By Allison Mollica
Android coming to Chromebook has been talked about for over a year now. It is now here and ready for you to use in your Edu Domain! It is in BETA mode but it is VERY FUNCTIONAL and if you have a compatible Chromebook (running Chrome 53 or later) you can configure your domain to put a ‘PLAY’ store of APPS available to your teachers and students.
Here are the steps to set up Android in Admin Domain for Chromebooks.
In short, you need to login to admin.google.com. Go to Device Management > Chrome Devices and then select Android Applications. Next, accept the Android for Work Agreement. When that is enabled you can select and configure Android Apps.
Click to Configure the Apps. Click on the + sign to shop for the apps. Select an app you want to make available to your students. Once you APPROVE it you need to CONFIGURE IT! If you don’t configure it then it won’t show up in their SCHOOL PLAY STORE as an option.
When you configure the app you have a choice to Force Installation, Pin to Taskbar (which I recommend for Google Classroom, for example) BUT you can simply make a tool like Toontastic, WeVideo, etc as an install option.
Once you set up your store, you probably want to know what the user experience looks like. I’ve created a video below to show you how the student experiences the play store accessing and using apps.
With the PLAY store app pinned to the student task bar they can open and see what is available in the store and install as needed:
I would LOVE to hear your feedback! Are you as excited about the potential as I am? What will be your first apps to send out and how will this change how you are DBA at your school?
