Advice on what class room management software?

[witch]

My boss is looking at NETOP - is this OK or can anyone tell me why one of the others mentioned might be better?

[kcymer]

I had a trial of Impero, Ab Tutor and Lanschool.
We like all of them. Ab Tutor seemed to be cheapest, but Lanschool offered to much price for what we need and have nice adm templates.
Impero is really good, and do lots more than just control classroom computers, but there is price tag for all those features and simply makes it not affordable for us. hence we have Lanschool, teachers are really happy with it.

[BlueDragon]

My boss is looking at NETOP - is this OK or can anyone tell me why one of the others mentioned might be better?

When it comes to picking classroom management products it can sometimes be difficult to see how the products differ, but there are some specific areas to consider. Most classroom management tools will cover the basics and offer something in the way of teacher control and student restriction. However, the better products out there put the teacher’s needs front and center. Meaning once it is rolled out into your classrooms teachers will find it quick to adopt and easy to use. Usability and willingness to adopt ensure that the return on investment in teaching and learning results is quickly achieved. What is more, for the IT Administrator a robust and reliable product coupled with great technical support and the certainty of happy teachers will set various products apart from each other.

If you consider the industry leading products, leading technologies, development history, global coverage, R&D/technical teams then you begin to understand the value of what you are buying is not just 'can you lock a pupils machine' but what is the technology and infrastructure behind the solution to ensure its develoment and future proofing.

Equally what is the capex what is the opex etc many solutions appear cheap but what are you getting, what support do you get, what development/upgrades, do you have to pay for them or are they included, is the solution cheap to buy but expensive to maintain year on year? Lots of things factor into choosing the right solution....its not just a feature based contest.

[mats]

Smartsync is difficult to get working, crashy and a pain in the a$$. Works this week, but not next week.

Reinstall - you need a new licence code.

Paid for the 2009 version? Have fun finding the right download on the website.

Want to use something other than the most basic screen view / control? Here comes a crash.

Save yourself the aggro, buy something else.