classroom restriction - looking for suggestions

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Hapka
 
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classroom restriction - looking for suggestions

Post by Hapka »

I am deep into end of the year circuit python projects. (Envision an assemblage of my adabox boards mixed with feathers and circuitplayground expresses, sensors, motors, neopixels, etc.) Then class started today and one of kids said with a sad resigned tone "I've got some bad news, the board blocked us."

Naturally I assumed he meant circuit board, so figured I'd just need to reflash some firmware or switch a wire so something wasn't shorting out. But alass, he meant the board of ed. We use a fleet of Dell chromebooks in class. I called over to our middle school (I'm at the high school.) where they will be using the CP's for Code.org discovery next week and they saw the same thing.

Response from the tech admin "We disabled the access to USB as there is a known exploit to the Chrome OS."

Anyone have a work around? I tried using Caret (our usual go to), Microsoft Make Code, and from within Code.org.

Might it be time to break out a circle of Raspberry Pi's and set aside the chromebooks? I use repl.it for my Java class, I still think that will need access to USB to save the code.

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Franklin97355
 
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Re: classroom restriction - looking for suggestions

Post by Franklin97355 »

I'm sorry if I sound dense but I have not experience with Chromebooks. So, how are you using the USB and how are the IT blocking (and what)?

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Hapka
 
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Re: classroom restriction - looking for suggestions

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We are connecting circuitplaygrounds, feathers, etc. to USB to code in circuit python. They blocked it "because of known security (don't remember the word they used here)", which digging basically came down to kids are using usb flash drives to run code that disables the business enterprise that restricts student use.

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adafruit_support_bill
 
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Re: classroom restriction - looking for suggestions

Post by adafruit_support_bill »

The same universal plug-&-play nature that makes USB so indispensable to us also offers many 'attack vectors' for hackers. And many organizations understandably take steps to block or restrict their use.

I design biomedical & biotech instruments. And most of the laboratories that use them forbid the use of USB devices. At times. we do need to move data in or out of these machines for field updates or diagnostic purposes. The workaround for that requires both IT administrator credentials and factory service credentials to be entered before USB is enabled. And even then we will only enable specific recognized devices. Definitely not a practical solution for teaching kids how to program!

I also coach robotics at the local HS. They restrict the use of USB devices on their network. (They also forbid us from installing IDE & CAD software on the school computers.). Our workaround there is to bring in our own computers for designing and programming the bots. We have internet access via the school's "guest" WiFi, which is isolated from the academic network.

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Hapka
 
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Re: classroom restriction - looking for suggestions

Post by Hapka »

Sounds a set of raspberry pi's are in order. That would free us from changes from the organization as well. I'll run that by the county IT folk. Fortunately we have some old vga monitors to use for the pi's.

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