K-8 Computer Lab Teachers

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Permalink Reply by Carl on March 13, 2008 at 11:56am

I have Classroom Spy Professional, it provides most of the functions of the big companies' remote services without costing an arm and leg, plus its easy to install. They have a 30 day trial offer.

http://www.classroomspy.com/

Carl Bogardus

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Permalink Reply by George Somers on March 13, 2008 at 11:59am

Interesting. Thanks for the link. Hadn't heard of that one. Since I run a Mac lab, this wouldn't meet my needs, but others would probably appreciate it.

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Permalink Reply by Mercy on May 7, 2008 at 12:56pm

Hey George! I use Remote Desktop in my class of 40 iMacs and I can watch all 40 at once...it has an options setting where this can be change to any number u want. Also, I believe it works even if ip's are not static.
I really love Remote Desktop it allows me to do so many things that it makes my life so much easier!!

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Permalink Reply by Erin McGuyer on March 13, 2008 at 12:59pm

Vision software is also great for monitoring labs.

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Permalink Reply by LVelagic on March 14, 2008 at 3:43am

Okay... I am not specific on the specs, but I am running Remote Desktop on eMac's through our school server. It is awesome. I can view ALL computers at the same time. I can share MY screen or a DIFFERENT computer screen in the room with the entire class at the same time. Like you said, there is still the LOCK capability (as well as a curtain where you can work on their computer but they can't see what you are doing). There is also chat capability as well. My students may IM me through their desktop and I can obviously respond (but they can't ... praise be... IM each other). I have absolutely 0 problems (as I ran into some with the older version) with Remote Desktop and HIGHLY recommend it for any Mac labs! Good luck!

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Permalink Reply by Ellen on March 14, 2008 at 5:20am

I use ARD in my lab as well. I love it! It allows me to manage the entire room without having to run around like a maniac. We just got a cart with 30 Macbooks for a music room lab, and I'm hoping to add them to my ARD loop so I can help the music teacher from my lab admin station. It's a great management tool and time saver. I also highly recommend it for a Mac lab.

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Permalink Reply by Ahmed Khalil on March 14, 2008 at 6:05am

Hi
I work as computer department supervisor in a private school in Egypt, there are about 1000 students in the school in different departments baby class, KG, K12 (egyptian curriculum, Canadian Nova Scotia curriculum). I created a social network on ning for my students and they love it so far. but teachers r still not contributing to the level that i expected due to their lack of computer usage/training (some of them started to participate in the social network and others are resisting the change).

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Permalink Reply by Carl on March 14, 2008 at 8:02am

What you describe is true most every where I think -- at least its true here for my staff. Part of its training, (with relevance to your curriculum), part of it is resistance to change, and part of it is lack of time, (aren't all teachers "Prisoners of Time")? I have my LCMS, (ATutor), set up for the whole school, but I am the only one using it. My student teacher loves it, students enjoy being able to work on class assignments at home or in library.

This may not change for 10-15 years.

Carl

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Permalink Reply by Peggy on March 26, 2008 at 10:03am

Hello. I just found this wonderful website and was reading through the posts. I currently teach in a southwest Missouri K-4 elementary with 435 students who come to class once each week for 50 minutes. We have an eMac lab right now but will be getting a PC lab next year. I've used ARD (Apple Remote Desktop) and Workgroup Manager with some success but would like some input about what programs would replace these on the Windows side. (We actually have four K-4 labs that will be converting to Windows so this information will be helpful to several of us in our district). What works best for those of you with Windows labs?

Thanks,
Peggy Preston

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Permalink Reply by Gerald Logan on March 27, 2008 at 8:33am

My school district made this same change two years ago. I hate to say this but if your next two years are anything like my last two I feel sorry for you. With the change we lost all of the programs that we had bought and used over the years. We ended up with Office, GIMP, All The Right Type, Kid Pix, Hyperstudio and anything else that was a free load with Windows. IT could not get Kid Pix and Hyperstudio to work together so we didn't have that until last month. The program they use to install programs remotely doesn't seem to like these two porgrams so it created some sort of conflict. They had to be hand installed. The program to replace Apple Remote Desktop has never worked and keeps killing the network. Every time I plug in a different camera I need them to set up the drivers. The driving force behind this move was to reduce the cost of support but it in fact has increased. So please factor that into your budget as well as the cost of all the software your school or district has bought. The people making these decsions never have a full list of these applications, or the budget gets reduced and the only thing that can be cut is application software. From the teachers point of view the only thing that matters is applications.

It is only now, 3 months short of two years after the start of the conversion, that IT will consider adding programs to the computers. I have asked for all the Open Source applications like Childs Play, Inkscape, Stellarium, Celsetria, Tux (everything) and anything else that is free to be added.

All I can say is thank goodness web 2.0 arrived so there are at least great things for kids to do on line. Here in Alberta Canada we have two great resources for educational activities www.learnalberta.ca which needs a password for a lot of resources and www.2learn.ca which is open.

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Permalink Reply by Peggy on March 27, 2008 at 8:51am

Gerald,

Thanks so much for your honesty. I had almost the same experience two years ago when we went from Mac OS 9 to Mac OS X in our lab. It was a nightmare; most of our software didn't work at all anymore so we had to rely (almost totally) on web activities. I've become pretty adept at finding quality resources but, when the network is down (although a rare occasion), we have almost no learning activities available. That is really not good.

I do have some fears about changing to PCs although I really think it is a good change for our district. One of our K-4 computer labs (in a brand new building) opened with a PC lab this past fall and she has had a lot of concerns. The other four K-4 labs are to be converted before the new 2008-2009 school year begins. We're just hoping that our labs are not as "shut down" as hers is. We like being able to administer our labs for the most part ourselves and we're good at it. She hasn't been able to download or install anything herself. Our tech department must do all of that. We've asked for more autonomy as the tech department has many more pressing issues. She couldn't even (until lately) add a new website to her image.

I do appreciate the mention of some Open Source applications. I will look into those for sure.

Peggy Preston

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Permalink Reply by Mary Jo Schreiber on March 27, 2008 at 5:53pm

Hi, everyone. I teach grades K-8 at a Catholic school in Pasadena, MD (about 600 students). I see them for about 40-50 minutes once a week and have been doing this for 3 years. We have 30 student computers plus I have 8 IBM ThinkPad wireless laptops and 3 wireless desktop computers for the times when I have more than 30 students in the lab (grades 6 and 7). I have worked out a curriculum based on the standards for the Archdiocese of Baltimore. We are currently doing curriculum mapping, so once I get that worked out, I can share lessons.

Our tech coordinator and I are planning on installing VNC software over the summer so I can see what is going on from my computer. It is free! In the meantime, I have Cybersitter installed on the computers so that I don't have to worry about what is going on with the student computers, especially junior high. (Our blocking software on the network is not always reliable.)

Looking forward to reading all of the discussions when I get a chance.

Mary Jo Schreiber

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