Will this work with students? (No Individual Accounts)

Software Chrome App
1

Good morning,
I'll be trying this out the Arduino Chrome App for Education once we're back in school in a couple weeks. Does this require that students create an account? If so, it won't work for us because it goes against our computer use policies at school. We've had great success with Tinkercad, especially their user management stuff where teachers can create and manage student accounts, so we're always looking for similar functionality.

Our interest in the Arduino Chrome App for Education is actually due to our students doing their coding with the virtual IDE in Tinkercad. Currently, we have students switch over to a repurposed MacBook 2015 for the upload to hardware, copy-pasting from Tinkercad in to the Arduino IDE. But these machines won't last much longer, so we're looking for other options. Our school has 1:1 Chromebooks for all our students in grades 3-8.

Thanks,

  • Markus
2

From the Arduino Create for Education Chrome Store page:

All you need to get started is an Arduino account.

3

Yeah, I saw this. But only after I was putting it on a test Chromebook. (Before then it wasn't part of the description that was immediately visible.)

4

Ok - in the hope that Arduino folks will be looking at this, I'd like to describe why this won't work for schools, at least for mine, and most of the schools in Maine at least:

  1. Students have to create an account that teachers can't manage.
  2. Terms of Service - students are too young to legally agree to this - it's the teachers who are responsible for the Terms.
  3. "I confirm my consent to receive your newsletter." Nope! It's against our technology policy for any outside group to communicate directly with students. Teachers? Absolutely, but not kids.
  4. "...consent to the processing of my personal data for marketing purposes..." Nope! Again, not something our technology policies permit.
  5. "...consent to automated processing of my personal data by means of profiling..." Nope! Still... not something our technology policies permit.

So if Arduino has an app that's identified as being for education, but it can't be used with students unless each student has an account that the teacher has no control over and violates all our technology policies, not to mention at least a couple laws... it's not something that educators can use!

If I needed to agree to all these things as the teacher, well maybe I'm not crazy about it but I could actually do it. And I'd be more excited about doing it if it meant I could create and manage student accounts.

So in short, this is not something that solves our problem of having a way for students to upload sketches to physical Arduinos. We will need to stick with the IDE on our MacBook 2015's as we look for another IDE solution. I really hope this is something Arduino is working on and we'll have something out soon!

Thank you,
-Markus

1 Like
5

Seems like something that the parents should be responsible for.

Arduino.cc has a contact us page. You're more likely to get results regarding accounts and legal issues there. This is more of a technical forum and community.

6

Good thought. Although I've seen Arduino team members cruising through from time to time.

I agree that it's more something that parents would be responsible for. Feels like their model is for homeschooling and after school programs, where there are really small classes and parents are heavily involved.

7

A quick note about student accounts. I'm aware that Arduino has what they are calling "Junior Accounts". A student enters their information, then includes the email address of an adult who will complete the registration process.

This is not something that will work in a school classroom.

In Tinkercad, I can log in and create a new classroom of users, then email them the link to join their class session. I do not have time to shepherd an entire class of students through entering my email (which they may or may not spell correctly, even when written on the board) and then chase down each email that comes from Arduino, while keeping a paper list of students so I can check off each one when I complete the process for their account. It's just not functional this way.

1 Like
8

Hi @surrydesignlab. Arduino Cloud is specifically designed to be used in schools. You can learn more about it here:

As was already suggested, if you have any questions or concerns, it is best to contact Arduino Education directly, as they may not see your post here on Arduino Forum. There is an "GET IN TOUCH" button at the bottom of the page at the link I shared above you can use to do that.

9

Unfortunately, Arduino Cloud has all the same issues. So it doesn't work either.

10

I currently have students in seven states, and it works for all of them. Seems that your school and/or state has some restrictive policies that may hinder student success as we move into the student software service age. Hope you find a solution. I'd hate for any student to go without due to policy.