Classroom Management Options

[the_mighty_boosh]

Hi all, just joined as I came across this site looking into classroom management software. My school are currently evaluating LanSchool, but I came across two free options - iTALC and LanView.

The main feature the school is looking for is the ability for a teacher to block access to the web, other features are remote view and screen blanking.

iTALC misses the ability for the teacher to control internet access, whereas LanView only offers remote view in conjuntion with a VNC server. Is there anything out there that can be used in conjunction with iTALC to control web access?

Another issue we have is that our teachers use laptops and are not always in the same classroom. iTALC seems to cover this instance better. One issue we've had testing LanSchool has been when two management systems are on the same channel they fight for control over the computers, so teachers need to make sure they select a blank channel after the class ends (which isn't always going to happen, especially at first).

So, does anyone have any experience of classroom management from laptops, especially using any of the above. Any advice/guidance would be appreciated.

[Dos_Box]

It all depends on what type of school you are. LanSchool is ideal for smaller schools such as primaries as it is quite a simple tool to use and configure. Once you get into the size of networks that secondaries have you really need something like Net Support Manager (It has NetSupport School included for free) to achieve what you are after. iTalc and LanView are great tools, but only of you have others that fulfil your other requirements too.

[the_mighty_boosh]

I work in a secondary school, so quite a few computers. The main issues are kids accessing the internet when they shouldn't. We run a Novell network so are able to remote view computers but this is done through maps on our intranet. As I said, another issue is that our teachers aren't always in the same room and will be using their own laptops to access any management software.

Just been reading another thread and Browsecontrol was mentioned, this may solve the problem by coming in three components rather than lumping server and management consoles into one as LanSchool and LanView seem to do. On the down side, it doesn't provide any interface to remote view/control.

Not looked at Net Support Manager, thanks for that, I'll give it a look.

[Rebecca_H]

Hi there. Just to let you know that you can buy NetSupport School seperately as well as part of NetSupport Manager.