Vision+Lab+Management+Software

GenevaLogic Vision is a program that allows teachers to monitor student progress on the computers. All of the teacher computers in our computer labs have this program installed on it. All of the student computers have the client version of this program installed.

How does it work?
Vision uses the existing network in the school to connect the client computers to the master/teacher computer. After the Vision program is started on the master computer the program will open on the desktop. From there you can connect to the classroom you are in. There is no need for the students to start up anything. Vision is running at all times on the student computers so they are always attached to the master computer. Vision is not a perfect program. It has its moments of locking up and error messages. So be patient with it and if you experience problems please contact the Techco.

Starting Vision
The only thing that denotes that the client computer has Vision installed is a small golden icon in the lower right hand corner of the Windows Desktop. It looks like a computer with a lock attached to it. On the master computer is a blue icon with an eye in the middle of it. This is the Vision icon that appears on the desktop for starting the program.

Click here to start the program There are three ways to start the program. One is to click on the desktop icon. The second is to right click on the Vision icon in the lower right hand side of the screen and choose open from the list of menu items. And finally you can use the Vision short-cut bar which appears at the top of the screen and drops down when you slide your mouse pointer up to the top of the screen.

The short cut bar contains icons that correspond to functions within Vision. We will go over those functions in a moment. In order to start the program you need to click on the first icon on the left. It looks like a chalkboard with the word Class in the middle of it. Click on it will connect you to the class, so will the next icon to the right of it. Click on the small arrow to the right lets you choose which class to connect to. Each of the master computers in the labs only have access to the computers within their lab.

Once inside Vision you will see a screen that looks like this: After connecting to a class the screen will look like this: This is a representation of the computer lab computers 1-30 starting from the top left. The computers screens change in real time so the changes you see the students make happens while they do it. Any screen that is all blue is connected but something in the software makes it difficult for the program to connect. Black screens means the computer is turned off, not on the network or the Vision software is not connected. If you see a problem like this please contact the Techco and let them know.

At the top is the Vision Dashboard. This is a series of menu headings and icons that correspond different tasks within Vision. Lets breakdown the icons: L to R: Choose and open a class; Log on to class; Log off Class L to R: Demo; Remote Control; Virtual Teacher; Blank Screen L to R: Live Supervision; Supervision; Stop modes L to R: Request User Name; Shutdown L to R: App-Control; Surf Lock Pointer L to R: Snap; Snap ViewerL to R: Chat; Properties; Views

We'll cover some of these icons more in depth here. If you wan to learn more about everything please visit the [|GenevaLogic] website where they have manuals, videos and tutorials on all of these items.

Double clicking on any of the computer monitors brings up the live supervision screen. Here you connect to the computer and can watch what the students are doing on a larger image.

There are five icons at the top that are the same as the icons on the dashboard. They allow: Remote Control; Virtual Teacher; Blank Screen; Stop Modes and Snap. To close Live Supervision click the Red X.
 * Remote Control we will cover next.
 * Virtual Teacher allows you to take over the class and run your lesson through their computers
 * Blank Screen changes their desktop into something that blocks their view and freezes up their computer to stop them from doing something wrong.
 * Snap brings up the Snap Viewer. We will cover this later.

Remote Control
Clicking the Remote Control icon allows you to take control of a computer you are watching or have selected. In order to select a computer click on it so that it changes to a darker shade in color.

Once in Remote Control the Color of the outside of the Live Supervision window turns bright red. In Remote Control you control the computer just as you would if you were sitting in front of it.

Snap
Snap is a function that allows you to take an image of the computer desktops in use. You can do this on an individual basis or with all the computers at once on the main Vision Computer screen. Clicking the Snap icon will take the image and bring up the Snap Viewer menu. In the Snap Viewer menu there are a few things you should know. The images are not saved instantly. You can click save to save them as a Vision image which stores them on the computer but they can only be opened in the Snap Viewer. If you want to save the pictures as a [|JPEG] or [|BMP] click file and choose **Export** from the drop down menu. Then you can save the file as an image that can be opened with just about any program. The images can also be printed from this menu to any printer attached to the computer. Exporting the image allows it to be moved around to other computers.

Pointer
When you select the Pointer icon (Pointer menu also pops up when you start up the Snap Viewer.) you are presented with the Pointer menu: The pointer menu brings up a series of icons (Which we won't cover too much in detail. Play around with them to see what they do.) These icons present a series of tools you can use to teach a class through the vision program. They include a highlighter, boxes to disguise and reveal and a magnifying tool to zoom in on something.

Chat
Vision offers a chat client designed to allow you to chat with students and to let the students to chat with you when they have questions. Clicking the Chat icon brings up the Chat window. Along the top of the window are a series of icons. Each gives you different methods with which to chat. You can chat to individual comptuers or with the enitre classroom at once. Each computer is listed by its computer name not by number. You can work around this by: In a previous version of the program the computers were named by what student was logged into at the time. That has changed.
 * 1) Highlighting all the computers clicking the Request User Name icon on the main desktop. The students then fill in a name with corresponds to the computer they are using
 * 2) Look at the computer name that corresponds to the computer you want to chat with on the main screen and then select that name from the list.

Take the time to learn how to use the program it is not very difficult. If you find discover something that works really well contact the techco so that he can update this site. Remember to look at the tutorials provided by GenevaLogic to learn more. A copy of the programs manual can be found at the techco's desk.

