B E T T S H O W R E V I E W
With over 50%of pupils’ time supported by ICT… ‘HIGHLIGHTS JUST HOWVITAL IT IS
FOR SCHOOLS TO GET THEIRWIRELESS NETWORK RIGHT’ says Ram ofMeru
revolutionising teaching and learning in schools across the country. It is being driven by the increasing use of mobile devices and its effects are being felt far beyond the Ict classroom. In the past, computers – and
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therefore staff and pupils – were confined to specific rooms or areas of the classroom, meaning learning was often rigid and strictly confined to the timetable. However, with the growth of wireless devices now available to pupils and teachers, learning with technology has become more flexible and more accessible, enabling teachers to be more creative in the way they deliver lessons and students to learn and flourish in a multimedia-rich environment. Arecent study by the British
Educational SuppliersAssociation (BESA) found that UK schools now believe more than 50% of pupil time is supported by ICT, highlighting just how important it is for schools to get their wireless network right. If it takes a significant proportion of the lesson for teachers and students to get access to the network or relevant applications, it inevitably has a detrimental effect on the lesson and students’ overall learning and development. Whether we’re considering
teachers, students or administrators, predictable and reliable access to data, video and other applications is necessary to ensure learning and administration throughout the school runs smoothly. However, even today the quality of wireless in many schools is a world away from the wireless we’re now used to in the home or work environment, this is down to the fact that schools create their own unique and complicated challenges. How many businesses have hundreds of
Access to technology is Meru Networks
employees all logging on simultaneously at very specific times of the day, every day?Who has ever seen a laptop trolley in a corporate environment?Who needs more than one access point to cover a home?Where in a home situation will you get 120 devices accessing the network at the same time? Schools use their wireless
networks in a very particular way and this produces a set of very
vice-president marketing,
Appalaraju, senior
by Ram
distinct challenges. Due to the falling cost of netbooks and the increase in availability of other portable devices such as smartphones and tablets, there are ever-increasing pressures facing schools’ legacy wireless networks. For many schools and colleges now, it is often the case that a raft of new devices and applications are added to the network by staff and students with each term that goes by – in fact on average each pupil introduces three devices to a campus network. For a network to be effective, it
must be able to deliver the same predictable, reliable performance across the whole of a campus. As such, the sheer scale of many schools and college buildings poses a huge challenge for wireless connectivity in educational institutions.With wireless devices typically clustered together in small spaces in schools, there is often an adverse effect on the performance of traditional microcell wireless networks, resulting in devices dropping off the network – or failing to access it at all. The pattern of use of wireless in
a school is also unique. The network experiences vast peaks and troughs of usage, both in terms of demand on bandwidth and sheer
DESPITE BEINGTHE LAST STAND ON THE GROUND FLOORAT BETT,VISITORS
WERE QUEUINGTO TALKTOMERU
Technology in Education No.180 January/February 2011 40
density of simultaneous users, placing enormous strain on the legacy systems that UK schools typically have in place.When it was just teachers and support staff who had laptops, these systems could usually cope. However, bandwidth is quickly gobbled up as hundreds of pupils log onto the network at the same time and ever-more media is being streamed through the network. Due to this increased pressure on the network, a smarter approach and smarter technology is needed to deliver wireless in schools that is fit for purpose – both now and for the future. Fortunately, there are alternative
wireless technologies better suited to the school environment that can help schools’ network managers to address these issues. Rather than the traditional microcell based wireless infrastructure that so many schools struggle with, virtualised networks can deliver high-speed wireless capabilities at full power to hundreds of simultaneous, high-density users. Virtualised LAN solutions also provide more reliable coverage and better performance with less equipment, which means fewer resources have to be spent on infrastructure and maintenance. The anecdotal evidence from
schools across the UK about the effect mobile devices have had on their learning environment is staggering. Effective wireless connectivity allows lessons to become more interesting and stimulating for students, giving them greater independence and control of their own education. Some of the long-standing problems that face every school, such as truancy and bad behaviour, can be reduced by handing students this level of empowerment and trust.
Circle No.E23 Check out our website:
www.technology-in-education.co.uk ’
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