It’s a question that comes up periodically…as students and staff get access to high speed Internet access, does your school district network–with all its content filters, blocks, impediments to real usage–become irrelevant? Obviously, there are many among staff and students who wouldn’t have Internet access, and there are relevant laws, but at what point do we decide to use one or the other, or worse, how is funding affected for school district Internet infrastructure?
The recent [forum name] question about number of students vs. available Internet bandwidth is leading me to ask “out loud” a question I have been pondering for several months: Is anybody doing anything “innovative” about securing bandwidth to “the cloud”?What I see is our school with its two T-1’s for 700 users, paying about $960 per month per line. Then little Johnny brings his iPhone to school, and he has a faster Internet connection on his iPhone, for about $60 per month, than we have on the school network. When my personal laptop’s AirCard can see a 3G network it can hit T-1 speed, again for about $60 per month. Our rural electric cooperative is offering wireless Internet access to individual’s homes, at T-1 speed, for about $60 per month.Granted, our school access is through our local Region Service Center, and they do a GREAT job of protecting us from the outside world with firewalls and content filtering. I would NOT want to be without our Region Service Center! Granted also, the T-1’s are a “guaranteed connection” and the AirCard or iPhone is not. But still, for comparable speed, $960 per month versus $60 per month? Even with E-Rate helping with the bill, the money still comes out of the taxpayer’s pocket, one way or the other.Are districts required by law to access the Internet through particular providers or by particular means? We do have our own CIPA-compliant Internet content filter, in addition to the one at our Region Service Center, so that’s not an issue.On a related note, with more and more personal Internet-capable devices showing up at school, all with faster access than our school network can provide, how long before our school network becomes irrelevant?
Love this question! What do you think?
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The problem is, you’re talking about $60/mo for ONE connection. That’s 16 machines at the $960/mo for the T1, or 32 machines total for 700 users. So which would you rather have?Of course, the larger question then becomes, do schools pair down the technology they buy and provide when the students are able to bring their own? What about those students who can’t afford the technology/connection?Will students continue to bring their own technology if it isn’t being utilized in the first place? Just as teachers still buy pencils and paper for students, how can we expect that every student will bring their technology to school with them every day?
The problem is, you’re talking about $60/mo for ONE connection. That’s 16 machines at the $960/mo for the T1, or 32 machines total for 700 users. So which would you rather have?Of course, the larger question then becomes, do schools pair down the technology they buy and provide when the students are able to bring their own? What about those students who can’t afford the technology/connection?Will students continue to bring their own technology if it isn’t being utilized in the first place? Just as teachers still buy pencils and paper for students, how can we expect that every student will bring their technology to school with them every day?