Abstract:

In the latest years, we have assisted gradually to the incorporation of Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) in the classroom. Namely, we can point out slide projectors, wireless mouse, laser pointers, computer laboratories, interactive whiteboards, blogs, chats, virtual campus, classroom management software, etc. Between these tools, classroom management software has not received as much attention (research, studies and assessments) as the others and it has not been broadly installed and used in computer laboratories. However, this software can significantly help teacher's job when is used computer-based learning. At the same time this software avoids students' distractions (games, Internet, etc), facilitates remote supervision, monitoring and assistance to the students as well as engages student's attention.
In this paper, we assess the different features this kind of software is used to provide (taking mainly into account the features that are related to teaching) as well as its main advantages and disadvantages. Then, we present an assessment of some of the most well-know classroom management software suites. We have chosen both commercial and free software for this evaluation. Namely, we have evaluated the following tools: Smart Classroom Suite, Netsupport school, Netop school, iTALC and ControlAula.
From the tools we have chosen for the assessment, we have evaluated different sets of features. Namely, we have evaluated the following sets of characteristics: hardware/software requirements needed for its use, how the installation process is made, how the user's (students) management is made, whether they support integration with electronic whiteboard, the different monitoring options they support, how the computer control is made, Internet security and filtering issues, the tools they offer for communication between students, the capabilities for sharing files and finally, the different tools they offer to make exercises, polls, tests and exams.
Once the different set of features have been analysed, we provide a discussion over which conditions each tool could be used and the different scenarios in which a tool is preferred.

Keywords:

Classroom management software, evaluation, assesment, ICT, application.