Wireless in every classroom

Government’s meddling in technology in education is overdue. Remember the “every classroom gets an interactive whiteboard” push, well, I think we’re due another and due to the Governments latest appointment it makes the most sense that you will be seeing a push for “every classroom gets wireless Internet connectivity.”

So what would a wirelessly connected room bring?

It would certainly tick one of Naace’s boxes of empowering pupils devices as they would be able to get online and access learning resources and have their device “updated” by the school either via purchased apps or via free apps online.

Who wins from a wirelessly connected school?

There are really 4 or so big hardware players in this market, namely Netgear, Cisco, Meru and Ruckus. Most other companies can’t compete as the residential grade wireless isn’t up to the job in high densities. Who wins from a services point of view? There are hundereds of wireless installation companies, the key ones that have the skills to do school specific deployments are Ergo, RM and Primary Technology.

Why would the government make a push for this?

It’s true that Gove doesn’t seem very interested in technology in education however with the new appointment of Phil Smith and his background at Cisco I can imagine he will want to put a stamp on things and what better/easier/more natural way than trying to improve the nations infrastructure by empowering pupils mobile learning devices and at the same time empowering “legacy” school owned equipment such as netbooks and laptops.

Eduroam goes 3G in the UK

Janet have announced 3G support for Eduroam, this is great news because we are now one step closer to getting a decent level of data connectivity exclusively for edu into classrooms!! Good work everyone involved.  More info and registration of interest available on the Janet 3g eduroam page and the video below..

Wireless solutions for Primary Schools

UPDATE

This video is now available on my youtube channel


Hi all, on Tuesday and Wednesday next week(25th and 26th of June) I’m doing a presentation aimed at Primary Schools who currently have and/or are thinking of getting wireless devices/networks installed. The agenda for the presentation is:


1.The wireless network
2.The wireless learner
3.Wireless security
4.Wireless life span
5.How much wireless coverage do I need?
6.Wireless costs
7.Additional Considerations IE storage.
8.Wireless safety
9.Questions

The event is being run by Education Bradford’s Curriculum ICT team and details can be found here

Slides and a Webcast will be online shortly after (Probably by Thursday) – These will be available to everyone.

Tuesday: Greenhead CLC
Wednesday: Challenge CLC


UPDATE

This video is now available on my youtube channel