Why Chromebook?
Chromebooks are used in classrooms and study spaces throughout the college. Built on Google’s Chrome OS, these machines are fast and require little maintenance compared to Windows or Mac equivalents. The feedback we’ve received from students and teachers is overwhelmingly positive. Consequently, the college decided to invest in more Chromebooks to expand the number available in departments to over 800.
- Speed is key: You can pick up a Chromebook, log in, and have full access to your content stored in Google’s cloud: whether it is saved apps, settings, web sites, or documents. Logging in is normally less than 10 seconds!
- Battery life: With 10 hours of battery life Chromebooks can last an entire college with power to spare.
- Secure by design: Chrome OS has been designed from the ground up with security in mind. Chromebooks use the principle of “defence in depth” to provide multiple layers of protection, so if any one layer is bypassed, others are still in effect.
- Updates: Chromebooks update themselves silently, automatically, and in the background. So, your device is always up to date.
- Android Apps: Google have recently announced that some touchscreen Chromebooks are able to run Android apps on your Chromebook. In fact, every Chromebook made in 2017 or later will have this ability. This merging of Chrome OS and Android really enhances the functionality of a Chromebook. It means you can use Android apps by Adobe, Microsoft and others to play games, create and edit files, or play music and movies. We plan to start deploying Android Apps later this year.
Chromebook Tour
Let’s take a tour of the essential features and elements of Chromebooks.
The Desktop
The display you see after logging in to a Chromebook. The desktop displays your open app windows.
The Shelf
The bar that sits at the bottom of the screen. It’s the equivalent of the Windows Taskbar or the Dock on Apple Macs. The shelf contains the System Tray, App Launcher, and quick-access icons for your most frequently used apps. The circle magnifying glass is located in the bottom left corner of your Chromebook. Clicking it gives you access to the App Launcher, where you can browse your installed apps or search the Internet. By default, we add many of the most used Google Apps to the shelf so you can quickly launch them. You can also pin your own apps to the shelf by right clicking the app and selecting pin to shelf.
The System Tray
Located in the bottom right corner of the desktop. It displays the time, current Wi-Fi strength, battery life, and your profile image. Click on the system tray to show more details: online connections, volume controls, help link, and the sign-out button.
Google Workspace for Education
Chromebooks are web-based and seamlessly integrate with your college Google Workspace for Education account. You can use your unlimited storage on Google Drive and access to Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, Forms, and Classroom.
Benefits of Google Workspace for Education include:
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- Collaborate: When you share a Google Docs file on your Google Drive, you and your collaborators can view and edit the file simultaneously.
- Share files: You can easily share any file on your Google Drive with anyone else in college.
- Your files available from anywhere: Files you put on your Google Drive are accessible to you from any computer that has a web browser and an internet connection.
- Unlimited Storage: You now have unlimited storage available to you on Google Drive. The only limit is the speed of your internet connection.
For more information and to access Google Apps visit Google Workspace for Education help page.
Drive
Unlimited storage, easy access from anywhere, and share files.
Docs
Create, edit, and share text documents.
Classroom
Access your classes and participate in assignments.
Home Directory and File Storage
Access your traditional college home drive using a Chromebook.
Your file storage on the College’s central file space is commonly known as your home directory or the H drive. You can access your traditional home drive by using Filr. Filr allows you to access your files and folders from a desktop, web browser or mobile device. Read our Filr Getting Started Guide to learn more.
It is important to give some thought to where you will store your documents. If you will predominately be working on Chromebooks the best option is to use Google Docs. This can be easily accessed from Chromebook, Windows PC, or Apple Mac. While you can access Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files using Filr, editing files created in these programs isn’t as seamless as Google Workspace for Education.
Google Cloud Print
Need to print to PrinterPool? You will need to setup and configure Google Cloud Print.
You can print to the PrinterPool from a Chromebook using Google Cloud Print. Your documents will be added to the PrinterPool queue ready for you to release with your ID card.
The PrinterPool is only available on Google Cloud Print when you are signed in to Google using your @barton.ac.uk account.
Before you print to the PrinterPool using Google Cloud Print, you must first add the PrinterPool to your list of printers on your college Google account. If you don’t, you will not see the PrinterPool as an available printer. You will only have to do this once.
- Go to PrinterPool on Google Cloud Print.
- Press the Add Printer button.
- Wait for the confirmation message and then go to www.google.com/cloudprint#printers to check that the PrinterPool is listed as an available printer.
Now that you have added the PrinterPool to Cloud Print, choose one of the guides below depending on your device.
- To print any of your open tabs or Google Docs, select Print… from the “3 dot” menu in the top right of the Chrome window or use the Ctrl+P shortcut. If you are working in Google Drive, you can find Print… in the File menu.
- Under Destination, click Change and select the PrinterPool from under the Google Cloud Print heading.
- Change any of the print options that you need to and hit Print.
Casting your screen to a Google Chromecast
Some projectors in the college are enabled with Google Chromecast to allow members of staff to project their Chromebooks instead of having to use a computer.
There are a growing number of teaching and meeting rooms that are equipped with Chromecast capabilities. Chromecast allows staff to wirelessly share the screens/content on their Chromebook, tablet or phone with the projector or TV screen in the room. It removes requirements for cables or adaptors when wanting to display a presentation or video from a mobile device. There are instructions on how to cast in the poster on the right of this page and also in each classroom a Chromecast is located.
The IT Knowledgebase provides more detailed information on how you can cast your Chrome tab, Chromebook screen or mobile device screen.
Click the + icon below to view the full list of classrooms and work areas enabled with a Google Chromecast device.
Chromecast Enabled Classrooms (Sept 2018)
A14 Conference Room
C7 Social Science
C27 Business & Law
H23b Photography
H32 Photography
H49 Humanities
H50 Humanities
H56 Humanities
H57 Humanities
H59 Humanities
H64 Humanities
H70 Humanities
L8 Library
Lecture Theatre
M44 IT Services
M50 Sport
M66 Psychology
N56 Maths
R12 Sport
R64 Akehurst
S10 (Teacher PC Enabled)
S70 Science
S75 Science (open access area)
