|  | | | | Feb7Written by:Maas Dan
2/7/2007
 In the next two months, ITS will complete a comprehensive site survey of every school biulding to create an overall program budget for deploying wireless at every school in the district. Beginning with communications from Lowell Ensey (my predecessor) last spring, we have communicated our committment to delivering this technology to the schools. I can be more specific now as our budgeting and site assessments are coming together nicely. It is my expectation that we will provide at least 2 and possibly 3 wireless access points to every school by next Christmas. This networking service will provide access to at least 50 wireless computers per building. Some buildings already have wireless in place and demands will certainly exceed this initial capacity. We will meet those needs as they present themselves. Additionally, we are deploying network security appliances that will enable open Internet access to non-LPS computers. We have much of what we need in place now, all that is left is the filtering component which is presenting something of a nuisance. Be assured that we will have it worked out soon and our community committees that meet in our buildings will be able to bring computers with them for their work in our schools. Now if we can just get some espresso machines installed...! Tags:15 comment(s) so far... Re: Wireless Dan,
Can you elaborate on "we are deploying network security appliances that will enable open Internet access to non-LPS computers"? Does this mean you are going to in effect host open "hot spots"?
Thanks in advance.
By Brook Boehler on
2/7/2007 | Re: Wireless Yes, when the system is fully operational, our school buildings will provide a hot spot like Starbucks... with some differences [;-)
By Dan Maas on
2/7/2007 | Re: Wireless Are the new WAP's you're anticipating putting in place by next Christmas still 802.11 a/b/g, or are you looking at any of the pre-N stuff? While I want wireless (well, more wireless than we already have) and I want it now, I don't think we want to do too much of a full-scale deployment until we can deploy the 802.11n specification.
And I get questions at least once a week from students about accessing the wireless network with their own devices, so as soon as we can get the filter issue worked out . . .
By Karl Fisch on
2/7/2007 | Re: Wireless Having wireless in the classroom would be great. With our smart boards, wireless is the next step to take.
By Kpotter on
2/7/2007 | Re: Wireless It was also really effective to have the wireless connections for parent teacher conferences to show parents their child's grade using IC rather than printing out pages and pages of grade reports for all my students.
By A Smith on
2/7/2007 | Re: Wireless I must echo Karl's thoughts. Let's not go with "old technology" if we have the opportunity to deploy new.
By LaDonna Lenz on
2/7/2007 | Re: Wireless I have a friend from my former life at McDonnell Douglas who has installed and is tech support for a wireless network in a Portland, OR school district who might be a contact for a call re his experiences or 'lessons learned' when the time comes... Agree as well with all the comments re Smartboards, IC viewing, student outside access, hot spots, and your blog...so 'write on...'. I've enjoyed reading Karl's fischbowl blogs, following the links out from there, and Anne's and other teachers AHS blogwork in the classroom.
By Bill Reddig on
2/7/2007 | Re: Wireless Yippee!
By Renee Howell on
2/7/2007 | Re: Wireless I like A Smith's idea about showing parents grades via IC. I think that we just need to remember that some parents might like a print out as well, and you can offer that option at the time of the conference.
I also like the idea of offering school wireless as a hotspot for community members. That is the true meaning of community. Will this be publicized? Will community members be aware of what the limitations/rules/procedures will be?
By Craig Herrera - Community member on
2/7/2007 | Re: Wireless Re Bill Reddig's comments, Dan, you may also want to look at the high school my husband works at, Denver School of Science and Technology. They're a DPS charter who've been using wireless for a couple of years.
By Sue Lloyd on
2/7/2007 | Re: Wireless Thanks, Dan, for taking us down this road. Using wireless technology will be a great push forward for both staff and students.
By Becky Friend on
2/7/2007 | Re: Wireless Any peripheral that is wireless makes life better! On a more personal level, in my science classroom I have a projector connected to my computer for an enriching multimedia learning experience. I found that being stranded near the computer was no fun so I bought a mini wireless keyboard with a small trackball on it for the mouse pointer. This was the best investment ever ($35 on the net). Now I can walk around the room and move through powerpoints, access resources, and surf the net from pretty much anywhere in the classroom!
By Kevin M. Riebau on
2/8/2007 | Re: Wireless First, thanks to everyone for posting responses and the many others who have visited.
Ultimately, wireless is a great facilitator. It is a natural extension of deploying a wired network and it is something like having power or running water in a building. Pretty soon, it's something that people will just expect and depend upon. How does it raise student achievement? The same way plumbing does: it provides an effective working environment for the 21st Century. We are only just beginning on this but 10 years from now, we'll be amazed we got by without wireless networking.
By Dan Maas on
2/9/2007 | Re: Wireless How about arranging a field trip to Denver School of Science and Technology. I tried to get that done last year, but didn't. How about a couple of folks from ITS/ESC, and some from the buildings? I'll bring two or three if we're invited . . .
By Karl Fisch on
2/12/2007 | Re: Wireless I'll check with Mark Ingles. I'm sure we can get this arranged.
By Dan Maas on
2/13/2007 |
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