Techniques for Use in Communications of Systems for Targeted Datacasting

A computer readable medium comprising computer readable program code embodied therein for delivery of messages comprising educational content over a communications network, wherein when executed by a processor causes the processor to:

• (a) receive, by a central server, one or more messages associated with one or more assignments from the one or more educator computing devices, wherein each message comprises the educational content for distribution from one or more educator computing devices to a plurality of student computing devices and a schedule indicating when the message is active for distribution;
• (b) receive, by a local server within a school network, the one or more messages and storing the messages in a local server datastore;
• (c) receive, by the local server from a given gateway of a plurality of gateways within the school network, a request for active messages stored in the local server datastore;
• (d) identify, by the local server, the active messages stored in the local server datastore using the schedule in the one or more messages, and returning a list of the active messages stored in the local server datastore to the given gateway;
• (e) determine, by the given gateway, whether the list of the active messages stored in the local server datastore contains any messages unretrieved by the given gateway;
• (f) send, by the given gateway to the local server, a request for the unretrieved messages stored in the local server datastore;
• and
• (g) receive, by the given gateway, the requested messages stored in the local server datastore from the local server and storing the requested messages from the local server datastore in a given gateway datastore.

A system, comprising:

• a central server outside of a school network for receiving one or more messages associated with one or more assignments from the one or more educator computing devices, wherein each message comprises educational content for distribution from one or more educator computing devices to a plurality of student computing devices and a schedule indicating when the message is active for distribution;
• a local server within the school network for receiving the one or more messages and storing the messages in a local server datastore;
• and
• a given gateway of a plurality of gateways within the school network,
• wherein the local server receives from the given gateway a request for active messages stored in the local server datastore,
• wherein the local server identifies the active messages stored in the local server datastore using the schedule in the one or more messages, and returns a list of the active messages stored in the local server datastore to the given gateway,
• wherein the given gateway determines whether the list of the active messages stored in the local server datastore contains any messages unretrieved by the given gateway, wherein the given gateway sends to the local server a request for the unretrieved messages stored in the local server datastore, and
• wherein the given gateway receives the requested messages stored in the local server datastore from the local server and storing the requested messages from the local server datastore in a given gateway datastore.