Educational Networking Tools and Components

Not all networking providers will provide the same level of useful networking tools. I will describe some of the most common and suggest their usefulness in a school environment.

• Shared Areas for staff and pupils. These are quite easy to set up and most network providers will provide some basic shared areas.
• These are essential for joined up working
• Worksheet Sharing. An area that pupils can copy work from without changing the teachers original. Once the work is copied into pupils own my documents section of the network they can be used normally.
• Very useful
• Internet Link Sharing. Staff have the ability to create educational internet links that pupils can access from their desktops easily.
• Useful, but there other ways to do it although these can be time consuming.
• PC Imaging or Rebuilding. The ability to restore a PC to a previously stable version quickly and easily. This is not to be confused with the CD’s that come with some computers that restore a PC to the factory settings. These are useful but you still have to put all the software back on, a time consuming and laborious job.
• The more software you put on your network and the more PC’s you have will determine how useful this is.
• Simplified User Management Tool. An easy way to create new users and adapt the rights of existing users. If you have to use the Microsoft Management Console then your network setup is too complicated for many school managers.
• Essential
• Remote Software Installation. The ability to load software from a central point that will then be shared to other PC’s remotely. This often uses Microsoft MSI technology. This can be a massive time saver and becomes more and more important in direct correlation to the number of PC’s that you have. This is not the same as having a network version of a program where some files are stored on the server. These network versions of a program will often still need a local installation program on each PC. This can be done directly by Win 2003 but is complicated and the tool I am mentioning can be carried out locally be the schools network manager easily.
• The more software you put on your network and the more PC’s you have will determine how useful this is.
• Creating Your Own MSI Packages This goes with the remote software installation and allows you to turn software into remote packages that can be installed throughout your network from one place.
• Really useful in larger networks as you can save money by making your own packages rather than buying the packages from your network provider
• Network Scheduling. The ability to schedule upgrades and software installations on a timetable so that they run remotely without human intervention.
• Useful but not essential
• Remote Management Access. The ability for you to manage users and network management tasks on your network through the internet. (Not to be confused with remote management access by a support company)
• Nice to have but not really needed
• Staff and Pupils Remote Access. The ability to allow some users to access my document areas from home via the internet.
• Nice to have, depends on your staff skills and home school partnership as to how useful this will be.
• Safe Pupil Desktop. A desktop that allows pupils to interact fully with the computer but stops them making material changes to the computer that may be harmful to it’s operation. Such as installing resource hungry screensavers or virus ridden adware.
• Essential