November 2007 — News
Print this articleClick here to receive your FREE subscription to T.H.E. Journal
WiFi Bolsters Alabama District's 1:1 Tablet PC Program
Using the Trapeze access points and controllers, ACS's network splits traffic and network management duties between the access points and the central switches/controllers. Previous WiFi architectures often centralized both traffic and network Management, which meant that traffic had to be routed through a centralized controller.
"Let's say a laptop on an access point needs to send a large file to another laptop on the same access point," said David Cohen, director of product development for Trapeze. "In the older model [with centralized traffic management] the first laptop would send the file through access point, back to the controller, and the controller would send it back through the access point to the second laptop.
Rather than create a bottleneck, the Trapeze access points handle the traffic management, while the centralized management of configuration, provisioning, fault diagnosis and similar duties resides on the controller.
"Now the access point automatically forwards the file between the laptops." he explained.
Plus, adjacent access points can already cover for each other, according to Sandefur and Cohen. "You can establish a level of overlap," Sandefur said. "If one access point becomes overwhelmed with network traffic, another can share the load.
In terms of growth potential, Sandefur said the network has plenty of room to scale in terms of additional access points without having to add another switch.
In the Classroom
However, the classroom is where the rubber meets the road, and in that regard, Rice said the key is ensuring that the network, tablets and software all make good on the goal of student-facilitated learning. With the help of some additional classroom tools ACS is gaining traction in that regard, she said.
Using software from DyKnow, teachers can monitor everything that is on all students' screens and interact with them. Besides being able to privately instruct students who might be goofing off to get back on task, the teachers can help students and even use what they have as examples by pulling that screen to the teacher's computer and then projecting on a Smart Technologies interactive whiteboard.
Teachers use the interactive whiteboards and Smart Technologies software, to take notes, play those notes back to students with audio, or post them to the Web for remote playback.
Another heavily used app at ACS's wireless classrooms is Microsoft's OneNote, Rice said, which provides students with a "digital binder" on their tablets. The software helps students organize their notes and class information into one place, labeling them with tabs at the top of the screen.
Phased Rollout
Ultimately ACS aims for the network to serve grades 9 through 12, which would comprise 2,000 students and 100 teachers, Rice said. To roll out the network, the district started with the ninth grade class of 2006 and will expand the program year by year, as that class progresses through each grade level.
