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Reddit’s r_k12sysadmin Credits: @r_channels @reddit2telegram
Is GoGuardian support typically really slow?
Opened a case Tuesday morning for an issue of my GAC not syncing in Go Guardian admin.
After initial support had me check a few settings in the GAC, they escalated the issue to their engineering team. This was around Tuesday at 9:00 am. Since then I have not heard anything other than the case is still open and the engineers are still working on it with no timeframe to a resolution.
I’ve never had an issue get escalated to the engineering team. Anytime I’ve reached out via support chat they were able to help me within minutes.
Has anyone had an issue like this before where the response from an engineering team was slower than expected?
Without being able to sync my GAC to GG Admin, I can’t roll out new devices to new accounts I’ve created in the GAC.
https://redd.it/1trij5u
@r_k12sysadmin
Lansweeper replacement?
Hi all,
We have been using Lansweeper for years. The product is great, but the price keeps going up. I'm wondering if anyone out there has found a similar product for less. One of our techs has been looking into Device42, but has had trouble getting a quote from them.
https://redd.it/1tr4d9u
@r_k12sysadmin
Deledao ?
Looking to possibly change from GoGuardian to Deledao? Looking for thoughts. Is it better/worse? Which is better? What about the teacher side?
Thanks in advance
https://redd.it/1tqnnp9
@r_k12sysadmin
Gemini for Workspace breaking spell check
Has anyone else run into an issue where Gemini for Workspace causes Google Docs spell check to stop working?
We had a student whose Docs lost the normal red squiggle spell check underlines entirely. I went through the usual troubleshooting:
Docs spelling/grammar settings
Chrome spell check settings
extensions
cache/profile reset
document language
different device/account tests
What finally fixed it for me was disabling Gemini for Workspace for the student OU.
I’ve now tested this twice:
Gemini OFF=spell check works immediately
Gemini ON=spell check fails
This is on managed Chromebooks.
Has anyone else seen this behavior? Curious if this is a known bug, an extension/policy interaction, or something specific to Education tenants
Would love to know if others can reproduce it.
ETA: I was having the same spell check issue on my account (Windows Device) and turned off Gemini for my OU and it started working.
https://redd.it/1tq8cjh
@r_k12sysadmin
Incident IQ SSO
Hi everyone,
We use ClassLink and we are currently implementing Incident IQ. I’m looking for insights on how others are successfully handling SSO. We are running into a few roadblocks trying to achieve a seamless login experience.
Here is what we’ve tried and the issues we're facing:
* ClassLink SSO: This option requires us to install an executable file with direct access to our AD server. Our security team has vetoed this.
* Microsoft Entra: We set this up, but it doesn't provide a true pass-through SSO. Users still have to click the tile in the ClassLink Portal, land on the iiQ login page, and manually click "Sign in with Microsoft."
* Form Post with Extension: This is our current workaround. It partially works, but it isn't seamless and fails for users who don't have the extension installed.
We operate a mixed Windows and Mac environment. Forcing a Microsoft sign-in at the machine level to smooth out the Entra route isn't a viable option for us right now.
Has anyone found a better method to achieve a true, 1-click SSO from ClassLink into iiQ? We are currently caught in a vendor loop (iiQ points to ClassLink, but ClassLink has already done everything on their end).
Any insights, alternative setups, or ideas would be greatly appreciated!
https://redd.it/1tq774n
@r_k12sysadmin
Solution for fillable Employment contracts
does anybody have a recommendation for a software that can allow us to create fillable forms and send out a generic shareable link to new employees so that they can fill out payroll related forms and then send back.
https://redd.it/1tpzphl
@r_k12sysadmin
Online tutoring recommendations?
I have a student who is leaving to travel for a year. His parents are great and don’t want us to provide a curriculum package for him but have asked for any recommendations for online tutoring platforms. Khanmigo came to mind but are there any other platforms out there that you would recommend? This is a kid in 6th grade who will be missing 7th grade to travel.
https://redd.it/1tpi3kz
@r_k12sysadmin
Public School Phone System
Good afternoon all,
We are in the process of quoting out a new phone system and require one more quote. We are in the middle GA area and just wanted some suggestions on any vendors? I am struggling to find another from the current ones I have.
Any suggestions would be amazing!!
Also, first post here after being accepted, glad to be here!
https://redd.it/1tpip0i
@r_k12sysadmin
"Imaging" recommendations for Windows?
Hi all,
We're a 98% Apple district, but we have a small subset of Windows devices that I have to maintain. I don't come from a Windows background by the way, I've been Apple/Jamf all my career. We're leveraging a hybrid environment with some GPOs and some Intune configurations, piloting some various patching softwares for most common apps like Browsers, Adobe, etc.
The one thorn in my side of the entire Windows environment is the STEM/PLTW labs (approximately 60 devices). During the summer, we typically re-image the labs and set them back up again. I put my foot down and said not this year. We're currently planning to just run a script to erase all the users outside the hidden admin account. The reason why I put my foot down was simply too many button clicks. Autodesk with network license? Manually installing each one. National Instrument apps? Constant UI interactions. Xlinx, now AMD? 15 different screens before it downloads for 2 hours and then more screens. We have at least 25 to 30 apps that almost all require a UI interaction.
While we use AD/Intune, do not have SCCM or FoG or any other deployment service. It's Intune (soon to be a patching platform) or hand install. Some of these I can't seem to even package properly for deployment because they require so many UI clicks without an MSI to work with. Things like PatchMyPC doesn't do base installs, only updates.
What are people using these days to build an image and just deploy? I'd be perfectly okay with just having like 10 external SSDs coping to the internal SSD of the machine. Whatever it takes to just not have to spend almost two weeks clicking.
https://redd.it/1topxvc
@r_k12sysadmin
2 decades are over, last one out turn off the lights
I have a lot of respect for everyone out there in this field working with\\supporting schools. If you would of asked me 2 decades ago would I work for a school or if I would of actively been vested in the student's success I would of laughed.
I haven't shared much in this sub, mainly as I didn't experience a lot of the challenges, both positive and negative. I've been running the IT for a private school successfully, navigated COVID and never had a data breach or student data leak out. Until recently I was just a lurker, but that changed with a changing of the guard with the school's leadership. It doesn't take much to discover post of mine seeking guidance from others, and I thank everyone for that.
Here I am, now decades into being the support, the Director, the problem solver and I am unfortunately leaving not when or how but because "leadership' has created an environment where I have compromised security best practices for the last time. Like I said you can see what some of the topics I've posted about in the past but for a quick hit list:
CFO Demanding admin access
CFO\\HoS demanding that their personal devices be allowed on the network
CFO\\HoS demanding that their school devices no longer be monitored
And the straw that really killed me, the leadership refusing to put funding into the building of a school lab for young students and instead spent 7k on 2 new Macs for themselves.
I'm going to button this post up, but I really want to say thank you, to all of you, for what you do in helping schools\\students. When you become a parent something changes and you start hoping to leave things better than you found for the next generation. I tried and I was doing it but I ultimately failed. I'm sharing this as closure for myself, thank you for indulging me. I'm leaving this sector, I wish everyone the best.
https://redd.it/1tonvc2
@r_k12sysadmin
1990s Rauland Telecenter V - TD5 software?
https://redd.it/1tok20q
@r_k12sysadmin
Anyone else having GoGuardian OU import/sync issues ?
This morning I tried manually importing our OU’s. I received an error stating my import failed and to check settings that I have confirmed are correct a number of times, even with the support of GG customer service. Wasn’t sure if anyone else came across this issue or there is some setting deep in the admin panel I may be missing? Thanks so much for any feedback!
https://redd.it/1to9j4e
@r_k12sysadmin
Carpal Tunnel
Just curious what you or your users might be using for carpal tunnel syndrome. Are you using a vertical mouse or a gel wrist rest?
Just exploring solutions for myself. Thanks
https://redd.it/1to4cvl
@r_k12sysadmin
AI Visibility - iboss
Maybe a dumb question, but how much GenAI visibility do districts actually have today?
Not “we allow/deny ChatGPT.” I mean genuinely knowing what AI tools students and staff are using, especially with encrypted traffic and all the new tools popping up every week.
Are people feeling pretty covered here, or is this still a big blind spot?
I work for iboss and offer complete visibility into AI. Wondering what a good approach would be to get my foot in the door with y’all before the fiscal year resets.
https://redd.it/1tl1lt5
@r_k12sysadmin
Lenovo Chromebook Selection: Duet 9 vs Chromebook i
Hey everybody, I've read a few of the older posts about the Lenovo Duet line of Chromebooks. They seem rather positive.
I was wondering if anybody has had experience with both the 'standard' clamshell types (we've been using the 300e) vs this detachable keyboard style.
Am I overthinking that they will be prone to more breakage due to it being detachable? Or maybe less due to no hinges breaking?
We like Lenovo so we'd like to stick with them but unsure on the Duet vs Chromebook i selection...
Grades 7-12 is the environment.
Thanks for any feedback!
https://redd.it/1tkl0og
@r_k12sysadmin
ChromeOS LTS 144 Updates
I moved our Chromebooks from LTS 138 to stable 144 (for state testing) and recently back over to LTS 144. Everything seemed to be fine, they installed 144.0.7559.250 without issue, but .252 was released last Friday and it’s not showing as installed on any of my devices, which is unusual.
Policy looks fine, no conflicting settings that I can see and they’re set to roll out as soon as an update is available.
Is this happening to anyone else?
https://redd.it/1trdqbl
@r_k12sysadmin
Symbaloo malware - heads up!
Yesterday tickets started rolling in due to staff not being able to access Symbaloo for their bookmarks.
Turns out Cisco Umbrella, one of our web filters, flagged one of their cdns, cdn01.symbaloo.com, and blocked it. When it is opened outside of our filtering (personal device, off our network) it loads the page fine but antivirus on the computer throws a malware warning immediately.
Just wanted to mention it to see if anyone else has come across this as I can't really find any information anywhere else about it.
https://redd.it/1tr21mu
@r_k12sysadmin
HyperV - Exporting/saving current state without losing checkpoints
I'm new to HyperV, though I've been using VirtualBox for a few years.
I'm creating some "golden images" to use for new desktops and laptops that are part of our regular device rotation each summer. I've got a main golden image - let's call it "golden image A" - that I've exported so that I can add a custom app for a "golden image B" next.
My plan is to create deployable ISOs using VHD2ISO and then Rufus to make it bootable.
My "golden image A" is ready to go, short of running sysprep. I've created multiple checkpoints along the way, but the only checkpoint I really need to save is the most recent "pre-sysprep" checkpoint so that I can go back in periodically and run Windows update before making a updated ISO.
My question is this: How can I create a "post-syspep" stand-alone vhdx (with all the checkpoints deleted/merged/whatever), while also being able to get back into my original "golden image A" at its "pre-sysprep" checkpoint in a few months to run updates and repeat the process?
Thanks in advance...
https://redd.it/1tq7nci
@r_k12sysadmin
Papercut with KB5089549
Just a heads up since I just went through this...
We have devices on Win11 23/24/25H2 which use Papercut and mostly things work fine. With 25H2 and the recent KB5089549 installed Papercut will also work OK generally, however, if we try to use Group Policy to hide the settings page for printers then Papercut will no longer install printers automatically with that KB installed.
Our Toshiba rep mentioned that some of his larger customers were having other failed printer installs with Papercut if that KB was installed on 25H2. I'm not sure what combination of factors led to those failures since they were apparently not using that same group policy switch.
So I just wanted to put it out there that if you happen to have Papercut weirdness on devices running 25H2, specificallyu printer install failures, check to see if KB5089549 is installed and if so, uninstall it and see if that then allows printer installs to work. The rep mentioned that a few of his customers were trying to work with MS on a fix, I have no idea if that will come to frutiion, but after banging my head against the wall for a day and a half trying to sort it out I figured I would just make note of it here hoping it might help someone else.
https://redd.it/1tq95n3
@r_k12sysadmin
Go-Guardian and uncategorized "contextual-tasks"
We are seeing a lot of "contextual-tasks" in the uncategorized field of goguardian. We can't find any explanation for what they are. Has anyone seen this before? Gemini?
Thanks
https://redd.it/1tq35c5
@r_k12sysadmin
Looking for Thoughts on the Bretford CUBE Transport Cart and Transport Pro
We are looking at some cart options and came across the Bretford CUBE Transport Cart (https://www.bretford.com/solutions/charging-carts/cube-transport-cart/) and the Bretford Transport Pro (https://www.bretford.com/solutions/charging-carts/cube-transport-cart-pro/). I am interested if anyone has any experience with these carts.
I am working with our rep on them and he stated they had a pre-wired version of the Bretford CUBE Transport Cart available, but there are no images of that thing existing and I am curious what it looks like pre-wired.
I like the simplicity of these carts and the ability for teachers to quickly see that devices and all there a charging. Also, the foot print looks minimal compared to some of the classic carts.
https://redd.it/1tprcdx
@r_k12sysadmin
Has anybody switched to MacBooks because Windows laptops have gotten too expensive?
Our go to Windows 2in 1 laptop was $850-900 in the past. Now we are being quoted $1300 for a 512GB model. A MacBook Air M5 16GB/512GB is $899 currently. It is very tempting to switch back to MacBooks. I know the teachers would love it.
Is anyone planning to make the switch this year because of RAM/SSD prices increase?
https://redd.it/1tpj69y
@r_k12sysadmin
Can someone with Go Guardian help?
Long story short, Go Guardian will not sync and import the OU's from the GAC. I am in the midst of working with GG on the issue but everything settings wise looks good on my end and it just stopped syncing a few days ago. I have tried to manually sync with no luck and have noticed the daily auto-sync has not kicked in. Is anyone else having this issue? Or is anyone that has Go Guardian able to manually sync without issue? I am tying to pinpoint if the issue is on my end of theirs.
https://redd.it/1tp3c10
@r_k12sysadmin
GCPW and Classlink SSO
We use Classlink as our IDP for Google Workspace including the sign on screen and MFA features. I have been experimenting with GCPW to handle windows sign ins and whenever it's an account that uses the Classlink screen after they sign in using the Classlink screen it errors out. Works fine without Classlink.
Has anyone had luck getting this pairing to work?
https://redd.it/1tonhgf
@r_k12sysadmin
New Google Admin Quarantine Moderation Issues
It looks like the old admin quarantine interface is gone and the url loads to the new moderation queue. There are basic the design issues--instructions/information take up about 60% of the page making it really challenging to moderate a large number of emails at at time. I'm able to zoom way out on Chrome to see up to 10 messages, but that makes for slow going.
The main issue is there appears to be a glitch in the moderation itself which inaccurately applies the approval/denial to the wrong messages. I had about 100 messages to review today and denied 5 from the queue. The following 5 (that I wanted to review) disappeared from the list along with the 5 I denied. I checked the "denied" section, and all 10 had been denied despite clearly being unchecked originally.
It doesn't seem this tool is 100% ready for primetime, just a heads up if you're having issues with emails being denied that you didn't select or interact with in the moderation queue. I submitted a ticket to Google, not sure if that will have much of an impact.
https://redd.it/1toj21p
@r_k12sysadmin
Why is the Class of 2026 rejecting AI?
https://k12techtalkpodcast.com/e/graduation-booed-why-the-class-of-2026-is-rejecting-ai/ and all major podcast platforms
The main topic explores why recent commencement speakers have been booed when addressing AI. Josh, Chris, and Mark unpack students’ resentment, perceived academic hypocrisy (banning AI in coursework while urging graduates to use it in the workforce), fear over job displacement, and the pedagogical shifts already appearing in syllabi and assessment methods.
https://redd.it/1toip48
@r_k12sysadmin
The joys of stickers and glitter
What do you folks use for removing dense sticker residue and wiping off something as pesky as glitter from student devices? Thanks for any ideas.
https://redd.it/1to905r
@r_k12sysadmin
Chrome Devices
One of our campus administrators shared an article from a Norwegian Neuroscientist that showed how much more brain activity there is when students hand write vs typing. There has been a call for more handwriting capabilities for some time but I have been hesitant due to the increased purchase price and higher parts cost. Just wondering if anyone else has gone this direction? If so, what devices are you using? Lenovo has some affordable pen tablets, but they are Android and I would rather a chrome device.
https://redd.it/1tmjtk3
@r_k12sysadmin
Running Cables Through the Wall for IFPs
I am about to have a major wiring upgrade done at my school for ethernet (we moved into a building with no ethernet, and I am having over 100 drops put in) and at the same time I want to run HDMI and USB through the walls from the teacher's desk to the Prometheans we have in each classroom. Running HDMI over fiber through the walls is clear to me. We can definitely do that without issue, and even have HDMI wall plates at each location. But what is unclear to me is the USB piece. The Prometheans require a USB connection to enable touch capability.
If you have done this in your school, how did you do it?
https://redd.it/1tkmoub
@r_k12sysadmin
Phishing attempt beat our 2FA
Just wanted to share a situation we just had. We had 76 staff members who were shared a document from a user at a school in Tennessee, Wild, that was the first hack. It had our superintendent’s name on it talking about a payroll update. We had a user click the link in that doc that took them to a Google login window. The user couldn’t get logged in of course but at that point their password was stolen. Now the 2FA. The user assumes they will get a 2FA message now. And of course they did. But it wasn’t them. They clicked yes on allowing from their Google app.
Obviously the most secure for them would be yubikeys or passkeys. We haven’t gone that direction yet. But I know that sms messages is frowned upon due to lack of security. However in this case I’m not sure the user would have been duped to somehow give up the code because they would have never got the code or known who to give it to.
Careful out there everyone.
https://redd.it/1tk58aa
@r_k12sysadmin