[K12OSN] Fl_Teachers_Tool

Tue Nov 21 01:08:06 UTC 2006

On Mon, 2006-11-20 at 15:53 -0800, Robert Arkiletian wrote:

> Yes, this was my initial thought also but I changed my mind as it has
> too many down sides. What if you get new students, or students drop
> the course? Who is going to maintain the list? Or create it? In
> addition, what if teachers bring in students who don't have usernames
> but use comp1, comp2 etc..? It won't work. I think the best solution
> is to create a list of mac addresses in a lab. Put this list in a flat
> file with room # (like this)
> 
> room 306
> some:mac: address
> some:other:mac:address
> etc..
> 
> rooom 307
> some:mac: address
> some:other:mac:address
> etc...
> 
> and have fl_TT read the file. When fl_TT initially comes up it list
> all students on the ltsp server. If you want only your room you type
> in your room number into the input box and click users. Boom, you only
> get the kids sitting in your lab. I can do this. Plus the only time
> you need to update/edit the mac address list is if you replace client
> computers/nic.

Here is the scenario I am implementing (once it's finished the live,
online devel/implement phase I'll post it to the wiki).

1. Each machine is named based on the room it it in: i.e. rm102sc12
means room 102 student computer 12

2. During individual student login I test for which machine they are on
and use that to set the default printer (The printer in the classroom is
named rm102pr01 or similar).

3. The FL_TeacherTool looks to see what host the student is using. The
current version displays the IP address. I have changed it back to
display the host name. All of my clients have unique hostnames set
in /etc/hosts (I have a bit more mangling to do on the setup script and
it will hit the wiki as well - post early, post often but don't post
crap that takes a propellerhead to use :).

4. Now add the proposed new "filter button" to only display the hosts
that match room number foo. If the process is not too complicated, it
can be set as an environment variable on the teacher account and
autodetected. (I am capturing the teacher machines and placing them in
the same room with their students - new machines are likely to be dual
boot WinXP Pro and PXE to Linux (YAY!!))

This eliminates creating a new MAC to hosts file and lets the DHCP
process handle the settings (with a bit of hand holding)

I have written a perl script (to be posted on the wiki in a week or so
if it's not too large) that is used to capture the MAC address data from
the dhcpd.leases file and convert it into static dhcp data for the
dhcp-k12ltsp.conf file. It also handles network printers in the
classroom as well as windows teachers machines that must the static NAT
for remote access from the central office. I also have a rather
specialized bash script that finds the MAC address for the server NICs
and sets them up for use (6 NICs per server, 2 types of servers, 100+
thin clients per server) that is geared very specifically for the
current install process. This was written because we ran into a nasty
problem of NICs renumbering themselves during reboots or restarts (eth0
becomes eth3, etc). 

BTW: I had an exhibitors booth at the Georgia Educational Technology
Conference. We were very excited to see the number of schools that are
implementing Linux in many forms and uses. The teachers (many!) that got
to play with TeacherTool were nearly drooling! They saw that it replaced
the smartboards using the Broadcast feature and just adding a Wacom (or
cheaper) pen tablet to the teacher desk. The part they liked to most was
the ability to lock the screen when the student was supposed to be doing
something else. 

a side note on teachertool: a teacher asked if it was possible to have
voice chat with a selected student to do a one-on-one coaching session
using the Control tools. I see the sound stuff is there but we need a
way to implement a headset that links through ESD sockets to a remote
user and then back to the teacher machine. That would be a killer-ap!!!
-- 
James P. Kinney III          
CEO & Director of Engineering 
Local Net Solutions,LLC        
770-493-8244                    
http://www.localnetsolutions.com

GPG ID: 829C6CA7 James P. Kinney III (M.S. Physics)
<jkinney at localnetsolutions.com>
Fingerprint = 3C9E 6366 54FC A3FE BA4D 0659 6190 ADC3 829C 6CA7
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