Today鈥檚 technology landscape for a school isn鈥檛 anything like it was in 2007. 聽When I first began to coach teachers on the use of technology, we had fixed labs with projectors and a teacher laptop was an innovation. 聽With the proliferation of classroom hardware, and the ascendance of cloud-based resources, our brave new world is connected like never before. 聽And such connection demands robust Internet speeds. 聽In fact, 鈥淏roadband and Network Capacity鈥� was identified as the leading issue facing school technology leaders in , the first time that issue has ever made the top three. 聽
The goals for network connectivity set forth by the FCC in its , when it was released in 2014, were …
- 100 Mbps / 1000 students as a near-term goal
- 1 Gbps / 1000 students as a longer-term goal
- 10 Gbps should be the capability of any new network installation project, so future bandwidth increases can scale beyond the goal of 1 Mbps / student. 聽
How close is your school to providing this type of bandwidth to each of your students? 聽Many schools find themselves closer to the 2014 standard than the 鈥渓onger-term goal鈥� the . 聽
Action Steps
If you are a school leader reading this right now, and you鈥檙e wondering how your building or district stacks up, I鈥檇 recommend the following strategies:
- 聽Do some background homework.
My top three resources are below, in order of complexity. 聽
- :
- Released by Education Superhighway, a leading nonprofit focused on increasing equitable access to the Internet for all children
- This handbook lays out the basics of network design and outlines the technology adoption process in non-technical language. 聽It is an approachable resource for school leaders at every level.
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- Created by the Office of Educational Technology, the arm of the Department of Education responsible for advising schools on the adoption and implementation of technology
- This infrastructure planning guide begins with the tenet 鈥淧ut learning first鈥� and proceeds to outline the technology planning and implementation process in great detail.
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- Developed by the Consortium of School Networking Community (CoSN), one of the largest associations of school technology leaders in the US
- SEND has more technical information than the resources above, and can serve as a reference guide to interpret RFP bids when they are returned. 聽The SEND materials also include a slide deck template for board presentations and a checklist technology leaders can fill out as they work through the planning process.
聽Build a vision for learning.
Each of the resources I鈥檝e mentioned above begin with this step. 聽If the vision is lacking, stakeholders in the process will wonder who is leading the charge and why the district is taking on what will certainly be a large investment of time and financial resources. 聽Gather a collaborative team of both instructional and technology leaders, outline what learning should look like in 5 years, and work with the team to plan what curricula and technology must be put in place to enable that type of learning to take place.
- 聽Leverage E-Rate funding while it exists.
The extended funding of E-Rate Category 1 and 2 items into the 2019 federal budget. 聽While have brought doubt regarding the future of federal funding, this only reinforces the importance of securing funding now. 聽
Eligible services for Category 1 include Internet connectivity and fiber installation, including 鈥渄ark fiber鈥� connections between multiple buildings, an effort that allows districts to more effectively manage ISP cost over the long term.
Eligible services for Category 2 include 鈥渞outers, switches, wireless access points, internal cabling, racks, wireless controller systems, firewall services, uninterruptable power supply, and the software supporting each of these components.鈥� 聽In addition to the items above, 鈥渂asic maintenance, managed Wi-Fi, and caching functionality鈥� are also qualifying purchases. 聽The last item, 鈥渃aching functionality鈥� includes the purchase of servers used for caching content, lightening the load on direct access to the Internet.
- 聽Determine metrics to evaluate impact.
One of states, 鈥�The primary challenge we face in using technology effectively is human.鈥� 聽The primary purpose of these technology updates is to improve the lives of our kids. 聽We should judge success not based on Internet connectivity levels, but on lives changed. To hear how one large school district approached metrics for their technology upgrade initiative, read by Baltimore County School District鈥檚 superintendent, S. Dallas Dance.
There are many pieces involved in an infrastructure upgrade. 聽It鈥檚 not something done lightly. 聽If you have the resources to do it well, begin those conversations with your leadership team now. 聽If you are looking for a partner to help, we鈥檇 love to support your school through IT. 聽聽
For more information on updating your school’s technology, click here.聽
