Earlier this year, a school district in North Carolina refreshed its wireless network, to support devices with Wi-Fi 6 capacity — before they began appearing in classrooms. Burke County Public Schools distributed 1,500 new access points to its 27 schools, using equipment from Cambium Networks (previously Xirrus).
- By Dian Schaffhauser
- 10/28/21
The Texas county that houses Houston will be rolling out a private LTE network using Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) spectrum. The major beneficiary for the initial phase will be families with students that lack high-speed internet access. The project is being funded with CARES Act money.
- By Dian Schaffhauser
- 10/14/21
Data security firm WatchGuard Technologies has launched four new mid-range models in its Firebox line of unified threat management appliances.
Nonprofit Internet2 has been working with state and regional agencies to help accelerate the spread of eduroam into K–12 schools, libraries and museums, resulting in the launch of eduroam Support Organizations.
Schools need smarter and more agile networks to respond to the demands of a digital learning environment that is still in the throes of major changes. For many schools, this means the displacement of legacy WAN (wide area network) architectures with SD-WAN (software-defined wide area networks).
New York district overhauls school-to-home communications efforts with a unified, data-rich communication platform to improve disconnected communications with families.
According to a new report, there are steps schools and districts can take to help improve their students’ home WiFi performance — some at a cost, some using IT staff expertise and legwork.
The current FCC definition of home broadband — 25 Mbps download and 3 Mbps upload speeds — is inadequate for at-home learning, according to researchers who conducted a first-of-its-kind study of district data for students engaged in remote learning.
As education institutions aim to become more flexible to meet modern demands, teachers will continue operating under hybrid learning models — making the need for disruption-free virtual lessons and network access all the more critical. To best accommodate these needs, investing in a flexible IT infrastructure that can support remote-learning, especially as our country undergoes one of the most pivotal time periods in history, will be an important factor.
District digital initiatives have included a 1-to-1 device program, to provide students with iPads, Windows devices and Chromebooks, and a virtual "Backpack of Success Skills" platform for students, to demonstrate learning and collect artifacts such as pictures and video with Google tools. Assessments are done online. And the schools 3,000-plus IP-connected cameras with gunshot recognition capabilities and electronic access control.
- By Dian Schaffhauser
- 03/18/21