Technology & Learning - April 2009 - (Page 22) PRODUCTREVIEWS Put to the Test T&L editors take some new products for a test drive By Joe Huber PRODUCT: NETSUPPORT NOTIFY www.netsupportnotify.com Retail price: $180 for a 75-user pack A school would install this network (LAN, WAN) messaging system program to communicate any message to the staff as a group or to small groups of staff. This short message is then displayed on a designated staff member’s computer screen (either PC or Mac). With the acknowledgment feature, the sender can confirm who has received the message. PROS: The program can issue an audible alert. Messages can be classified as critical, alert, technical, message, or news. The messages can be set up so they go only to specific people or to the entire school, so teachers can send messages urgently requesting help back to the security officer or to the main office. The program can be password-protected to block unauthorized users. NetSupport Notify requires no special equipment and has a distribution module, so all the computers in the school can be installed from one location. CONS: None. OVERALL IMPRESSION: This is a good tool for increasing the security of our schools and for improving communication between the administration, technical staff, and instructional staff. As long as this type of communication tool is used responsibly, it would make a great fit for schools. PRODUCT: TEACHSCAPE XL www.teachscape.com Retail price: Price depends on the number of resources licensed and the number of users. Teachscape XL delivers content to professional-learning communities—from video-based case studies, to instruction by experts, to learning resources, to discussion boards, to interactive learning exercises. Teachers log on individually or in small groups to work on these exercises. After that, they receive a visit from an administrator or team supervisor, who collects data on their instruction and with whom they can discuss their progress. Users can select content from more than 10,000 resources. PROS: The training part of the product shows real teachers using the product in their own classrooms, so the instruction that teachers get is peer instruction. This has proven to be one of the best ways to learn. The instruction decisions are data-driven and collected on small handheld devices, so interruption of the learning process is kept to a minimum. Teachers can access the instruction when they have time, since it is online. CONS: None. OVERALL IMPRESSION: This program solves one of the major problems of professional development: getting experts in front of the classroom teachers. By using the technology in Teachscape XL, classroom teachers can view successful examples of what is being discussed. Using message boards and other technology, they can discuss in real time the problems they may run into with peers and experts. 22 | TECH & LEARNING http://www.netsupportnotify.com http://www.teachscape.com
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