It’s no secret that Google Chromebooks dominate one-to-one digital learning in K-12, given their low cost, ease of use and many other factors key to education. But Chromebooks need more to work for K-12, and advanced content filtering and device management are essential components to maximizing the ROI on your devices. As you weigh pros and cons of solutions built for Chromebooks and how they will work with your one-to-one deployment goals, consider these seven essential elements to a successful Chromebook environment. 

1. Does it have free, 24/7 tech support? Does the Chromebook solution you are considering come with phone, email and online chat tech support? Filtering is one of the most essential solutions to school devices; you need support and services to make sure it’s dependable. 

2. Does it offer free guest network and BYOD filtering? When new devices enter your school network, they need to be protected with policies so your entire network remains CIPA compliant. 

3. Does your provider offer free maintenance, updates and database improvements? Does this solution have a team behind it that listens to customers and implements updates to make the experience even better? 

4. Does it have free single sign-on through Azure and Google? Does the solution have a variety of options to fit your group management needs? 

5. How powerful is the URL database? How many websites does the web categorization database process every day? This is critical to ongoing safety and preserving IT’s time resources. (Lightspeed’s filtering solutions process about 2 million new URLs a day.) 

6. Is it more than just a filter? Devices go missing all the time, and this cuts into your budget. Does the solution have device geolocation so you can retrieve missing Chromebooks? Can it filter educational content on YouTube and Vimeo? 

7. Does it include powerful, easy-to-use classroom tools for teachers? Teachers need technology to monitor student device screens, share content and lock devices during class. Does the solution accomplish this to satisfy all your stakeholders and support all elements of K-12 learning? If these seven critical elements to a Chromebook device management and web filtering solution are important to you — and we can bet they are — Lightspeed Systems Relay for Chrome is the answer. Relay is a Chromebook solution built just for K-12 that allows IT to report user activity, filter inappropriate content, protect students from harm and locate lost devices. The setup process is streamlined into three easy steps to make implementation simple. New features like Smart Play (coming soon to Relay) take the manual work out of allowing appropriate YouTube and Vimeo access. And Classroom Orchestrator, included at no additional cost with Relay and all Lightspeed Solutions, allows teachers to have control over devices in classrooms to keep students focused.