Abbotsford Rolls Out WiFi To Support Classroom Technologies
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Abbotsford School District 34 in British Columbia (Canada) this semester began rolling out a new wireless network, one that, at present, covers about a quarter of the district's 51 sites. The move is part of an effort to improve access for teachers, who are increasingly using wireless technologies in their classrooms, according to information released by the district.
For the rollout, the district is replacing a variety of different wireless solutions in favor of technologies from Colubris Networks.
"We are seeing a huge increase in the number of teachers who are using wireless technology in the classroom. For example, teachers are using Tablet PCs to connect to wireless projectors and laptops to connect to Smart Boards...." said Leighton Lefaivre, manager of information systems at Abbotsford. "By deploying Colubris equipment throughout our school system, we can ensure that teachers will have continuous and reliable wireless access so they can benefit from these technologies."
For the deployment, the district has thusfar purchased some 80 MAP-320 and MAP-330 Colubris MultiService Access Points, along with a MultiService Controller. The access points cover about a fourth of the schools in the district; the controller, housed in the administration building, provides centralized management of the network.
"We have a lot of new teachers who come out of university with an extensive technology background, so we're quickly upgrading our technology to give them the tools to use that knowledge for learning," said Lefaivre. "With Colubris, we have a wireless infrastructure in place from which to build on and deploy productivity-boosting applications--now and in the future."
The district said it also plans to deploy the Colubris RF Manager and the Colubris RF Planner for intrusion prevention and the mapping of access points.
Abbotsford School District 34 serves about 19,000 students and employs about 2,500 faculty and staff. It comprises 30 elementary schools, eight middle schools, eight high schools, and five other sites and centers.
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About the author: David Nagel is the executive editor for 1105 Media's online education technology publications, including THE Journal and Campus Technology. He can be reached at [email protected].
Proposals for articles and tips for news stories, as well as questions and comments about this publication, should be submitted to David Nagel, executive editor, at [email protected].