SETDA_Classof2020ActionPlan

Broadband

SETDA welcomes your comments, posts or thoughts related to the recently published paper and the Leadership Summit and Education Forum sessions highlighting Broadband issues.

High-Speed Broadband Access for All Kids:  Breaking through the Barriers 

This paper tackles the issues facing full implementation of broadband into schools. Such issues include technical implementation, access for all, and leveraging the resources available with effective professional development, media and Internet safety training, as well as building the capacity of leaders to proper budgeting and plan for long term success.

Why Broadband matters ... two states' perspectives

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.

SETDA / Education Forum: Broadband Panel Discussion

Right now I am sitting is a panel discussion on Broadband, a critical conversation that is part of the Education Forum 2008, organized by SETDA. Panelists include:
•    Thomas Buckley, Senior Chief Deputy, Wireline Competition Bureau, FCC
•    Bijaya Devkota, Chief Information Officer, Charles County Public Schools, Maryland
•    Dr. Geoffry Fletcher, Editorial Director of T.H.E. Journal
•    Lillian Kellogg, VP Client Services, Education Networks of America
•    Kevin MacRitchie, VP Global Government Systems Group, Cisco Systems, Inc.
•    Jeff Mao, Learning and Technology Policy Director, Maine Department of Education

I was eager to learn more about the pressing national issues of Broadband in education, but the primary reason I attended was to support Kevin. Kevin MacRitchie and I met at the Michigan Department of Education late last year (2007) through an offer by Cisco to expand Kevin’s “Executive On Loan” assignment to include the entire state.

Goal #8 of the Michigan Educational Technology Plan is Broadband Access. Honestly, I quickly realized #8 was the hardest goal to tackle when I took the state education director position in January 2007. Thus, the arrival of Kevin was a godsend.

Kevin has not showed signs of slowing down since we meet almost a year ago. He has been a tireless Broadband interconnectivity advocate who meets with local, regional, and state organizations, looking for ways to leverage current spending to increase everyone’s connectivity.

In February 2008, Kevin and I journeyed to Columbus, Ohio and met with the Ohio Department of Education and a regional technology center that provides 100Mbps access to each school district / 10Mbps to each building. We came away with a deep appreciation for a clearly articulated vision for increased Bandwidth.

We also realized that, given Michigan’s economic climate, advocating for funding a statewide Broadband network was not plausible. But when we looked at our state, we saw districts and regions with plenty of unused, “dark” fiber. We determined that a series of linked, regional, integrated networks was our most plausible path.

Kevin went back to work in his own county, Livingston County, bringing together education, law enforcement, health and safety, and other local government agencies and designing an integrated network that seeks to lower costs and expand Broadband.

Sounds too good to be true? Well, Kevin accomplished his goal and this summer the work was started to integrate the county’s varied Internet services and activities (i.e., VOIP, wireless connectivity, shared data center, etc.). Collaboration between agencies proved to be the key, and Kevin, as a third party, non-vested party, was the catalyst for this unique collaboration.

This initial success opened up similar conversations across Michigan and demand for Kevin’s time has skyrocketed. Because of his work, Kevin has briefed Michigan’s Chief Information Officer, and continues to build the inertia needed to achieve these regional economies and lead to an interconnected, statewide network in Michigan.