lanschool - managing the computer classroom environment

LanSchool – Managing the computer classroom environment

A learning, teaching and technical tool

Sharon Magill – magillse@cf.ac.ukChris Yeo – yeocp@cf.ac.ukCardiff School of Journalism, Media and Cultural StudiesCardiff University

What's the problem?

• Computer classrooms = challenging environment

– Distractions from internet, Facebook and email

– Difficulty viewing the projected screen

• How to control environment and enhance learning

What's the solution?

• LanSchool Computer management software

– Enables control of one or many computers

– Funding from Innovation Teaching and Learning award

– Initially in 3 depts.

– Now in 11 depts.

– Main focus on enhancing teaching and learning

– Also has potential for technical use

View class as list or thumbnails

View class as list or thumbnails

Blank screens

Block internet

Block internet

Broadcast teacher or a student to whole class

Show or control a student computer

Show or control a student computer

Vote and Quiz

LanSchool – For system admins

Being lazy is good for performance!

• Saves enormous amounts of time and effort with common administrative tasks

– Distributing applications, patches & updates

– Changing settings

– General maintenance (defragging, etc)

• Facilitates parity between each workstation’s software configuration

• Controlling a room full of PCs is pretty sweet!

Powering up

Logging in

To login 40 Workstations:

1) Control + Alt + Delete

2) Enter username & password

3) Walk to next workstation

4) Repeat for each workstation

That’s a lot of keystrokes

That’s a lot of walking!

Logging in – A better way!

Even more time savers!

As well as sending keystrokes & clicks, we can also send:

• Files of any kind

• Native System Commands

- In Windows – DOS/Command Prompt

- On Mac OSX – BASH

Pushing files

LanSchool – Running commands

Blank Screens revisited

• Blank the screen with an optional message

– Lets people know why a system is unavailable

– Lets people know that they shouldn’t touch!

Logging off & Shutting down

Questions?

Sharon Magill – magillse@cf.ac.ukChris Yeo – yeocp@cf.ac.ukCardiff School of Journalism, Media and Cultural StudiesCardiff University