Stockholm decided to integrate all of its identities and build a portal that would bridge the gap between teachers and students, so it teamed up with Pulsen, a Novell partner in Sweden, to create its new education portal based on Novel products. Novell identity management and portal solution synchronizes and integrates identity information into a global directory to maintain a single source of accurate user identity information. The new education portal includes access to e-mail and shared educational resources such as online encyclopedias. By integrating applications into the portal, teachers and students are able to securely access resources from any computer, rather than just a limited number of school workstations.
"We are a big fan of Novell technology," said Lars Pehrsson, senior project leader in the IT Department of the city of Stockholm. "The whole portfolio of products is flexible and open so we have the freedom to build all kinds of solutions."
The city first created a global directory for its 100,000 students and 10,000 teachers and staff using Novell eDirectory. To maintain a single source of accurate identity information, it deployed Novell Nsure Identity Manager to synchronize information from other applications, such as the Human Resources system and the curriculum database. Teachers and students now have secure access to resources with a single ID and password, based on user information stored in eDirectory.
Novell exteNd enabled the city to design, build and implement a new educational portal that enhances communication between teachers and students. By integrating the portal with the directory, the city enables teachers and students to securely access information through any Web browser based on their identity attributes such as school, class, grade and curriculum.
Hans Fernstrom, city of Stockholm coordinator of ICT solutions for schools, said, "We needed to quickly create a solution to satisfy the demands of our teachers and staff. We wanted to create a straightforward portal with a clean interface. Because Novell exteNd is so modular and flexible, we could choose our portlets and install just what we wanted."
GroupWise Web Access is integrated into the portal so users can e-mail each other from any computer using a standard Web browser, rather than logging into a school machine. The schools also save money and time without the need to install GroupWise client software on 20,000 workstations. Novell eGuide provides a white pages directory of all teachers and students throughout Stockholm, improving communication by making it easy for teachers and students to find and contact one another.
Novell iFolder provides secure network file storage for teachers, allowing them to access files from any computer. It automatically synchronizes changes to files so they can stay up to date whether at home or school. Teachers can also create shared folders for specific classes to easily distribute information to all their students.
"Our primary goal is to increase the quality of education, and we do that if we can help teachers use technology efficiently," Fernstrom said. "A new portal seems like a simple solution, but we are seeing dramatic benefits already. Novell exteNd and Nsure have helped us broaden our horizons and have laid the groundwork for future enhancements, such as allowing parents to securely view information about their child's assignments, grades and attendance."
