Technology & Learning - February 2008 - (Page 8) » Product Guide By Jeffrey Branzburg Classroom Management Systems How to maximize control of a roomful of computers. See your computer, see theirs, thanks to networking and management software. View students’ screens on the teacher’s screen. See any student’s M y first computer lab consisted of 17 computers set up around the perimeter of the classroom. I could see all student screens by standing in the middle of the room and slowly turning around. Hardware-Based Systems I could distribute Freeze/blank students’ screens. and collect stuTo get their attention, blank out or dent files using freeze the action on their screens. 5.25-inch floppy You can also disable mouse control. disks and going from one comBroadcast the teacher’s computer puter to the next. screen to the students’ screens. My technologiSend your screen to all your students’ cal method to screens. Great for running tutorials. pry students’ eyes Broadcast a screen to the other away from their students’ screens. Want to share screens and look Johnny’s work with the class? Send at me was a multimedia combination his screen to all other students. of visual and audio: flick the Communicate with students’ room lights and loudly clap computers. Offer suggesmy hands. For Classroom tions or comments to your Fast forward to now. ClassManagement students via text message, room management systems Systems, see chat, audio, or video. that run on networked pages 10–11. computers provide all of the Control desktops. Take over above elements and more. a student’s computer, move Common features include: the mouse, select from the menus, or run programs, all remotely from your computer. Copy files to/from computers. Move documents, audio, video, and other types of files to your students’ computers, and move files from their computers to yours. Remotely install software and product updates onto students’ computers. screen on yours; in some systems, see multiple students’ screens in separate windows on your screen. The systems mentioned in this article are software products. However, there are also classroom management systems comprised of hardware as well as software. Here is a sampling of such hardware-based systems: KnowledgeWEB System (COMWEB Technology Group, www.comweb.com/ products/). When added to existing hardware, this system lets you control the functions of all monitors, keyboards, and mice. The two major components are a teacher control panel with a system controller, and a student unit for each student computer. Mobile LINK System (Applied Computer Systems, Inc., www.acs-linksystems.com/). This offers control of every student computer in the classroom via video, audio, keyboard, mouse, and LINK Express features. SmartClass/SmartCC Plug & Play (Robotel Inc., www.robotel.com/english/products _sc2500.html). This system allows sharing of computer screens, computer audio, computer keyboard/mouse control, camera video (for distance learning), and telephone audio (for call centers). It also supports an internal full-duplex audio intercom capability, and student/agent call buttons. Add new software to and update old software on your students’ computers directly from yours. Jeffrey Branzburg is a contributing editor and columnist for T&L. 8 | www.techlearning.com http://www.comweb.com/ http://www.robotel.com/english/products_sc2500.html http://www.robotel.com/english/products_sc2500.html http://www.acs-linksystems.com/ http://www.techlearning.com
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