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Wireless technology comes to the high school classroom
No longer is a school’s technology confined to time booked at a computer lab.
Instead, today’s educational institutions are turning to wireless technologies to free teachers and students to use computers wherever and whenever it makes sense.
Grace Casselman
For The Calgary Herald
Last summer, the Calgary Board of Education announced its Tom Baines junior high school would lead the way in implementing wireless technology. Tom Baines was one of 30 pilot schools supported by Industry Canada in its "Network of Innovative Schools" program.
"The network provided greater flexibility," said Michael Bester, curriculum specialist with the CBE’s Information and Communication Technology’s Innovative Learning Services. "We don’t take the whole classroom down to the lab. We don’t have to buy specific furniture."
Teachers at the school have the option of signing out a cart of 10 notebook computers equipped to connect with the school’s wireless network. It reaches throughout the school, except for one part of the gym.
Wireless access points throughout the school let students with notebooks move from room-to-room.
"The teacher books it out and wheels it to the classroom," said Richard Tapp, a teacher and curriculum leader for career technologies studies at Tom Baines. "The teacher is more comfortable in their own classroom with their other resources around them. Students are used to the rules of the class, and they work in collaborative groups."
Within the class, students sign out the notebooks for security reasons. Tapp said his school has been using notebook computers for the past three years without losing any.
Bryce Roberts, part of the CBE’s technical support, said technology helps students build multimedia projects that cross many subject areas. "Students integrate physics, geography and science all at once across the curriculum — they’re better able to manipulate concepts."
There are about 750 students who attend Tom Baines, which makes for three or four students per computer. While some technology aficionados might advocate one computer per child, Tapp said he’s happy with the current model because students aren’t using the computers 100 per cent of the time.
What does this all cost?
Tapp says the Apple notebooks, including wireless capabilities, are about $1,800 each and the school’s wireless access points cost a total of about $10,000, compared with the $100,000 that’s been spent on the cabling and equipment for the "wired" network.
Meanwhile, the CBE is bringing wireless technology to other schools via its Wireless Portable Lab, an Alberta Initiative for School Improvement (AISI) project.
The mobile lab includes two storage carts, 20 notebooks (equipped with wireless cards), a wireless colour printer, a digital video camera, a scanner, full-time tech support and professional development assistance. All of the technology functions as part of a wireless network.
The lab is used in elementary schools in the CBE’s Collaborative Learning Community 4. The lab stays at each school for a couple of months, says Bester.
"We bring technology into schools with smaller budgets."
The CBE is using wireless technology from Avaya Canada Corp. John Williams, Avaya’s director of distribution sales in Toronto, says education is one of the first serious adopters of wireless technology, because it provides "quick access without having to spend lots of time on networking."
Along with the advantage of notebooks, schools also have the ability to put desktops (equipped with wireless capability) anywhere, without calling a technician, says Williams. In that case, he says students can now conveniently move desks around in the classroom during project work.
Last summer, the Calgary Board of Education announced plans to equip more than 221 primary and secondary schools with wireless capabilities. However, those plans have apparently been slowed down by education budget crunches, and Bester didn’t give any current timelines for implementation.
Meanwhile, the independent Strathcona-Tweedsmuir School runs a wireless network using Avaya technology throughout its main building, as well as in a separate outdoor educational facility.
The technology is currently used by students in grades 6 to 9, and Grade 12.
Pamela Perkins, the technology coordinator for the school, said wireless was the "most efficient way of connecting teachers and students to the network," versus installing piles of cords and cables.
Moreover, she indicated it "wasn’t more expensive" to go the wireless route.
For the teachers, the technology is meant to help them "be as efficient as possible."
For the students, it’s all about: "How can students use technology to do things they otherwise wouldn’t be able to do?
"That’s where the value is."
A number of Canadian universities and colleges are also starting to look at wireless solutions, says Brantz Myers, national manager of enterprise marketing for Cisco Canada in Toronto.
Companies are looking for ways to make better use of their network capabilities, for better "return on network."
As well, he says there’s a growing interest in extending the wireless networks to include telephone support (IP telephony).
With that technology, voice and data are carried over the same network and, with screens on the phones, they can now access data applications, such as e-mail or the Web, for instance.
"That’s absolutely an ideal tool for the campus environment."
The University of British Columbia (UBC) in Vancouver is deploying a wireless network using Cisco technology that will provide high-speed connectivity to 44,000 students, staff and faculty from virtually anywhere on its campus.
It will cover more than one million square metres and all 300 of the university’s buildings, making it reportedly the largest wireless local area network in Canada and one of the largest in North America.
While the university isn’t releasing specific information about the cost of the wireless network, it’s part of a broader $30-million networking project at the university, says Jonn Martell, UBC’s wireless network project manager.
The network is expected to appeal particularly to students who don’t have offices and "landline" connections for their computers, says Martell.
It is expected to reach the whole campus by summer. About 700 students are initially using the wireless technology, connecting via a special wireless card in their notebook computers.
Martell thinks the new wireless network may encourage students to purchase notebook computers rather than desktop machines.
This will allow them to easily access research and various university information while moving about campus.
While the wireless expansion was planned mainly for students, other university players are finding it useful, such as plant operations people, noted Martell.
Early student adopters include future teachers studying in the Fine Arts and new Media in Education cohort.
While those student teachers are personally using notebooks and the wireless network, they’re also taking them on the job to a number of North Vancouver schools.
The program owns two Tupperware containers, each full of 12 Apple notebooks, to help students "explore the creative side of using new technologies," says Peter Gouzouasis, a professor in the faculty of education at UBC, and co-ordinator of the FAME cohort.
"We’re teaching children to be creators of their own content."
If students have to wait until their upper teens to use technology creatively, "it’s way too late," he says. "Children are intuitive learners of this technology.
"It’s the 21st century; we need to be thinking forward about what we want — thinking about how to design."
Gouzouasis likens children’s use of technology to their inherent creativity at playing with a refrigerator box — from using it as a hut to a spaceship to a sled.
Likewise, unwired technology "allows the teachers and children to be a lot more creative; not just with the box or in the box, but all over the box."
Grace Casselman is a Calgary-based journalist who specializes in business and technology reporting.
Her Web site is at http://www.casselman.net
© Copyright 2003 Calgary Herald
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