Friday 2nd September 2016 Schools and educational organisations often calculate how much bandwidth to provide based on budget allocations. A recent aarnet paper considers bandwidth requirements based on the needs of individual learners. For example, aarnet’s research finds that an individual student or teacher requires between 0.2 and 0.5 Mbps to use Google Apps. For a school of 100 concurrent users that … Read More
Internet boost for schools in Wales
Monday 27th July 2015 In the post-PC era, schools are striving to build collaborative learning environments supplemented by BYOT programs, using online tools such as Google Apps for Education, Weebly, YouTube and a myriad of other ‘cloud’ options. There is one component common to all these tools that is vital to the success of the technology supporting the curriculum – reliable high … Read More
K-12 ICT Infrastructure Planning
Tuesday 16th June A sound ICT infrastructure is an essential foundation of a successful modern learning environment. To be successful in supporting the curriculum, school ICT infrastructure development and implementation (computers, mobile devices, the network cabling, wireless access points, etc) must be considered in conjunction with, and in response to, the needs of the school learning environment. Is your school’s … Read More
School Planning: the ICT infrastructure continuum
Friday 12th December 2014 As schools here in Australia begin their planning processes for the 2015 school year, now is a good time to consider how new technologies are being leveraged to support curriculum activities. The broad adoption of mobile electronic devices in the wider community has changed the options for ICT in schools. Schools are moving from remote ‘labs’ to always-available BYO models. Technology … Read More
New school? What would the technology look like in 2015?
Monday 3rd November 2014 Imagine if you were setting up a new school today – planning and installing the school’s new technology infrastructure from scratch. How will it look, when the school opens in 2015? Some planning ideas for Networks, Servers, Devices, Software and PD >>>
School bells (and announcements) on an iPod
Tuesday 26th August 2014 This might be worth checking out for your school – an iOS app that can use your school’s existing PA system to: Schedule bells (hourly, daily, weekly) that are fully customisable (time of day, etc); Select from a library of school bell sounds; Add your own music selection directly from iTunes; Select different themes / music … Read More
DIY Cabling – New ACMA Regulations
Wednesday 23rd July 2014 In years gone by general ‘computer network cabling’ was exempt from the various rules and regulations that applied to telecommunications cabling. As of 1st July 2014 the regulations set by the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA – a Federal Govt Authority) require that technicians who are installing computer network cabling to be registered, after satisfactorily completing … Read More
Mobile anti-virus not needed: Google
Thursday 3rd July 2014 Mountain View, California: The majority of Android smartphone and tablet users do not need to install anti-virus and other security apps to protect them, despite dire warnings from security companies selling such products, Google’s head of Android security says. Adrian Ludwig, the lead engineer for Android security at Google, said there was “a bit of a … Read More
School budgets provide insight into ICT transition
Remember back in the day when your school ICT budget discussions centred around what type of desktop computers to purchase, how many computers to purchase, and how these computers would be allocated around the school? And if your server needed an upgrade? And maybe some networking to a previously unconnected building? Times have certainly changed – and school ICT budgets … Read More
Going BYOT? – Improve your Internet access
Thursday 5th June 2014 When schools rolls out a BYOT program they might be adding hundreds of new devices to their network. All using the school’s existing bandwidth to access the Internet. You will definitely need more bandwidth to support BYOT. But you can make better use of your existing bandwidth using a proxy server. Every time a student clicks on a link to a … Read More
Transitioning your school to the new ICT era
Monday 26th may 2014 A key goal of teachers using technology to support the curriculum has always been the integration of new and innovative technologies in day-to-day classroom activities. Unfortunately, the cost of new technologies has always been a hurdle to achieving this goal. When ‘technology access’ is located in a secure ‘lab’ in another building in the school – accessible once a week … Read More
Slow Internet? – Check your WAPs
Wednesday 14th May 2014 How old are the Wireless Access Points (WAPs) on your network? Could they be responsible for slow network speeds in your school? Last week I visited a school that was having issues connecting to the Internet using their wireless network. In the staffroom an old Airport Extreme (spaceship) base station was being used for wireless Internet access. The data … Read More
BYOD Sandpit
Tuesday 13th May 2014 Thinking about implementing BYOD in your school? The BYOD Sandpit contains support documentation and resources developed by teachers, school communities and consultants. The material at BYOD Sandpit is provided to help inform discussion on the implementation of BYOD in K-12 schools. There is a great deal of info on this site relating specifically to NSW DEC schools, including step-by-step … Read More
Why you need a Gigabit connection for your WiFi
Monday 5th May 2014 If you have 20 wireless devices connecting to a single Wireless Access Point (WAP), those wireless devices are sharing the bandwidth that is available to that single WAP’s connection to the network. If your WAP is connected to the network (via an Ethernet connection) at 1000 Mbps then each of those 20 wireless devices can expect … Read More