We use a program called Synchroneyes, from the same folks who make
Smartboards.  Does the same thing.  You can  just disable web surfing,
though it only locks IE, not FF, or whatever else you have installed (I
have kids smart enough to bring in portable Firefox on USB keys, but
they're not the problem kids, fortunately), or you can lock the whole
desktop.  You can also spy on what the kids  are doing (we put a notice on
each monitor saying use may be monitored, so the kids can't say they
weren't warned.  I heard some unflattering comparisons of our school to
certain totalitatian regimes for a while, but they got used to it.)  I
think you can also lock kids into a particular app, or group of apps,
though I haven't played with that.

Depending on your network topology, you could always wire it so one pull
of a network patch cord essentially cuts off the LAN in a room from the
rest of the network, and it might not cost anything to implement.   I did
that in one lab that was all Macs, so Synchroneyes couldn't be used, but
you could do it in PC labs, too.  Since this lab was all Macs, they didn't
really need TCP/IP to access their file server, which was in the room, it
was set up to work with Appletalk, too, and printing was through Appletalk
also.  I did have to make sure the file server was acting as a seed router
to make appletalk work.

I gotta say, though, that teachers usually find that making it impossible
to for a kid to not do something you don't want them to is a lot easier
than getting them to do something you do want them to, like their work. 
You shut off internet, they sneak games in on their flash drives, and the
battle of wills just continues....  So most teachers think Synchroneyes is
really cool for a while, but they rely on it less and less once they've
had it a while.


School Information Technology Discussion <[log in to unmask]> writes:
>GenevaLogic Vision will do this. You can create white lists or black
>lists and implement them dynamically from the classroom.
>
>http://www.genevalogic.com/index.php?id=geneva_logic
>
>You can by site licenses and bundles, but get a quote from Gov
>Connection or ASAP, as the price will be a little cheaper.
>
>The SurfLock is just an add-on to their excellent lab management engine.
>
>--Steve Barner 
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: School Information Technology Discussion
>[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Bjorn Behrendt
>Sent: Thursday, May 10, 2007 10:05 AM
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: temporarly turn off internet in lab or user
>
>I am looking for a way that my teacher can turn off internet access for
>a computer lab or at least individual computers.
>
>I am running into a problem where students are surfing the internet
>whenever the teachers back is turned.  We already tried just handling
>this as a classroom policy, and the teacher has asked if there was a way
>she can just shut him off for the period.
>
>Bjorn Behrendt
>Proctor School District
>Tech Director
>[log in to unmask]
>Phs: (802) 459-3353 x2113
>Pes: (802) 459-2225 x2018 
>
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