to adopt G Suite and requires our expert advice. More details on the service can be found here.

Migrate

Designed to tackle one of the more problematic elements of switching an email system from Microsoft Office or Office 365. Migrate is a project offering that takes the hassle, risk and headache out of planning and executing a successful migration. Breakdown of the service in more detail here.

We're currently using these services to offer support and consultancy to Schools, Colleges and businesses around the world, we'd be happy to hear more about your current plans or projects involving G Suite. Say hi using this quick form

G Suite Case Study - South Wirral High School

For more case studies and information around G Suite and Chromebooks click here to visit our dedicated microsite 

Jamboard - I think, therefore I Jam

At the beginning of 2016 my colleague Nathan and I had a sneak peak of the brand new Google Jamboard at the BETT show, it was so secretive that we were ushered into a secret room on the stand itself where only one person was allowed to present to a maximum of three people and we had to sign an NDA before we could be wowed by the awesomeness that the Jamboard evoked.

In return for our silence we were greeted with a beautiful 55-inch whiteboard style 4k display with very striking red and white colour scheme surrounding.  It wasn't cluttered by wires save the single cable, and the tools consisted of a stylus and an eraser that were both passive and didn't need 50 more batteries than my sons toys will this Christmas.  It was clean, it was vibrant, but did it actually function as well as it looked?

Short answer...Yes, Using the actual hardware was intuitive and very easy, making something bigger was a simple pinch out gesture, the pencil was natural to use and next to no lag meaning even my infantile drawings looked half competent.  Perhaps one of the most impressive parts included in the Jamboard experience is its machine learning aspect, there is nothing more satisfying than drawing a wonky looking circle on the board and watching it turn it into a perfect circle for you.

So do you HAVE to buy a Jamboard to enjoy what the Jamboard service has to offer?

Short answer No...Google has continued with Jamboard their phenomenal ability to create simple, easy to use solutions that just work, and have them collaborate with the core apps which we all know and love in G Suite such as Drive, Docs, Sheets and Slides.  Add to this the fact that you can use the Jamboard app on a phonetabletChrome device running android, or the web means the ability to bring in multiple students both in and outside the classroom is as simple as pushing the app out through your G Suite admin console.

Google are in the next few weeks making the Jamboard service a core G Suite service for G Suite domains, if you haven't yet tried the Jamboard service out yet it's definitely worth exploring for yourself Jamboard Help Centre

G Suite for Education Event - Review

Brexit leads to Schools ICT cost increases. Here's our solution

Schools and Colleges are facing price hikes of over 10% after tech-Giants blame post-Brexit exchange rates.

2016, the year that just keeps giving.

Not only the year in which we've sadly witnessed the death of many a great name in entertainment, we've also sat back and watched the demise of Great Britain's future place within the EU. Whatever your political stance, it was inevitable that via genuine (or other spurious)  reasons that someone stood to capitalise.

Now many industries are bracing themselves for the knock-on effect of a weaker pound, not least those involved in Education and ICT. With Microsoft, Apple, Lenovo, HP and Dell all announcing recent price increases, Microsoft headlining them with a staggering 22% increase on some of its cloud services.

Research conducted in this article highlights that this could amount to £20,000 increase annually for a secondary school!

Mark Orchison, managing director of 9ine Consulting, said: “From the day after Brexit there were noises from suppliers about the expected increase in cost for ICT equipment and software.

“What is now transpiring is a general move by manufacturers and suppliers to enforce price increases.

“Without a change in currency values, I believe schools are likely to see upwards of a 10 per cent increase in their ICT overall budget in the next 12 months, and in many cases, the cost increases are must-haves – such as Microsoft licensing, replacing PCs and servers. These will be unfunded costs that schools need to cover.”

In light of the above (and to avoid the typical 'doom and gloom' scenario favoured most by the press) we at Haptic have been working on turning this news into a positive action.

Our solution? Consider Chrome devices and G Suite (Formerly Google Apps for Education). With Chromebooks and Chrome Devices offering an already hefty 75% discount in terms of ROI, any price increases from big vendors will certainly make Chromebooks are more palatable option.

Likewise, with Microsoft set to massively increase the cost of licensing to education - we are currently working with hundreds of schools to highlight how using G Suite will significantly reduce spend as it is completely  free to Education.

Add to that our 1:1 parental contribution schemes and leasing options and you have before you a veritable armada of options to help deliver the ICT solutions your school needs, even in a post-brexit environment.

What next?       We await the impact of Trump's presidency (will it be dubbed 'Trump-In'?)

Google Apps Is Now G Suite

Google announced today the new name for Google Apps – G Suite.

Here’s how the changes will take shape:

Google For Work is now Google Cloud

Google Apps for Work -  now called G Suite

Google Apps for Education is G Suite for Education

The changes are in name only, the applications remain the same, no change to Gmail, Docs, Drive etc

Google have made the changes to better reflect their mission ‘to help people everywhere work and innovate together, so that your organization can move faster and achieve more.’

At Haptic we feel it’s a great move to improve the way the two aspects of Google’s offering align. We look forward to seeing future enhancements and developments in the coming months.

We will also be hosting another of our interactive Google sessions 29th November at Sheffield College, if you’d like to join us to learn more about the benefits and cost savings Google can provide – click here to contact us.


Read more about the changes on Google’s official blog

Smoothwall - Framlingham Update

The Framlingham update from Smoothwall introduces a new directory type, a new Safeguarding reporting suite and a simplified, easier to set up version of Connect for Chromebooks. The new directory type allows Chromebook users to be filtered based on their Google Apps group membership without the need to link an Active Directory to Google (using GADS).

The Safeguarding reporting suite allows customers to view and raise alerts on users who breached Safeguarding rule sets such as radicalisation, bullying and adult content.

Safeguarding

Safeguarding will become part of a suite of Smoothwall reporting features helping schools and educational establishments with their Safeguarding and Prevent Duty responsibilities regarding internet use. Safeguarding allows the System Administrator to run reports against users on their network for various time periods to show if they have breached any safeguarding rulesets.

Google as a Directory service

Google as a directory service allows user authentication and group mapping based on Google Apps accounts and group memberships. This new directory type can be used with Connect for Chromebooks to achieve filtering without the need for an AD or setting up Google Active Directory Sync.

Simplified Connect for Chromebooks

Connect for Chromebooks has been improved to reduce the number of setup steps required. The verification checks against the Google authentication service are now optional, and can be set up in the Google Developer Console. These verification checks are recommended if the Chromebook devices are not enrolled or fall under BYOD.

To find out more about Smoothwall products and releases click here to contact us