making networked classrooms work
MULTI PLATFORM - WINDOWS, MAC
The Dubai English Speaking School (DESS) was finding that students were more interested in looking at what was going on, on their computer screen rather than listening to lesson instructions being given. So it called for a piece of software for teachers to be able to lock screen and gain full student attention!
After initially trialling one classroom management software product, that they found to be too cumbersome and very expensive with limited support available in Dubai, the school choose AB Tutor.
After purchasing AB Tutor, the school found it really useful that they were able to lock the screens and, by using the settings facility in the software, they could post the aims and objectives of the lesson so that it was in front of every student when they entered the room and sat down - a real bonus as it seemed to have a greater impact on the students as opposed to writing aims and objectives on a whiteboard. They have found that another extremely useful function of the software is that it enables each student to show their work to the rest of the class or show the rest of the class how they would carry out a particular action, to aid student interaction and learning..
The DESS administrator uses AB Tutor to set policies so that students cannot change screen configurations or access unauthorised websites as unlike in the UK, the school has to pay for any excess Internet uploads/downloads in Dubai which can be extremely costly. Certain websites also slow down the school network when being used excessively which can prove very problematic.
"We are still looking at other ways to utilise the AB Tutor software but we are already extremely satisfied with what can be done at such a reasonable cost."