Mobile Computing

Google Explains How to Prep Chromebooks for Home Use

• By Dian Schaffhauser
• 03/18/20

As district IT teams prepare their Chromebooks to go home with students during school closures due to coronavirus, Google has developed some text resources to help them make the changes needed to those devices.

For example, administrators can restrict device access to only being used with managed student accounts and set "off hours" when students can sign in with their personal accounts. They can also use blacklists to set content limitations on websites and ensure students stay within the parameters of the responsible-use policies they have to follow on campus. And they can enable programs for various activities that might be useful for schoolwork, including "podcasting, video editing, book publishing, drawing [and] screencasting."

For students who lack WiFi access, they can work from their Google Drive and edit and save homework offline if the right settings have been configured while the devices are online. They can also access those previously mentioned tools while offline, including the camera for photo capture, recording videos and making screencasts, and Google Docs, Sheets and Drive files for other work.

If teachers have offline access, they can read and write e-mails, which will be sent to the students when the students are back online.

Learn more about how to set up Chromebooks for COVID-19-induced home use on the Google blog.

Find more resources for schools during the COVID-19 crisis here.