Anyone used any classroom / multiple computer control software?

[Chilli]

At my day job I work at a University and one of the things I do is manage a classroom with 30 student computers running XP and a teacher computer (xp).

What I'm looking into is some software to have basic control of the student computers.

Looking for features to:

Black out the student computers from the teacher's computer. (Get the students attention and stop them looking on facebook for a minute).

Maybe be able to bring up the students desktop on the teachers machine so it can be shown on the projector to the rest of the class.

Just basic functions really.

I know there are some big commercial programs to do this, but they want thousands of dollars and have more features than we need. Something open source or cheap would be what I am looking for.

Any ideas?

Chilli

 

[GaPazz]

Take a look at RealVNC, it does very near what PCAnywhere from symantec does except its free. There are other variants of VCN that you could try as well such as UltraVNC. I think thay are all free just google it.

 

[Chilli]

Take a look at RealVNC, it does very near what PCAnywhere from symantec does except its free. There are other variants of VCN that you could try as well such as UltraVNC. I think thay are all free just google it.

Thanks for the input, but that is not what I'm looking for. I use VNC software for other single computer connects, I'm looking for multi-control software. I found some other companies through searching, I'll check those out.

 

[Alan22]

Can you provide an example of the software you're looking at?

 

[Chilli]

Can you provide an example of the software you're looking at?

I did find a cheaper option than the thousands of dollars other companies want (which have more features than I need).

SO this maybe my best bet: http://www.acs-linksystems.com/screenwatch/overview.htm

Still if there is something that can do the same for less that $700, i'll be interested. (need 30 licenses)

 

[dannyict]

this one is free

http://italc.sourceforge.net/

 

[Chilli]

this one is free

http://italc.sourceforge.net/

Jackpot! Thanks man - this just maybe a viable solution. Appreciate the link, I'll be testing this one out for sure.

 

[Alan22]

I've bever used this type of software. Looks very interesting. I'll need to check it out.

 

[kagman]

this one is free

http://italc.sourceforge.net/

Really nice. This software can be used for all sorts of stuff. Nice suggestion.

 

[ghstech]

LanSchool

I have tested iTalc and although free it just wasn't what i was expecting. LanSchool was our choice after weeks of research and trials. There is a cost involved but if you tell them your moving from a competitor like Vision they will discount half the price!
The biggest reason I went this route was to update numerous workstations at the same time.

Hope this helps

 

[Chilli]

I have tested iTalc and although free it just wasn't what i was expecting. LanSchool was our choice after weeks of research and trials.
The biggest reason I went this route was to update numerous workstations at the same time.

Hope this helps

Thanks for your input. I'll take a look, but I think iTalc will work well for our needs. I already have other software to do technical and software updates on mass. I just need features to see what the student is doing from the teachers machine, display their work on the teachers' and be able to lock down the student machines. iTalc does that.

I will be installing it this afternoon and have a Prof. Try it out on Monday, so iTalc was a great find for me.

 

[deutschnaftula]

http://www.lanschool.com/



http://www.netsupportschool.com/


I use Lan School

 

[Chilli]

this one is free

http://italc.sourceforge.net/

I must say, dannyict gave a great link. I just finished up in the lab. Only 5 more machines to setup, but did a lot of testing when I had 15 installed and I must say, for a free open source program, iTalc is damn cool. Works a treat, exactly what I was looking for.

Does not have all the features an expensive commercial program does, but it does all the basic things you need for classroom teaching. I like it a lot and exactly fits the requirements I had.

 

[DanF]

http://www.netsupportschool.com/

This is what they use at the college I'm studying. IMO, it's really good. Too bad our lecturers are not trained to use it... even though most of them are graduates in IT... they haven't had the time to explore the application and no training was given.

Anyways, hope it helps.