The Mac brings some of the world’s most advanced technology to the learning environment, but it’s also incredibly easy and intuitive to use. So the new tools you’re giving to faculty and students actually get put to work — and really change the way they teach and learn.
With Mac OS X, working together is less work.
With powerful tools for collaboration, Mac OS X sets everyone up to communicate. It even comes with parental controls that make it safe for K-12 students to start using blogs, wikis, and chats now, so they can build the collaboration skills they’ll need in university and in the job market.
iChat.
iChat lets students work together through IM, audio chatting, video chatting, and even four-way video conferencing.* They can connect in a virtual meeting room that allows them to show presentations, slideshows, or movies next to their own video image.
iChat is also a great way for faculty to bring outside experts to the classroom. And it’s easy to save these sessions as podcasts for review or for future classes.
Screen sharing.
You can use iChat screen sharing to provide virtual support. Faculty and students can use it to see and work on each other’s screens remotely. An audio chat starts automatically, so users can communicate with each other. You also have full control over who can connect to whom.
Teachers can use screen sharing to monitor students while they’re working or to guide them through challenging problems. And students can use it to work on shared projects, whether they’re at their desks or at home.
Keeping a digital classroom on track.
When used with the Teacher’s Helpers workflows in Automator, Apple Remote Desktop 3 lets K-12 teachers observe, manage, and control each student’s activity in class — all from their own computers. They can keep individual students on task or walk them through complex problems. They can use text chatting to interact with one student or a project team without disrupting what everyone else is doing.
They can choose any student’s screen and share it with the whole room. Or they can simply drag and drop assignments and handouts to any or all of the computers in class.
*Broadband Internet access required. Fees may apply.
Mac OS X Server — collaboration supercharged.
Mac OS X Server builds on the collaboration tools in Mac OS X and adds even more safety and security features. Of course, it delivers all the basics you expect from a server, too, including mail services, web hosting, directory services, file sharing, and more.
iChat Server.
With iChat Server, you can have all chats take place behind the firewall — and thanks to Jabber support, faculty and students can chat across multiple platforms. All communication is encrypted, so everyone can safely share messages, files, and URLs.
iChat Server also allows for persistent chat rooms, which are perfect for teams that need to discuss their projects and get real-time updates. Students can join chat rooms at any time and leave when they need to. They can log out, shut down, and come back to review all communications since the chat room opened.
WebBlog Server and Wiki Server.
Mac OS X Server simplifies the process of setting up and managing blogs and wikis as spaces for collaboration — once IT sets it up the faculty can do the rest. Easy-to-use templates let them quickly construct even the most sophisticated wikis, complete with group calendar, mailing list archive, RSS support, and podcast hosting.
Faculty can easily authorize students to post and edit content or limit them to read-only access. And Wiki Server maintains a complete history, so faculty can always revert back to a previous page if they need to. It’s also easy to track student contributions and grade their work.
iCal Server.
With iCal Server, it’s simple for faculty to share calendars, coordinate events, schedule meetings, and reserve resources. No client access licenses are required, so you can add users to departments or cover your entire institution at no extra cost. And it fully integrates with any CalDAV-based calendar program you’re already using.
Spotlight Server.
Students or researchers working on collective projects can easily find their content anywhere on Mac OS X Server using Spotlight Server. It works with the file-access controls in Mac OS X Server, so they get only search results that they’re authorized to see. While you get to provide a powerful way to share information and assets at your institution without lifting a finger.
