IT Trends
Report: Districts Should Help Families with Their WiFi Needs
More than 9-in-10 students learning from home are using WiFi rather
than wired connections. But the quality of their wireless connections
varies greatly. 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 report, the Student
Home Connectivity Study, from the Consortium for School
Networking (CoSN), studied data from 13 districts representing some
750,000 students in the United States. Among many significant
findings, the researchers discovered that 92% of students working
from home use WiFi rather than wired connections for their internet
access when they are engaged in learning activities. “However,”
the report noted, “WiFi presents significant challenges. Factors
such as router location, home construction, and available support for
modern router standards can impact the strength of the WiFi
connection.”
The report’s authors recommended that institutions step up and
assist families to ensure that students have the best possible
connection to their learning materials. This does not necessarily
mean purchasing new equipment for those families. Some
recommendations from the report:
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Help families acquire new routers if their router has not been
upgraded in a few years;
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Work with ISPs to replace outdated routers;
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Provide network extenders in areas with poor signals;
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Educate families on router placement and maintenance.
On this last point, the report noted: “For example, mounting a
router on a brick wall or placing it behind a television can impede
WiFi signals. Just as important is to consider the home construction
materials, such as plaster or concrete, which can also weaken a WiFi
connection. When needed, families of students should receive guidance
from the school district regarding appropriate WiFi router placement
to mitigate obstacles in student internet access.”
The complete report is freely available at cosn.org.
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