SMART Sync classroom management software

Keep students focused on learning in a computer-enabled environment with SMART Sync classroom management software. This intuitive software helps you make the most of class time – you can guide students' collaboration in a group setting while still communicating with your entire class. SMART Sync also enables you to support each student's individual learning needs at the same time.

Keep students focused on learning
SMART Sync has a practical set of features that enable smooth transitions between individual, small group and whole class activities, helping you make the most of class time.

This classroom management software lets you view student screens on your computer desktop, making it easy to monitor their activities and provide guidance and support throughout the lesson. With SMART Sync, you can interact with your students as a group or individually to keep them engaged and focused.

Enable collaboration
With SMART Sync, you can organize small groups of students and guide their process of collaboration, while still maintaining whole-class instruction. With this software, it's easy to promote individual, small-group and whole-class learning in a single lesson. Give students an assignment to work on individually, then use SMART Sync to randomly organize them into small groups, so they can team up and develop a consensus by sharing screens and collaborating. At the end of the assignment, you can broadcast each group's work to the entire class for further discussion.

Help students stay on track
Sometimes students can get distracted by the temptations of the digital world. Now you can help them stay on course. SMART Sync allows you to choose which websites and applications your students have access to, and if you need to get everyone's attention, you can lock all student computer screens with the push of a button.

Connect to your students and your network
Use SMART Sync in your wireless computer environments. This software enables you to quickly connect and stay connected to your school network, so you can focus on guiding and supporting your students' learning, instead of dealing with connectivity issues. The software also works within existing wired computer classrooms, making it perfect for desktop, laptop and PDA environments.

Monitor activity with ease
With SMART Sync, you can see what all your students are working on at any given time. The software enables you to observe each student's computer from your own screen.

Provide direct support
In every class, there are always a few students who are too shy to ask for help. With SMART Sync, you can communicate privately to individual students or groups, and guide them through a task or problem.

Get more out of 1:1 learning
To further boost the potential of your 1:1 environments, SMART Sync is also available as part of SMART Classroom Suite interactive learning software. This suite of four powerful and easy-to-use software applications is designed to support the key stages of teaching and learning – from lesson creation and delivery to student assessment. In addition to SMART Sync, SMART Classroom Suite includes SMART Notebook collaborative learning software, SMART Notebook SE (Student Edition) and SMART Response CE interactive response system.

Features

Monitor screens
Observe the screens of all the students in your class directly from your computer. SMART Sync classroom management software lets you view the screens as thumbnail images that refresh every few seconds, enabling you to see what students are working on at any given time. In the top left corner of each thumbnail, you can also see an icon that indicates which application a student is currently using.

Broadcast screens
Demonstrate a concept or example by sharing your desktop or a student's with everyone in the classroom. Each student can see in detail what you are presenting. You can either set your broadcast to Full Screen mode so students can't view or use other applications, or you can set your broadcast to Window mode so students can switch between the broadcast and other applications.

Capture screens
Take a snapshot of a student's screen and save it as an image with a time and date stamp to record progress or document misconduct.

Lock screens
Capture the attention of your class, a group or an individual student by locking the screens using a customizable message.

Manage computers
Remotely shut down, log off or restart the computers of your entire class, a group or a selected student.

Restrict applications
Prevent students from accessing applications such as games or instant messaging using customizable application blocking rules. You can choose to block certain applications, allowing only the ones that are relevant to your lesson.

Control online access
Keep students focused on learning by blocking or restricting access to the Internet. With SMART Sync, you can create multiple Internet blocking rules that control what students can access.

Go wireless
Connect and stay connected to your wireless network, and your students. You can also add devices such as laptops and tablet computers to your class network.

Keep your network secure
Provide a safe learning environment for students. SMART Sync includes comprehensive security features such as teacher authentication and 256-bit encryption. The software also lets you set passwords to protect the connections between teachers and students.

Enable student collaboration
Use SMART Sync to easily facilitate collaboration. After students have worked individually on an assignment, you can use the software to randomly organize them into small groups. Students can work towards a consensus by sharing screens and collaborating face-to-face or from opposite corners of the room using a chat session. Afterward, broadcast group work to the entire class to promote further discussion. And once the lesson is finished, each student or group can send their assignments to you digitally.

Create and monitor group chat sessions
Organize students into groups and create a controlled chat environment for students to discuss a given topic. SMART Sync also allows you to tailor specific actions to a certain section of the class. For example, you can create a group made up of students who are easily distracted and then monitor their computer screens.

Survey students on the fly
Send a yes or no question to the class or a group and ask them to vote on it. SMART Sync automatically tallies the responses and displays the result of the vote at the bottom of the window.

Respond to students individually
Encourage students to use the software to send you questions so you can give them immediate assistance. SMART Sync allows you to chat with individual students or the whole class. You can also avoid distracting students with messages that don't apply to them by restricting your comments to certain groups.

Work with applications
Keep your classroom running smoothly – instantly access and control applications for the whole class. You can transmit video files, launch an application for every student at once, send and receive files, and access websites.

Control computers remotely
Take control of any computer to guide students through a particular task or problem. You can even use your mouse to draw on a student's screen with digital ink to attract attention to a certain area. Any changes you make are visible to the student in real time. You also have the option to share control so that both you and your student can make changes.

Designate a teacher aide
Give colleagues limited access to SMART Sync so that they can monitor your class. The software allows you to choose up to five people to act as teacher aides. They can then access the thumbnail view and monitor your whole class, a group or an individual student.

Simplify installation
Deploy SMART Sync on all student computers automatically using an .msi file. SMART Sync also features Class List Server, a Windows operating system service that automatically connects the SMART Sync teacher and student installations in your school.

Administrate with ease
Create SMART school files (.school) that contain information about students, teachers, classes and computer labs. With a SMART school file, teachers can connect to the right student at the right time and apply defined application and Internet blocking rules.

Access SMART Sync in more than 20 languages, including Chinese, German, French, Italian, Dutch, Greek, Turkish, Russian, Portuguese and Spanish.

Integrate other SMART products
Combine SMART Sync with other SMART products for greater interactivity. For example, when you use SMART Sync with a SMART Board interactive whiteboard, you can write notes on the interactive whiteboard and your students will see them on their own desktops. Or choose SMART Classroom Suite interactive learning software to enhance your 1:1 environments with the combined benefits of SMART Sync, SMART Notebook collaborative learning software, SMART Notebook SE (Student Edition) and SMART Response CE interactive response system.

System requirements

Teacher and system administrator computers
Pentium III 600 MHz processor
256 MB of RAM
100 MB of free hard disk space
Windows XP, Windows Vista or Windows 7 operating system
800 x 600 or higher resolution display with 16-bit color quality
InternetExplorer internet browser version 5.0 or later
DirectX technology version 7.0a or later

Student computers
Pentium III 500 MHz processor
128 MB of RAM
55 MB of free hard disk space
Windows XP, Windows Vista or Windows 7 operating system
600 x 480 or higher resolution display with 16-bit color quality
Internet Explorer internet browserversion 5.0 or later
DirectX technology version 7.0a or later

Network
802.11 a/g wireless network (minimum)
100 Mbps wired network or 802.11 n wireless network (recommended)