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Reddit’s r_k12sysadmin Credits: @r_channels @reddit2telegram
Preventing AI use in essay writing strategies on iPad
I imagine by now we've all had teachers worry their students will use ChatGPT to write their essays. Luckily we're not trying to ban it.
What we are being asked to do is offer a test environment that prevents use of AI in writing an essay without changing too much for students.
We use iPads and Google Classroom.
This is proving difficult.
- We looked into tools like the lockdown browser, but they require integration with a LMS and we only use Google Classroom which they do not support.
- Teachers have asked to disable Wi-Fi on their iPads via MDM, but that seems like a one way switch we couldn't undo and would not permit them to email/upload the essay when done.
- Teachers locked students into the Google Docs app so they couldn't use a browser, but they came prepared with already typed essays in another doc and copy/pasted them into the assignment.
- Teachers asked for laptops without internet access and would accept assignments via flash drive but students brought their own flash drives with already written essays to copy/paste.
I'm in the camp that says we cannot, without teacher supervision, 100% prevent use of AI if a student is that dedicated to cheating, but we're still trying to come up with better solutions.
I'm wondering what solutions you have all had success with, specifically with students using iPads and Google Classroom as the only LMS..
https://redd.it/18mdjsj
@r_k12sysadmin
AI for Students (9-12)
So we are a high school district and there has been interest in opening up AI for students. Because they are under 18 that seems to take Google Bard out of the mix. I assume ChatGPT is also limited due to this. Is anyone else here opening this up for students to use? If so, what are you using? Are there even any K12 friendly ones out there yet?
https://redd.it/18m3u1a
@r_k12sysadmin
Azure AD and Google workspace
Hello
How many of you have Azure as the IDP for your Google workspace?
How many have Workspace as your IDP for Azure?
Why or why not?
Or do you do something completely different?
https://redd.it/18lorbl
@r_k12sysadmin
Windows 11 InTune syncing failed - The sync could not be initiated (0x80072efe)
Hello all,
We appear to be having an issue with InTune in our Co-Managed environment. We were thinking it was tied to the recent feature update to 23H2 but even on a freshly imaged 22H2 machine, we are seeing the issue. On the Settings -> Accounts -> Access work or school -> Device Sync Status we are seeing "The sync could not be initiated (0x80072efe)" and on the Company Portal Settings -> Sync we are seeing "Sync Failed".
Looking at the IntuneManagementExtension logs, we are seeing "[IsWebExceptionRetryable\] web exception status = ReceiveFailure" followed by a "[SendWebRequestInternal\] Web Exception occurs when sending network request, it's retryable, the exception is System.Net.WebException: The underlying connection was closed: An unexpected error occurred on a receive. ---> System.IO.IOException: Unable to read data from the transport connection: An existing connection was forcibly closed by the remote host. ---> System.Net.Sockets.SocketException: An existing connection was forcibly closed by the remote host".
Is there a different log we should be checking or is there a certain error we should be on the lookout for? We are definitely stumped on this one so any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance!
https://redd.it/18ljk9i
@r_k12sysadmin
Securly Issues - 12-18-2023
Just a head's up - there's been a outage listed on the console -> https://securly.status.io/
​
December 18, 2023 8:47AM EST
December 18, 2023 1:47PM UTC
[Identified\] Our engineers are moving the US East Cluster into CIPA Compliance Mode while they investigate an issue with filtering on the cluster
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And it just got a little worse:
December 18, 2023 1:51PM EST
December 18, 2023 6:51PM UTC
[Identified\] Some customers may now be seeing issues with SmartPAC traffic and the Filter UI not loading
​
Console doesn't load for me at this time
​
https://redd.it/18litcc
@r_k12sysadmin
K12TechPro Announcement - Regional Meetups are happening!
The K12TechPro Community along with the K12 Tech Talk podcast will conduct regional K12TechPro Meetups, a great opportunity for K12 Tech Depts to come together and talk tech. We’ll deep dive into trending technology topics and issues. We hope /k12sysadmin will join as well!
https://k12techpro.com/regional-meetups/
Registration is open for:
Midwest – Columbia, MO – March 7th and 8th, 2024
West – San Diego, CA – April 19th, 2024
Southwest – Dallas, TX – May 31st, 2024
https://redd.it/18lhak9
@r_k12sysadmin
Chromebooks having connection issues, fixed by a static IP?
As of the last 2 months, I have been getting more and more reports from not only staff but also students that the Chromebooks our school use are having horrible connectivity. When I go and add them to a static IP via our Apple Server DHCP it almost always fixes this issue. What could be causing this?
https://redd.it/18ldskx
@r_k12sysadmin
Intune Licensing?
We have grandfathered Office 365 A1 Plus for Faculty and Students which essentially gives our org free O365 along with desktop versions of office. However, I'm looking into setting up Intune to manage devices and from what I can see Microsoft really wants you to just buy A3 or A5 licensing which we already essentially have for free. Does Microsoft offer an Intune only tier with educational pricing?
https://redd.it/18lace0
@r_k12sysadmin
GoGuardian reopening browser
We do state testing and GoGuardian is reopening the browser(both Edge and Chrome) which is detected by testing software resulting in the students being logged out. Where do I toggle this GG functionality so I can temporarily turn it off? We run a Microsoft environment.
I’ve tried contacting GG support for an assist and they pointed to GPO or config profiles. Couldn’t find it in either locations.
https://redd.it/18l0kwo
@r_k12sysadmin
Printing from skyward PAC
It’s been a long time since I had to set this up. Replaced a PC for the bookkeeper.
She used to be able to print from inside skyward PAC to the local printer. Now she is unable to do it. The Citrix ICA is installed on the PC but I feel like I’m missing a driver or some local printer forwarding.
TIA
https://redd.it/18j0l89
@r_k12sysadmin
Have you found a successful way to block hotspots for devices? (on macbooks)
I know they're basically indistinguishable from other wifi networks, but I have read about some scripts that can lock the macbooks in to a specific wifi network if it can be seen. This seems good because in theory it'll lock them in while at school but not lock them when our wifi network can't be found.
Has anyone successfully tried anything similar? I'd love to hear if anyone got it working past a theoretical script. I get a bit nervous with scripts because I know if there's an issue it can blow up with problems all at once.
https://redd.it/18j0na5
@r_k12sysadmin
How can we limit Azure logins on chromebooks to a specific network
I will try to make this as clear as possible in note form
We have a Google Workspace domain as well as an Azure domain.
All of our Azure users are imported into our Google Workspace domain.
Students and Staff sign into our managed chromebooks using their Azure credentials and are not able to sign in with their old Google Workspace accounts which have now been disabled.
Users see the SSO login prompt on the screen of a chromebook rather than the usual Chromebook login screen.
The chromebooks are configured in the admin console to allow a single Azure user to login, that single user has access to the google play store and Minecraft Edu has been pushed and pinned for that user on the chromebook. User data is not deleted upon logout and the login screen is set so the username is already populated and cant be changed.
The user can only type in the password for the prepopulated user and sign in.
This is all to allow the students to explore a special project built in Minecraft.
We want to try and protect the Azure account. Students will have the password for the account and we want to make sure that it does not get abused.
We are trying to make sure that the account cant be signed into from devices other than these chromebooks at the networks that will be used.
Most of the Microsoft services and apps have been disabled so students cant sign into email and send messages to other students or staff.
We do have conditional access blocking sign ins from non approved networks and this is blocked if you try and sign into the Office portal from a web browser on a phone or computer on an outside network but if you tether a chromebook to the phone and try to sign into the chromebook using the azure account, the login is not blocked. But once you sign into the chromebook and are still on a network blocked by conditional access you cant sign into the office portal using that same account.
We called MS but they did not seem to be able to help us get anywhere and said it had something to do with Google.
It is almost like the conditional access does not protect signing into a device but does protect signing into the portal.
https://redd.it/18jecdi
@r_k12sysadmin
Network hardware choices
We'll be up for renewal in about a year and change. We currently use Meraki and are experiencing some indigestion. Sure, the "single pane of glass" view is nice, but our department is savvy enough to do without that anyway and to log into whatever interfaces we need to. I'm interested in seeing how much money we might potentially save our department/district if we went with another provider. I'm currently interested in possibly:
1) Barracuda
2) Juniper Mist
3) Fortinet
4) Mikrotik (but are they available e-rate?)
My remaining question is, once we renew with either Meraki or go with someone else, do we need to design our own network, or is that done by whatever contractor we go with? Thanks.
https://redd.it/18j9y8k
@r_k12sysadmin
Episode 147 talks about the Nintendo Switch post, burnout, cell phone blocking paint, and more
We start with a listener email about a teacher using nickel-based paint to block cell and WiFi signals in their classroom (as posted on the K12TechPro Community). We also discuss a Reddit thread about allowing a Nintendo Switch on the school network. We highlight the top stories of 2023, including artificial intelligence usage and readiness, cybersecurity concerns and the shift to data exfiltration in ransomware attacks, and the burnout experienced by tech directors and CIOs in a post-pandemic world.
Available here https://k12techtalkpodcast.com/e/episode-147-top-stories-of-2023/ and all major podcast platforms.
https://redd.it/18j8et1
@r_k12sysadmin
Christmas Adventures
Just listending to Ep 147 of the Tech Talk podcast, with the series of events around a Christmas tree decoration in a classroom (and laughing my way through this tale).
Got me thinking, what seasonal fun (or not so fun) things do you see going on in rooms?
For me, I'd say about 30% of my staff do not know how their Epson interactive projector works, and inevitably string lights underneath the touch sensor (leading to the inevitable ticket of "the touch on my projector doesn't work!" and some user education) :)
https://redd.it/18j5hxp
@r_k12sysadmin
Charter School Groups
Hey all,
Is anyone aware of any groups specific to charter school tech leaders? While this group is very helpful, there are some things, like funding, that are very different for charters. Also, if there's anything for Minnesota charter schools, that'd be ideal.
Also, any other Subreddits/Google Groups/Forums that you all might know about for school tech leaders would be appreciated.
Thanks,
https://redd.it/18m6zw5
@r_k12sysadmin
PA through soft phone app?
Hello all,
I am looking for a problem that can run the PA through soft phone. We have a computer that is set up for the bell system through analog speakers. We are trying to set up announcements through the analog speakers as well, but the computer is a storage closet.
Is there a program I can create the computer a sip extension and we can set to auto answer and have the announcements through the analog speakers?
https://redd.it/18leeso
@r_k12sysadmin
Google Spellchecking not working for some students
We have all different school types in their own OU as far as students go, High School, Middle and Elementary School. I got a report from a special ed teacher today that some kids are bringing her work with tons of spelling and grammatical errors that aren't getting flagged by Docs. When she loads them on her PC, the are red lines everywhere. She looked on a students laptop and there were no red lines on the students screen at all. Why would spellcheck work for some OUs and not others, or certain users in one OU and not the rest? Thanks.
https://redd.it/18lgcwk
@r_k12sysadmin
Google Drive Retrieval
Hi guys,
There is a student at one of the schools in the district I work for that is currently a senior that took a semester off (spring 2023) to attend an Independent Art School but is now back at the school. Besides taking that one semester off this student has been at the school since their freshman year. A teacher is saying "they are unable to see any of their work from years past in their google drive." Is this possible to restore to gain access to their schoolwork from years past? I messed around in Google Vault but it's only letting me retrieve items from this school year even when I apply the search to retrieve results dating back to 2019. Anyways, if anyone has information regarding this I would appreciate it. Thank you.
https://redd.it/18lkvp0
@r_k12sysadmin
Campus Consortium Foundation
Has anybody worked with the Campus Consortium Foundation? They sound like a good organization to work with so far, I just want to make sure I'm not signing a deal with the devil.
https://redd.it/18lhjkh
@r_k12sysadmin
YouTube inconsistency
Hello!
I'm wondering if there are any better ideas than I've had out there on how to deal with YouTube.
How we used to deal with it: it was completely blocked on our network but students who are allowed to take their Chromebooks home with them could access it from home still.
Our teachers and admin would love for everyone to be able to use the YouTube features built into Classroom that allow for assigning videos, having them pause, ask questions, and continue on.
My solution, though I'm quickly finding holes in it, was to turn off YouTube as a service through the Google admin console which would mean students should get a message that they don't have access to the service when they try to go to www.youtube.com or any other direct video link. I have it also set that they cannot add additional accounts to the Chromebook or sign into non-school accounts of any kind and have it set so that it requires the user to be logged into the browser for it to work at all. When I went to the video assignments in Classroom, they would still all play as embedded videos inside of Classroom. I tested this on about a dozen users (one from each grade OU) and it seemed to work as intended.
After rolling this out...it doesn't seem to work as intended with any consistency. On some students when I log in as them and go to www.youtube.com it will just take me to the site as a user that isn't signed in and allow them to surf anonymously. My understanding is that with the settings that I had set up, that it should force them to be logged in to their school Google account which would make it so they get a message that the service isn't available to them.
I'd say the number of students where it takes them to a signed-out YouTube page are fewer than those where it is working as I'd like where they get an error message, but I just can't tell where the inconsistency is. It will even behave differently for folks inside the same OU so I know their settings are the same.
Has anyone dealt with this before? Are there better ideas to allow videos in Classroom but restrict free access to YouTube. I have a case open with Google to see why it's inconsistent but I have very little faith in their ability to even understand what is wrong, despite me making a step by step video for them.
https://redd.it/18leu03
@r_k12sysadmin
Explorer and task bar appear to be breaking
So this issue is slowly spreading. Basically users are reporting that after are a reboot their machine comes backup, but the task bar is completely blank with the exception of the little arrow that shows running applications. Clicking on the arrow does open the little window and you can see the various applications. Aside from that though, the task bar is blank. sfc scan and all that finds no errors, and thus it makes no difference. Task manager doesn't show anything out of the ordinary spiking on usage. Stopping the explorer service and restarting makes no difference.
This is happening on various generation laptops, but does seem limited to Windows 11. Uninstalling the most recent windows updates bring back some of the functions, but the machine just doesn't seem to run well. A full reinstall of windows, deleting everything on the machine to do the reinstall, and the taskbar issue persists. The only way I've been able to get the machine back up is to use recovery media from the OEM.
Has anyone else seen this?
https://redd.it/18lbzcy
@r_k12sysadmin
CBox/Cbook and Youtube Audio Issues
We have Chromeboxes connected to Promethean Active Panels via HDMI and will occasionally get users reporting no audio when trying to stream youtube video. They will try a different video and things start working. Noticed this also happens when chrome casting, which appears much worse (audio stutters). Anyone else with these types of issues?
https://redd.it/18l98ah
@r_k12sysadmin
Dell latitude 5420 blank screen
We have had 15 so far of our new dell laptops have the screen fail... Anyone else having this issue? Dell replaces the LCD and the cooling Everytime. We have even had a repeat failure. They are 11th Gen Intel so they do run hot. I even tried placing one in the stay cool bios profile but it also failed.
Tldr; does the 5420 have LCD issues or do we have a bad batch?
https://redd.it/18k153z
@r_k12sysadmin
Dry Erase Markers on LCD Screen TV
Just found out one of my teachers have been using their Consumer 85" LCD TV as a whiteboard.
They are writing directly on the screen with dry erase markers.
Honestly, I was pretty shocked at first, but I wondered if anyone else has heard of someone else doing this. Obviously, I am not a fan of writing directly on the screen as that is applying pressure and could crack the screen. But I was wondering if anyone had experience with the markers chemicals breaking down the screens cover etc.
Is this just a bad idea or is it REALLY A BAD IDEA?
https://redd.it/18j11xe
@r_k12sysadmin
RedMike batteries.
anyone have Lightspeed RedCat systems that use the special battery in the RedMike? Has anyone tried a normal NiMH rechargeable? I am a little concerned about the big band around the bottom of the battery. There does seem to be a little pin next to the normal battery spring that would touch this band.
https://lightspeed-tek.com/products/aa-nimh-rechargeable-battery-redmike/
https://redd.it/18j68qj
@r_k12sysadmin
Cybersecurity Tabletop exercises
Just out of curiousity how many of you have done a tabletop exercise? Did you involved your local police? What did your exercise (not your plan, just the test) look like?
https://redd.it/18j6dhy
@r_k12sysadmin
Was enlightened on a new way to cheat Lockdown Browser on Windows 11
So it turns out that students taking tests on Windows 11 machines can press the Windows button+Tab to bring up the extra desktops you can set up and have one be the exam and the other be Google or Chat GPT or whatever and flip back and forth. Is there a way to disable that feature?
https://redd.it/18j6drh
@r_k12sysadmin
anywhere cart ac-lite
Is anyone else using these carts? I believe that they were deployed over the summer, but we are getting multiple reports that the laptops are not charging or have not charged fully overnight.
Previously, the thought was that the USB-C chargers had gone bad. I've personally replaced at least 3 carts full of chargers from USB-C to barrel-and-pin style.
This week 3 more tickets came in for a replacement of charger.
I'm curious if the problem is with carts, not the chargers.
https://redd.it/18j7tdr
@r_k12sysadmin
Colored 1.5ft HDMI
Monoprice just informed me they are discontinuing their colored HDMI cables due to lack of demand. Where have you gone to purchase anything like this? I found cmple.com but am unsure of the quality.
https://redd.it/18j3bgq
@r_k12sysadmin