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3Com® Education Module-Enriching and Protecting School Systems
3Com® Education Module-Enriching and Protecting School Systems
The 3Com® Convergence Applications Suite Education Module enhances communication among teachers, parents,
administrators, and safety officials of K-12 schools. Educators can proactively contact parents efficiently,
respond 24 hours a day to the most common inquiries, and augment safety and security.
Eliminate Recurring Truancy Notification Costs
Many school systems are obligated by state mandate to call parents when their children miss school. Services
for making these calls can cost as much as $13 per student per year. A lower cost one-time purchase of the
3Com Education Module can eliminate these annual fees and automatically dial student homes, informing
parents of their child’s absence.
Keep Parents Informed
Schools can use the module to proactively notify parents of the latest school event—such as a school play,
bake sale, or blood drive—using the auto dialer feature of the 3Com Education Module. Similarly, the
auto dialer can be used to broadcast a snow day or other critical event. Alternatively, parents can call
into the system 24 hours a day to learn of their child’s homework assignments, the lunch menu, or any
other information that administrators deem important.
Protect the School
The 3Com Education Module 911 feature lets school administrators and safety officials know anytime a 911
call is placed, helping them respond rapidly and potentially reducing the risk to the school and its
students.
The malicious call feature of the 3Com Education Module allows teachers, receptionists, or anyone in the
school to alert key personnel to such a call. Based on a customizable list, the principal and other
school safety officials can be notified via phone and/or e-mail as the call is taking place. Upon its
completion, a full recording is sent to a predetermined set of recipients.
The Education Module is supported by the 3Com NBX® IP telephony platform—a popular, proven solution for
school systems because of its ease of administration, scalability to support large schools, reduced wiring
needs, and a feature set designed with school system needs in mind.
Notify Teachers Without Classroom Disruption
3Com NBX solutions let administrators notify teachers without disrupting classroom activities. Simply by
pressing a button on their phone and selecting the classroom, administrators can indicate to teachers
that they would like to speak with them. A light on the classroom phone lets teachers know of the
request while allowing them the freedom to respond when the class period or activity ends. Teachers
can easily see who to call by pressing the button.
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The 3Com® Education Module is a useful set of integrated applications that can vastly simplify communications
among teachers in school, and among teachers, administrators, safety officials, and parents. The Education
Module applications run in conjunction with the 3Com NBX Networked Telephony Solution.
Auto Dialer, Including Absentee Reporting
This feature provides automatic dialing and distribution of voice messages to predefined calling lists.
For example, every day, the Education Module system can send a recorded voice message to the parents or
guardians of each child who did not come to school. Other uses include reminders to parents of upcoming
parent/teacher meetings, changes to extracurricular activities, snow days including bus cancellations
or delays, notice of school board meetings, and so on.
Intercom
For telephones in the school that have speaker capabilities, this application provides a speed-dial
feature that allows an intercom message to go out to specific extensions or groups of extensions.
Homework Hotline and Enhanced IVR
Using this feature, a teacher calls into the system, enters a secure class identification number for
each class, and records the day’s or week’s assignments. Parents and guardians can then call, enter
a student identification number (and optionally, a PIN), and hear the current homework assignment
from their student’s single teacher (as in primary schools) or a consolidated message of assignments
from all of the student’s teachers (typical in secondary schools).
One variation within this application permits designated employees to call and record the cafeteria
menus for the day or a range of days. These messages can even include nutritional information. Another
variation allows designated organizers of extracurricular activities, such as the band director or
the soccer coach, to call into the system, enter a secure activity ID number, and record the current
schedule and other related information, such as locations, fees, uniform or permissions requirements,
and so on.
Record On-Demand
As a safety precaution, the Education Module can record a message if an in-school recipient (for
instance, the receptionist, a teacher, or an administrator) hears what may be a bomb threat or other
illegal or disturbing talk. When the recipient presses certain activation keys, the entire
conversation is saved for future analysis.
NOTE: For legal reasons, 3Com recommends that a school that plans to use this feature inserts an
announcement such as the following message into its Auto Attendant voice prompts: “Your call may
be recorded.”
Emergency Event Tracing
Similar to the Record On-Demand feature, this application automatically detects when any user of a
telephone on the system presses 911 (for an outgoing call) or when any in-school recipient detects
what might be a malicious call (and presses certain activation keys). The system records the call,
provides storage and playback information, sends a recorded message to a predefined group of phone
numbers, and distributes the recorded message according to already defined instructions.
NOTE: For legal reasons, 3Com recommends that a school that plans to use this feature inserts an
announcement such as the following message into its Auto Attendant voice prompts: “Your call may
be recorded.”
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