Chris Painter is my guest for this episode of the podcast. Chris is the technology director for Blackford County Schools in Hartford City, Indiana which as a fleet of 1,800 devices.

During our conversation Chris shares his best practices and tips for collecting, inventorying, and repairing a Chromebook fleet and getting them ready for the new school year.

Episode Sponsor: VIZOR

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Managing your Chromebook fleet

Blackford County Schools heavily uses Chromebooks for instructions, so it’s essential that the device fleet is operational with minimal downtime and repairs. Having a small tech team was a challenge that Chris had to overcome.

“One of the most significant process/procedure changes we have implemented that has made the tech department way more efficient was appointing a Chromebook Manager in each building.  Their only roles are to intake Chromebooks needing repairs, enter the support ticket, and then assign and collect loaner devices.  Tech department staff has a single point of contact in each building for pickup and drop-off.  The system makes it really easy for the corporation business office to collaborate and communicate with the tech department. ” 

End of year Chromebook collection tips

During my conversation with Chris we discussed multiple aspects of the end-of-year collection process:

• Simple and effective strategies for collecting devices, chargers, cases, etc
• Inspecting devices for damage and planning repairs
• Cleaning and “powerwashing” devices
• Recovering “missing” Chromebooks?

Chris outlined the process that he has used successfully in his district to ensure that his entire Chromebook fleet is reviewed, inventoried, and repairs prior to the start of the new school year.

Related episode: It’s time for a powerwash! 🚿

Inventory management

As your Chromebook fleets grows larger, you will need to consider how you are going to inventory and track your device assignments, AUE dates, and repairs. The admin console has limited capabilities for inventory management and spreadsheets can become cumbersome and difficult to manage.

Chris has had excellent success using VIZOR for Chromebooks as an asset management solution to track and inventory his device fleet. Prior to adopting VIZOR, Chris and his IT team didn’t have a system for tracking Chromebooks and chargers or a way to run a filtered query to figure out which device was assigned to a student, how many devices were out for repair, etc.

With Vizor, Chris and his team can see a “baseball card” of stats on each device. “It’s fairly simple to see who our frequent flyers are in terms of needing repairs and also tracks the number of tickets on a single device, making it much easier to identify lemon devices to return on warranty.

May you be productive this summer

Good luck as you begin collecting and reviewing your devices. Getting organized now will save you a ton of time in the fall when students return to your building.