At the newly established City Learning Centre at Yewlands School, an 850-student school in the U.K. county of South Yorkshire, school administrators wanted an effective and economical way to prepare, deliver, and manage lessons and assignments in an IT environment.

They knew students working on the center's 100 PCs and 20 wireless laptops might be tempted to stray occasionally from the task at hand, and they knew teachers would want a simple way to deliver computer-based instruction while also monitoring what students were doing across all four rooms. They found just such a solution in Sanako's Study 100 software.

Sanako Study 100 offers an array of practical tools for the preparation, delivery, and management of digital lesson plans and work assignments across distributed networks.

It uses the latest technology to control classroom computers and their applications through a local area network (LAN), and it's purely a software solution that does not require any dedicated hardware or wiring.

The system's software kit has three main parts: (1) The Tutor component, which is the main interface, allowing teachers to take control of classroom computers, their software, and how they are used by students; (2) the Client components, which are stored on students' workstations and respond to commands sent by the Tutor module; and (3) Crossroads, the system's information center.

Sanako Study 100 has helped enhance the teaching benefits of the center's existing interactive whiteboards, officials say. When used in conjunction with the boards, Study 100 not only allows teachers to demonstrate tasks to students, but it also allows students to present their own work to the rest of the class from their own workstations.

Owing to the software's remote monitoring and control features, students now can work independently in separate rooms at the center, using wireless laptops. Teachers, meanwhile, can remotely monitor the work students are doing from the center's main room and intervene when needed. This feature not only enhances the teaching and learning environment, but also ensures optimal use of information and communications technology (ICT) resources, officials say.

Sanako Study 100 proved to be so popular at the City Learning Centre that it also was purchased for use in the school itself--where it clearly has helped enhance the teaching and learning environment for staff and students. Staff members believe that students relate far better to their lessons and learn far more easily when they are able to follow a visual demonstration of a task, rather than receiving only verbal instruction. With Sanako Study 100, teachers can broadcast their computer screens to students for the demonstration of tasks, so each student is able to see a visual demonstration on his or her own PC.

John Innes, assistant head teacher at the school, is using Sanako Study 100 on a daily basis to prepare, deliver, and manage his ICT lessons. He is especially impressed with the software's screen broadcast feature.