The new Global Chalkboard release is packed with enhancements, including:
- Granular delivery of specific YouTube videos or channels.
Students can now be directed to specific YouTube videos or channels while blocking all other YouTube content. Channels are a series of videos created by the same entity; for example, the White House and PBS have their own channels.
The process is easy. Just follow the new procedure provided in HELP under "Add/Edit Lesson" and then "Allowing YouTube Videos & Channels." - Better performance that saves both bandwidth and time by caching YouTube videos.
To significantly conserve bandwidth the Global Chalkboard now has the ability to save selected Web videos onto the hard drivea process known as caching. As a result, when you want your students working at different computers to view the same YouTube video, it will stream and play faster. - New Acceptable Use Policy splash screen for notification to your administrators, teachers, and students of your Internet guidelines or any other vital communication.
Your school may wish to institute an Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) splash screen to notify users of your Internet guidelines or any other vital information. For flexibility in administration, specific computers and/or IP ranges of computers can be excluded from receiving the AUP screen.
- More flexibility in network administration with the ability to reserve IP addresses for specific machines when using DHCP.
Now selected devices on your network can keep the same IP address by assigning its MAC address to that IP. This is helpful for devices such as servers and printers, which usually require a static IP to function properly on the network. - SafeSearch support when using Microsoft's new bing.com search engine.
- Support for multicast routing to reduce network traffic from multicast-enabled portions of the Internet.
Streaming of video, audio or other multimedia content from the Internet to multiple computers simultaneously can consume massive amounts of bandwidth. The Global Chalkboard now supports multicasting, which can send a single video stream to an entire classroom (or school) at once, saving huge amounts of bandwidth. However, multicasting requires support from your Internet Service Provider, and can only be enabled and configured by contacting BASCOM support.
For detailed information on any of these new features click on the HELP button in the upper, right-hand corner. This immediately launches you into a dynamic HELP system.