November 2007 — News

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WiFi Bolsters Alabama District's 1:1 Tablet PC Program

by David Kopf

Auburn City Schools in Alabama has found that a "no strings attached" approach to classroom networking has let new approaches to instruction take flight.

The district--which includes one kindergarten school, five elementary schools, one middle school, one junior high, and one high school--has deployed a WiFi network to more than 1,000 tablet PC-equipped students and teachers at its junior high and high schools as part of a 21st Century Learning Initiative.

That initiative aims to deliver instruction via a one to one computing environment, increase student achievement, and ensure equitable learning through technology. Per that initiative, the network, tablets, and some key classroom applications have refocused the learning environment, according to Debbie Rice, Auburn City Schools' director of technology.

"Prior to the network, instruction was more static; it was stand and deliver," she said. "The big difference is student involvement. Content is now the focus. It's student-facilitated, not teacher-facilitated."

The Network
The district deployed a WiFI network using WiFi access points and switches from Trapeze Networks at the Auburn Junior High School and Auburn High School. The junior high currently uses approximately 80 access points and the high school roughly 100 access points. All schools are connected via fiber optic to the board office, according to Jay Sandefur, network engineer for Auburn City Schools, who Rice said was instrumental in the network deployment.

In March of 2006, ACS's junior high teachers (grades 8 and 9) and high school teachers (grades 10 through 12) received Gateway M285-E tablet PCs. The units feature a 14-inch widescreen display, a keyboard for converting between tablet and laptop usage, 1.66 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, and 802.11g connectivity.

Designing a wireless network often can pose some difficulties, especially when school districts are working on tight budgets. Goal one is get things right the first time. Trapeze Networks' Management tool, Ringmaster, also provided Sandefur and his colleagues with network planning tools that provided three-dimensional diagrams that illustrated network coverage.

The district imported CAD drawings of the schools into Ringmaster, as well as data on variables such as how many users would access each AP, and Ringmaster began planning the network--even accounting for building materials. From there, Sandefur could see how coverage would change simply by dragging and dropping access points on the diagrams.

Management
Fast forward to today, and Ringmaster provides ACS with similar levels of control over the network, now that it is up and running.

"You can monitor real-time data to determine if access points are being overhwelmed and whether you need to add access points," Sandefur said. "It gives you a good view of what's going on. You can drill down to see anything you want."