July 2008 — Features
Print this article | Email this articleClick here to receive your FREE subscription to T.H.E. Journal
Middle Schools : Strike Up the Bandwidth
For example, in his Texas History class, his students learn about the Texas Revolution through group multimedia projects. As one activity, each group writes an imaginary diary that chronicles the decisions a key member of the revolution made during a crucial time of the war. From their diary, the students make a series of podcasts about this key figure in their state's history. In addition, the student groups create a wiki relating to one of the revolution's famous battles, and a music video of a song from that era.
All this takes bandwidth-- but are technology administrators planning for enough of it? No, according to Tom Greaves and Jeanne Hayes, authors of "America's Digital Schools 2008", a survey on the key tech trends facing education today. The report says that districts now average 6.48 kilobits per second per student, a figure expected to grow over the next three years to 15.73 kbps per student, and over the next five years to 33.82 kbps per student. The ADS team believes these numbers, though much higher than those forecast in their previous 2006 report, "are still underestimated, and that in five years schools will need 45 kbps per student."
The reason for the increase is just as Bergland says: the need to teach in ways that keep students engaged, which means incorporating laptops, web-based activities and content, and active, project-based learning.
According to "ADS 2008," this type of classroom environment is growing. Twenty-seven percent of the survey's respondents-- superintendents, curriculum directors, and technology directors-- report a 1-to-1 environment in at least one full grade in at least one school in their district. The survey defines 1-to-1 as "each student and teacher [having] one internet-connected wireless computing device for use in the classroom and at home," which excludes implementations that do not allow students to take the computer home, or that keep a set of computers in each classroom. Adding these other, more liberal definitions raises significantly the number of 1-to-1 programs nationwide, and as such, the number of schools facing bandwidth problems.
There are times when bandwidth issues can be resolved fairly painlessly. McCall cites one such instance. About 100 of Stephen F. Austin's students used to gather in the gym before school started, fire up their laptops, and play online games over the network. Elementary schools, who started work earlier than the middle schools, were unable to get online to do simple administrative tasks at the start of the day because of the drag the middle school students were putting on the system. Network technicians responded by cranking up their web filters, preventing access to online gaming sites, and the students soon stopped jamming the network, leaving it open for educators to do their morning business.
