Using iTalc

[Brian Bartley]

I learned about an application called iTalc at BrainStorm 10 back in March. I implemented this program in 5 computer labs during the summer and we have been using it successfully since September. I just though I'd pass this along. We are using this program to turn on all of the machines in a lab, shut down all of the machines in a lab, lock computers, remote control, send the teacher computer display to all of the workstations in a lab, monitor what kids are doing on a specific machine, take screen shots of what a user may be doing and a few more that I'm forgetting to name. from my desk I can reach out to any of the labs or individual computers and remote troubleshoot-update-re-boot-shut down machines. Best of all it is free. Takes a bit to setup and is really tough to get off a machine once installed (a good thing) but we are loving it here. Give it a look.

[Carl Anderson]

Is there any reason you would want to remove it once it is installed? Does it interfere with the performance of other programs? What are the downsides?

[Brian Bartley]

The only reason to un-install it was a screw-up on my part. You can install it as a user or a manager and I installed it as a user the first time by accident on a teacher computer. I haven't noticed any drop in performance on the workstations, there is a slight lag sometimes in refreshing the screen when in the remote control mode. I'm sure there are downsides with the program, I just haven't found any major ones yet. I love being able to turn on a whole lab of computers, login, log out and shut down all from one spot. When we have a day off on a Wednesday, I'll turn on all of the labs, login as an administrator and let all of the machines do the Microsoft updates when there is no one else in the building. There might be better programs that do the same thing as iTalc but for free this has been great.

Carl Anderson said:

Is there any reason you would want to remove it once it is installed? Does it interfere with the performance of other programs? What are the downsides?

[Bryan Berg]

I'm going to give iTalc a try here in the next month or so in one of our labs as well. Your report and some of the online info I've seen about it makes it sound ideal, and it sounds like it does everything that SynchronEyes does (SMART's version of the same type of program). Thanks for the post, Brian!

[Brian Bartley]

Smart with installing it on your own machine first as a teacher/manager computer. you will need to create a share on the network to put the security key in. Also you will need to copy the keys directory from your computer to a flash drive so all of the computers that will be management machines will have the same keys. Cal me on my cell when you are ready and I'll discuss the setup with you. 507-475-2292

Bryan Berg said:

I'm going to give iTalc a try here in the next month or so in one of our labs as well. Your report and some of the online info I've seen about it makes it sound ideal, and it sounds like it does everything that SynchronEyes does (SMART's version of the same type of program). Thanks for the post, Brian!

[Brian Moskalik]

We've rolled iTalc out to 2 of our 5 labs. We should have 2 more labs up and running by years end. The teachers responsible for those labs, love it. Great utility all around.

[Brian Bartley]

glad to hear it's working for you, I'm using it right now to remote troubleshoot. We love it.

Brian Moskalik said:

We've rolled iTalc out to 2 of our 5 labs. We should have 2 more labs up and running by years end. The teachers responsible for those labs, love it. Great utility all around.

[Bryan Berg]

I'll do that! Hopefully in just a couple of more weeks. I'm hoping (fingers crossed) to try it prior to the next SEMTEC on March 19th and then we could do a brief discussion about it with the group. I've used SynchronEyes at Chatfield, Stewartville and Kasson-Mantorville, and always liked the way that program workd (well, for the most part, anyway!). If iTalc can do the same thing, that would be a very awesome substitute since D-E isn't using a monitoring/management system of that type at all as of yet.

Brian Bartley said:

Smart with installing it on your own machine first as a teacher/manager computer. you will need to create a share on the network to put the security key in. Also you will need to copy the keys directory from your computer to a flash drive so all of the computers that will be management machines will have the same keys. Cal me on my cell when you are ready and I'll discuss the setup with you. 507-475-2292

Bryan Berg said:

I'm going to give iTalc a try here in the next month or so in one of our labs as well. Your report and some of the online info I've seen about it makes it sound ideal, and it sounds like it does everything that SynchronEyes does (SMART's version of the same type of program). Thanks for the post, Brian!

[Bryan Berg]

Hey, Brian!

Fast question - do you know if it's possible to use iTalc with multiple teacher computers...I'm envisioning a lab where each teacher brings in their own laptop. Can iTalc be configured in such a way that when the teacher comes in, they can launch the monitoring application and see just the lab computers? Or, taking this a step further, in a 1:1 scenario, where the kiddos are coming in and out with their own laptops, is there a way iTalc can be changed at the start of each period for a teacher to view the desktops of the students they are working with for that class period?

Just pondering possibilities....and wondering if you had pondered some of the same ones!

[Brian Bartley]

Hey Bryan, All of this can be done with iTalc. Within iTalc you create classrooms, in th efirst scenario when a teacher walks into a lab with their laptop the would open the classroom that is specific for the lab they are in. There in no limit to the amount of classrooms that an individual teacher can have on their machines and there is also no limit to how many teacher machines can be on the system. The second scenario is also very easy to setup, you would create a classroom on the teacher laptop for each of their specific classes and then assign the student laptops to the appropriate classroom. A computer can be in multiple classrooms and manged by multiple teacher computers no problem.

Bryan Berg said:

Hey, Brian!

Fast question - do you know if it's possible to use iTalc with multiple teacher computers...I'm envisioning a lab where each teacher brings in their own laptop. Can iTalc be configured in such a way that when the teacher comes in, they can launch the monitoring application and see just the lab computers? Or, taking this a step further, in a 1:1 scenario, where the kiddos are coming in and out with their own laptops, is there a way iTalc can be changed at the start of each period for a teacher to view the desktops of the students they are working with for that class period?

Just pondering possibilities....and wondering if you had pondered some of the same ones!

[Grant Voth]

Is anyone using this with win 7 64 bit yet?

[Brian Bartley]

I am using it with Windows 7, but in a 32bit version not the 64 bit.

Brian

Grant Voth said:

Is anyone using this with win 7 64 bit yet?

[Matt Anderson]

Brian,

Have you ever had the need to change what port iTalc communicates on? It looks like it uses port 5900 and I use a program on all of my machines that uses port 5900. Not sure if you've ever run into that or not but I'd rather not change the original program but change iTalc. Any ideas?