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So unfair! Teachers know what’s happening on students' fondleslabs

Sorry little ones, staring out of the virtual window just got much harder

Maybe now you don’t want the kids turning off their iPads in class after all. By using VNC remote access, pupils can now instantly share their work with their teacher and the rest of the pupils.

The ability has come through the integration of software from Cambridge company RealVNC, which allows screens to be mapped on to remote devices and with tools from Texas-based educational software company Lightspeed Systems.

The Classroom Orchestrator software lets teachers monitor the screens of students' mobile devices in real time. Lightspeed used the RealVNC SDK. Classroom Orchestrator is used globally by over 200 schools, and now works together with VNC technology to monitor and control student devices efficiently and effectively.

It is claimed that this level of monitoring helps to maximise student engagement, keeps students on task, and allows teachers to personalise teaching plans to each individual student. Teachers can identify students who are excelling, those who require additional attention, and of course those who are looking out of the virtual window.

Maybe it’s something corporates should institute for meetings, where people are pretending to look at a presentation but are actually reading email. Just a thought.

“To enhance our classroom management software, we licensed VNC technology as it offers a robust and reliable solution. We were able to work with VNC to deliver the solution to our customers quickly,” said Rob Chambers, veep of product development at Lightspeed.

The SDK provides customers with the necessary tools to build remote access into existing software on Windows, Linux, Mac, iOS, Android and HTML5-compatible browser-based platforms.

“RealVNC’s VNC SDK enables organisations to integrate screen-sharing capabilities and reduce their time to market,” said Richard Pickul, strategic alliances manager, RealVNC. “As more organisations adopt BYOD, the need for these sorts of monitoring solutions will continue to grow.”

Reg readers previously came out strongly against the idea that pupils should be able to use Google in examinations, but co-operative working in class might well be another matter.

Data privacy also has to be managed carefully. The Classroom Orchestrator software has a tiering system for access and permissions, which is designed to prevent scandals such as the one which saw Lower Merion School District in Philadelphia prosecuted for using tracking software from LanRev and laptops' internal cameras to take covert pictures of students. ®

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