Fargo District Deploys Computer Management and Monitoring Technologies

• By Dian Schaffhauser
• 08/11/08

Fargo Public School District will be implementing NetSupport School (NSS), a classroom management program that allows the teacher or media instructor to control website access and record computer activities. The district has 14 public elementary schools, three middle schools, and two high schools, as well as an alternative high school. Enrollment is around 11,000, and district employs about 1,000 people.

The company recently released version 10 of NSS, which provides a technician console interface that monitors all computers across the school network in a single view, as well as application and Internet usage on each student PC. The console allows the user to review individual client security settings remotely and conduct chats with one or multiple students. It can also show real-time USB memory stick status on all PCs.

Teachers can record all screen, keyboard, and mouse activity on a student workstation to review later or replay to the class, and he or she can monitor the same activities in real time.

A print management function in the software can control student access to printers; limit printer usage to a specified number of pages; require teacher authorization for printing; prevent printers from being added, deleted, or modified; and control access and usage for each individual printer. It also displays an indicator showing which student is printing.

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About the author: Dian Schaffhauser is a writer who covers technology and business for a number of publications. Contact her at dian@dischaffhauser.com.

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