How satellite technology can help close the digital divide

According to the FCC and others, satellite technology holds promise

satellite-internetAs high-speed internet service becomes more ubiquitous in American households, some readers might be surprised to find out that a “digital divide” exists in many of our schools.

According to a 2014 blog post from FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, “Forty-one percent of America’s rural schools couldn’t get a high-speed connection if they tried,”— where a high-speed connection is defined as offering speeds of 10Mbps or higher. Whereas he may have been right that they don’t have it, he was wrong to conclude they couldn’t get it. Indeed, many individuals living in urban areas are typically well served by fiber-optic, cable or DSL providers, unaware that high-quality satellite internet is available virtually everywhere, nationwide, and at affordable prices— no matter where you live, work, or go to school. So the digital divide in fact is a misnomer; it’s really a terrestrial digital divide as the FCC itself has now concluded.

In its recent 2014 Measuring Broadband America Fixed Broadband Report, the FCC stated that, “the launch of a new generation of Ka band satellites represents an important advance in consumer-based satellite service which will benefit those consumers under-served by terrestrial alternatives.” The report continued, saying, “because satellites broadcast wirelessly directly to the consumer, no actual terrestrial infrastructure has to be deployed. As a result, satellite technologies have a more uniform cost structure, which is unique among the technologies under study in our Report.” Chairman Wheeler acknowledged as much, stating, “Fiber connection costs are much higher for rural schools and libraries. As a result, either there is no fiber, or that level of connectivity is only available at an unreasonably high price. It may not be unusual, but it is unacceptable that these realities are allowed to hurt students.”…Read More

The one-stop shop approach to an IT overhaul

The largest county in the U.S. faces a lot of challenges. Managing a huge IT network is only one

it-integratedSchools everywhere are in the midst of some major changes. There’s the usual implementation of Common Core standards and Smarter Balance assessments, and, for my district at least– San Bernardino County Superintendent of Schools in California– a new funding model, the rollout of local control accountability plans, an aging network, and our staggering geography.

By sheer size alone, my district has always faced some challenges. Part of that is to be expected when your schools stretch across a county larger than 20,000 square miles that serves more than 410,000 students and 34,000 teachers, administrators and staff across 540 school sites.

To best address the needs of our learners moving into the 21st century, we set out to implement an upgraded, state-of-the-art technology infrastructure that could deliver the robust, reliable and secure performance. Our approach was to address our infrastructure end-to-end, from the classrooms to the data center and network, which would enable us to prepare our schools and staff for a technology-driven approach that would support both 21st century learning as well as California’s new teaching and assessment requirements.…Read More

It’s time to ask how E-rate will impact learning outcomes

With E-rate reformed, educators must consider new learning-centered questions

e-rateE-rate, officially known as the Schools and Libraries Program of the Universal Service Fund, was created to provide schools and libraries with an affordable way to obtain telecommunications, internet access and internet-related services.

In the beginning, E-rate focused principally on telephone service, which was the most basic and universal way individuals communicated 20 years ago. While the focus on communication has remained, technology has changed radically throughout the past two decades. During this period, E-rate adapted by broadening the range of eligible services to include mobile phones, pagers, voicemail, email, school websites and basic collaboration tools.

As the program evolved, the definition of “new technology” grew increasingly inexact and complicated. It became clear that E-rate was in need of a refresh. Advocates for change, including legislators, the Federal Communications Commission and organizations such as ISTE and the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN), hoped to address the question: How do we increase internet bandwidth available to our schools and provide ubiquitous wireless coverage?…Read More

It’s almost fall. Do you know where your textbooks are?

Tired of lost books and antiquated faxes, two districts opt for 21st century asset management

textbooks-assetsTwo years ago Consolidated Unit School District 300 in Algonquin, Ill., was facing a pretty daunting challenge across its 26 schools. When it came to recording the inventory of assets like textbooks, some of the district’s numbers were incorrect. “We’d start a new school year thinking that we had the appropriate supplies for our students, only to find out that our inventory system didn’t reflect what we actually had on hand,” said Susan Harkin, chief operating officer for the 26-school, 21,000-student district.

A student who wasn’t matched up with an algebra book, for example, would often have to wait a week or two for it to be ordered and delivered to the classroom. And for some of the outdated books that are no longer being published, the district could spend months trying to hunt down the textbooks. “Students would start the school year without a textbook to refer to for homework,” said Harkin. “It wasn’t a good situation for a district that’s focused on student success.”

Harkin says the schools’ curriculum and instructional personnel were particularly concerned about the gaps that existed between the inventory system and the actual inventory. At the time, D300 was most concerned about textbooks, although it also wanted to improve the tracking of district-owned assets such as tablet computers and musical instruments.…Read More

District automates account management, registration process

UMRA allows for automated account management including the process of managing Google Apps accounts

account-managementTools4ever, a provider of identity and access management (IdM/IAM) solutions, announced today that Culver City Unified School District in Calif. has implemented User Management Resource Administrator (UMRA) and Password Synchronization Manager (PSM).

Prior to implementing these Tools4ever products, the district’s IT leadership was charged with manually creating and managing student, staff and parent accounts for the thousands who needed to access its systems, which was time consuming and extremely inefficient process.

Tools4ever’s UMRA now allows Culver City USD to automate its entire account management process so that no manual action is required. When a new student begins at the district, his or her information is simply entered into the student information system and UMRA automatically creates an Active Directory account and a Google Apps account and places them in the appropriate groups, and any other parameters that Culver City USD has set.…Read More

7 mobile learning myths no educator should believe

Two researchers discuss myths associated with mobile adoption and use

mobile-learningBy now, educators are familiar with the term mobile learning — or mLearning — having experienced its rush in classroom popularity starting as early as 2000. But two researchers say it’s now imperative that educators slough off the myths from the reality to avoid ineffective classroom practice moving forward.

“In recent years, many projects have assisted in the maturation of mLearning and much has already been done to integrate mLearning into mainstream education. However, mLearning is still in its infancy and we are merely seeing the tip of the iceberg,” notes Tom Brown, a former associate professor of research and development in tech-enhanced learning at the University of South Africa , Pretoria (UNISA), and co-author of the report (after the report’s publication, Brown left to become CEO of a portfolio management company).

“Our perspectives on [mobile learning] seek to…stimulate an appetite to embrace the opportunities in open and distance learning, while minimizing the potential negative effects of technological, social and pedagogical change,” explains Lydia Mbati, senior researcher with specialties in higher ed-tech and pedagogic theory at UNISA, and co-author of the report.…Read More

How to prepare your school for the Internet of Things onslaught

Follow this checklist as everything from watches to thermostats goes online

internet-thingsTech-savvy higher education IT executives may be on top of many of the changes looming in technology, but the Internet of Things (IoT) is not yet one of them. They are fully aware it is coming, but as of now, the IoT is not yet a major focus. Given the wide-ranging security, bandwidth, legal and business implications involved, this may be a mistake.

The Internet of Things basically refers to any so-called “smart” object that uses an internet connection to enhance functionality. Today there are watches, forks, thermostats, and any number of other related devices that students or school campuses may be bringing to a network near you.

Planning for this next evolution of networking needs to simultaneously be defensive (ensuring that IT infrastructure is ready) and offensive (encouraging and leading groups outside of the IT department such as teachers and students to take full advantage of the promise of the IoT.)…Read More

Texas districts enlist Skyward for data integration

Implementation aims to help districts streamline data and management processes

data-integrationTwo Texas institutions, Mesquite Independent School District and Village Tech Schools, have enlisted Skyward, a K-12 school administrative software provider, to unify school management and data processes.

Both districts identified customer service as the primary factor in selecting Skyward, along with student data security, parent engagement and ease-of-use for teachers.

A large suburban school district located just east of Dallas, Mesquite ISD selected the Student Management Suite from Skyward to answer its data integration needs. Mesquite ISD searched for a management system that stressed data accuracy and security for its 40,000 students, while also providing a user-friendly platform with cost-cutting data storage capabilities.…Read More

Private clouds help schools weather data concerns

Districts are using private clouds to save money and retain control over data. Is it right for yours?

private-cloudWith student data privacy commanding so much attention these days, some K-12 districts are building private clouds to distribute curriculum and IT resources to students and staff over their own networks.

A private cloud is an environment in which software or data are stored on a central server and delivered to users online—but instead of being hosted by a third-party provider and delivered to users over the public internet, these resources are hosted by the school district itself, under the control of the district’s IT department.

Because a private cloud setup is implemented safely behind a district’s own firewalls, it gives the district more control over its own data. The tradeoff is that the district becomes responsible for managing IT resources, instead of passing that responsibility on to a third-party cloud provider.…Read More

The old way of stopping cyber attacks is no longer working

Firewalls alone may not be enough to stop cyber attacks. For that, there’s data science

cyber-scienceRecently, KTVB evening news reported a denial-of-service (DoS) attack occurring on and off for over a week on Idaho’s largest school district Internet connection.

It’s yet another example of a school district IT department having to wade through piles of system logs to find that the potential root cause was a student who hired someone to perpetrate the attack. The news report closed with the disclaimer that, “these attacks didn’t breach the network, so no student information was accessed.”

The question is, when a network is breached, do school systems really have the tools they need to prevent data loss?…Read More

How connected are your state’s classrooms? Check out this map

K-12 Connected Heat Map outlines classroom internet connectivity

internet-connectivityAs efforts to increase bandwidth and internet connectivity in K-12 schools grow, a new report from CDW-G, based on a survey of 400 K-12 IT professionals, reveals just how connected — or not — the nation’s classrooms are today.

The CDW-G K-12 Connected Heat Map outlines wired and wireless connectivity in a state-by-state display. The map is an ongoing project and CDW-G is asking schools to fill in their details to help make it more complete. Currently, there is not enough data to shade several states in the midwest and west.

Data from the Federal Communications Commission reveals that the federal E-Rate program has connected nearly all U.S. K-12 schools to the internet, though not all classrooms are connected.…Read More