What does rich media in the classroom, online learning, consolidation of administrative services, and video / voice over Internet Protocol (VOIP) have in common? These technology-based initiatives hold great promise for improving teaching and learning while lowering education costs. They are also bandwidth-intensive that choke a school’s access to the Internet.
In Michigan, providing bandwidth to schools is a local or regional responsibility. As a result, a rural Michigan district I recently visited ties up one of two T-1s with its school lunch program by transmitting lunch orders to a server in Wisconsin. The program is cost effective, yet faculty and staff told me, “forget about getting online at lunchtime.” Another suburban district has access to Keck Observatory on the Island of Hawai’i through an Internet2 connection provided by their regional educational service agency. Bandwidth consumption by administrative services for this district is an afterthought.
In Ohio, it’s a different story. The Buckeye State set and achieved an ambitious goal of building a statewide network that provides a 100mbps connection to each public school district and 10mbps connections to each school building. As a result, the state has seen its network traffic quadruple. When I asked what type of applications are driving demand,” the answer was, “you name it.”
I call the Ohio strategy “letting applications chase bandwidth.” The Michigan model is more aptly labeled “making bandwidth chase applications,” where extra bandwidth is added only when an worhtwhile application requires it. This has a very limiting effect of school innovation and it is not surprising to see stifling limitations on website access.
(The good news is we have a plan and a person for addressing Michigan’s challenged strategy, but more on that in a later blog post.)
We cannot have a credible conversation about technology impacting the classroom without addressing the variability in Internet access across school systems. That is why SETDA’s work on addressing “Broadband” as part of the Vision 2020 project is critical. SETDA recognizes that state and federal leadership is required to increase access for all schools, and I am not surprised that their first recommendation mirrors the accomplishments of Ohio (i.e., 100 Mbps to the district, 10 Mbps per 1,000 students).
I encourage you to read the whitepaper and give the impact of Broadband consideration next time you make plans for innovation or cost saving in education. You can find SETDA’s Broadband 2020 report here.
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