Developer(s) Stoneware, Inc. License Proprietary | Type Classroom management Website www.lanschool.com | |
Initial release February 9, 1986; 31 years ago (1986-02-09) (as LanFan Technologies)
April 2001 (2001-04) (as LanSchool Technologies, LLC) | ||
LanSchool is a classroom management program owned by Stoneware, Inc., a Lenovo Company. It is used by schools to monitor students' activity and improve learning in a digital classroom. It includes a screen monitor, keystroke monitor, teacher-to-student chat feature, URL monitor, and various other features. Both the LanSchool keystroke monitor and URL monitor can store data for later collection. LanSchool can also be configured to remotely monitor students in realtime while they are outside of school.
Contents
Technology
LanSchool products use a proprietary remote desktop protocol that communicates via TCP and UDP. A console application is installed on the Teacher’s computer which communicates peer-to-peer with a software agent running on the student computers. The software is available in a 'Teacher' and 'Student' edition. The Teacher edition allows the user to access and control the computers with the Student edition installed on them. Meaning for LanSchool to work ('correctly'), someone must install the software on each 'Student' computer.
Platforms
The LanSchool software is available for many well known platforms such as Microsoft Windows, macOS, and Linux.
History
Originally named LanFan Technologies, the company was founded in February 1986 when Dana Doggett began exploring the concept of a software application that would allow an instructor to leverage a local area network to teach using technology.
Dana developed a software tool called PC Chalkboard that was immediately implemented by Novell. PC Chalkboard allowed Novell lab instructors to broadcast their screens to each PC in the lab. LanSchool was licensed by both Intel and IBM and actively marketed through each company’s education sales channel. The IBM relationship is still active today. In April 2001, Dana left Intel and formed a new company, LanSchool Technologies, LLC where he could work on LanSchool full-time. The new company’s mission is to improve education worldwide through the use of innovative technological solutions.
Acquisitions
LanSchool was acquired by Stoneware in 2011. In September 2012 Lenovo announced the acquisition of Stoneware and the acquisition was completed on December 26, 2012.