Comcast has announced that since August 2011, its broadband adoption program, Internet Essentials, has connected more than 450,000 families to the Internet at home.

Data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s most recent (2013) American Community Survey, with a sample size of more than 3.5 million Americans, reveals that 52 percent of low-income households in the U.S., with household incomes below $35,000, now subscribe to wireline broadband at home, as compared to 48 percent in 2010.

Dr. John B. Horrigan recently completed his second study of Internet Essentials customers. Called Deepening Ties, it examines the evolution from non-adopters to adopters. Two of the most notable findings include:

►The key to economic and personal empowerment through broadband adoption is training and education. Those who received formal digital training, like the kind provided by non-profits through the Internet Essentials program, were 15 percentage points more likely to use the Internet to look for a job.

►Almost two-thirds of Internet Essentials families said Internet Essentials helped them manage their work schedules and better balance their work/life responsibilities.

Windstream is now offering its Managed WiFi solution to E-Rate eligible K-12 schools and public libraries.

This new option for E-Rate participants comes on the heels of the E-Rate Modernization Order, recently issued by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC.) The order expands funding for broadband and WiFi solutions, in an effort to close the connectivity gap that many schools and libraries face today. The FCC will be allocating $2 billion over the next two years, allowing E-Rate program participants to install and manage campus-wide WiFi networks. Windstream has packaged its Managed WiFi solution specifically for those taking advantage of E-Rate funding.

“Our Managed WiFi solution creates a secure and reliable network for K-12 schools and libraries as they adapt to the changing technology needs of today’s students,” said Joseph Harding, executive vice president and enterprise chief marketing officer for Windstream.

Managed WiFi is an IP-based solution that enables authorized computers and devices to connect to the Internet and communicate with one another wirelessly within a defined geographic area.

In order to take advantage of E-Rate funding for Managed WiFi and other solutions, schools and libraries must meet the upcoming Form 470 application deadline of February 26, followed shortly after by the Form 471 deadline of March 26. More on Windstream’s solutions for E-Rate applicants can be found online at windstreambusiness.com.

Kajeet® announced today new partnerships with five school districts to provide mobile broadband connectivity to students.

As more schools integrate digital and web-based learning programs into the classroom, students without off-campus broadband are finding themselves part of a growing digital divide. To bridge this divide, schools issue Kajeet SmartSpot™ hotspot devices — compatible with any mobile device — which includes filtered Internet access with analytics to keep students focused on school work and provide educational connectivity.

Ashwaubenon School District in Green Bay, Wisconsin

The Kajeet SmartSpot will provide connectivity for student-issued Netbooks and Chromebooks in grades 9 through 12. As part of their mobile initiative program, those without Internet at home will be able to check out the Wi-Fi hotspots as needed.

Champaign Community Unit School District #4 in Champaign, Illinois

This large school district serves more than 9,600 students in grades pre-K through 12. The Kajeet SmartSpot will be available for kindergarten through 8th grade students with district-loaned Chromebooks.

Jones County School System in Gray, Georgia

This smaller district in Georgia, where 37 percent of students qualify for free or reduced cost meals, will issue the Kajeet SmartSpot devices via a check-out model for those high school students who do not have access to the Internet outside of school.

North St. Paul-Maplewood-Oakdale School District 622 in St. Paul, Minnesota

Serving more than 74,000 residents, District 622 plans to use the Kajeet SmartSpot with school-owned Chromebooks and iPads at the high school level starting in the fall.

Vista Unified School District in Vista, California

In this district, with approximately 25,000 students, almost 60 percent qualify for free or reduced-cost meals. This initial deployment of the Kajeet SmartSpot devices will go towards hospital and homebound students. The district will provide the Kajeet SmartSpot devices this fall to students in need with school-issued iPads.

Kajeet® (www.kajeet.com/education) announced today at ISTE 2014 in Atlanta, Georgia, that its Kajeet SmartSpot™ solution can be purchased using Title I funds.

The Kajeet SmartSpot solution allows schools to customize and filter the websites students can visit, as well as the times of day or night appropriate for student use. Teachers and administrators can manage access hours and filter out non-educational content and teachers and administrators receive reports with learning analytics.

To be considered for Title I funds, schools must maximize parental involvement and improve parental participation in student education. The Kajeet SmartSpot provides economically disadvantaged families an avenue to develop a partnership with their children’s instructors and monitor their academic performance.

Looks like the President’s plan for high speed WiFi in every classroom is going to be even bigger than first thought: Education Week summarizes two recent reports by COSN and Education Superhighway that tallies a higher projection for what it will take to modernize the nation’s access to the Internet. In a nutshell: “Add it all up, CoSN and EducationSuperHighway say, and you get to $2.9 billion over the next four years in unmet need for schools, as well as a rough estimate of $300 million in unmet need for libraries.” Government Technology questions whether or not the initiative is realistic. My question: Would you be asking the same question about electricity or indoor plumbing? – Kevin Hogan, Editorial Director

Google aims to improve business custormers' WiFi experience, in an effort to boost use of Google apps and services,
according to a report by the The Information.

The report states that Google plans to subsidize the necessary Wi-Fi hardware to small and medium-sized businesses, such as doctors' offices, restaurants, gyms, to name a few.

The networks will have the ability to identify users based on their Google login, which could streamline the tedious task of logging in to every new WiFi network.

source: Google Plans Low-Cost, High Quality Wi-Fi Networks For Small- And Medium-Sized Businesses, Report Says

Google aims to improve business customers' WiFi experience, in an effort to boost use of Google apps and services, according to a report by the The Information.

The report states that Google plans to subsidize the necessary high quality Wi-Fi hardware to small and medium-sized businesses, such as doctors’ offices, restaurants, gyms and more.

The network will have the ability to identify users based on their Google login, which could streamline the tedious task of logging in to every new WiFi network.

source: Google Plans Low-Cost, High Quality Wi-Fi Networks For Small- And Medium-Sized Businesses, Report Says

EarthLink Holdings Corp. today announced the launch of its new Secure WiFi™ service , featuring a Wireless Intrusion Prevention System (WIPS). EarthLink Secure WiFi enables distributed enterprises with multiple locations to deploy and manage secure private and public wireless networks, connect with customers through their mobile devices and social media, and gather data for visitor analytics. Enterprises can also support mobile point-of-sale applications and provide employees with access to corporate applications, training, and product and inventory information on tablets, smartphones or other devices.

Comcast Corporation Executive Vice President David L. Cohen today announced the company will continue Internet Essentials indefinitely. Internet Essentials is Comcast’s national broadband adoption program for low-income families. The company also announced more than $1 million in grants to dozens of non-profit organizations across the country to create Internet Essentials Learning Zones. The grants are part of a Gold Medal Recognition Program for communities that have done the most to help close the digital divide. In addition to the grants, Internet Essentials-eligible families in the Gold Medal-recognized communities who are not currently customers can receive six months of complimentary Internet service if they apply and are approved for the program by March 18th, 2014.

The grants made through the Gold Medal Recognition Program will be used to create Internet Essentials Learning Zones. These networks of non-profit partners will work together to enhance public Internet access and increase family-focused digital literacy training. They will be established in communities in Atlanta, Chicago, Denver, Fresno, Miami, and Seattle, among others.

The 15 Gold Medal recognized communities that will create Internet Essentials Learning Zones include: Adams County, Colo.; Atlanta, Ga.; Aurora, Colo.; Chicago, Ill.; Cicero-Berwyn, Ill.; Collier, Fla.; Denver, Colo.; Elk Grove, Calif.; Fresno, Calif.; Miami, Fla.; Palm Beach, Fla.; Pasadena, Texas; Seattle, Wash.; St. Paul, Minn.; and Tacoma, Wash. Comcast is also recognizing five “most improved” communities that are eligible to participate in the two-week, complimentary service opportunity. These include: Baltimore, Md.; Lee, Fla.; Philadelphia, Pa.; San Francisco; and Stockton, Calif.

Kajeet® (www.kajeet.com/education) announced today a partnership to deploy Kajeet SmartSpot™ devices to Green Bay Public Schools as part of its student Chromebook program. Kajeet’s school-managed Wi-Fi hotspots use the Sprint4G LTE network to keep students connected to educational resources on the Internet outside of the classroom. Student-teacher connectivity and digital learning has been a top priority for the district as Wisconsin begins administering Smarter Balanced Assessments for the 2014-2015 school year

“We’re focused on developing technology-rich lessons as part of the district’s curriculum goal, but we feel supporting the students’ efforts at home is important in today’s competitive world,” said Diane Doersch, chief technology & information officer of Green Bay Public Schools. “Using digital learning, students can collaborate together on documents and communicate with their teachers in and out of the classroom. This gives teachers an opportunity to enhance their lessons and not hold back on assignments because some students may not have Internet access at home.”

As part of this pilot program, students in grades six through twelve will have the option to take home the Kajeet SmartSpot with their school-issued Google Chromebook or Netbook checked out on loan. The Kajeet SmartSpot device provides disadvantaged students with broadband access to the Internet anytime or anywhere. The Kajeet Sentinel® platform allows schools to customize and filter the websites students can visit and the time of day or night appropriate for student use. Teachers and administrators can manage access hours and filter out non-educational content.

(Button not working? Click here to register.)

Sponsored by:

Come Spring 2015, the 45 states that have fully adopted the Common Core initiative must administer online standardized testing that will measure student proficiency in the updated subject areas of learning. While many states have provided guidelines for teachers to update curriculum and ensure accurate testing environments, direction for district IT departments to prepare or update their network implementations and ensure device connectivity for these tests is still not so clear.

In this webinar, you’ll hear from Eric Wells, an IT Professional in Oklahoma, about his success in deploying wireless implementations for K-12 to support online standardized testing, and his future plans for replicating the deployment at Muskogee Public Schools. You’ll also hear from Abby Strong, Sr. Product Marketing Manager at Aerohive Networks, about what factors to keep top of mind when prepping your network for online standardized testing.

Presenter:

Eric Wells, Technology Director, Muskogee Public Schools, Muskogee, Oklahoma Also Presenting:

Abby Strong, Sr. Product Marketing Manager, Aerohive Networks

The Consortium for School Networking (CoSN), in partnership with MDR (Market Data Retrieval), today released the final results of its first E-rate and broadband survey on the challenges K-12 schools nationwide face with growing demand of digital learning environments. With more than 460 responses from 44 states, 43 percent of districts said none of their schools meet the broadband goal of 100Mbps of Internet access per 1,000 students today. The 100Mbps goal has been advocated by the State Education Technology Directors Association (SETDA) and the LEAD Commission Blueprint, as well as reinforced by President Obama’s ConnectED initiative.

The survey, which was conducted from August to September, seeks to inform critical choices the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) should make in the coming months regarding the E-rate program.

Nearly one-third of those surveyed said they did not apply for some of the E-rate program’s funding due to anticipated shortfalls in funding. Bandwidth was identified as the most important priority for the E-rate program, followed by wireless in schools, as well as school Local Area Network (LAN) connectivity and district Wide Area Network (WAN) connectivity.

The results also revealed that average school network cannot support broadband due to poor and outdated internal connections / wiring, backbone in the school LAN and lack of sufficient wireless access points:

• 57 percent of districts do not believe their school’s wireless networks have the capacity to currently handle a 1:1 deployment.
• Half of the wiring in school buildings is older, slower wiring (Cat5 and Cat3) that will not carry data at broadband speeds.
• 26 percent of districts are using slower copper or 2.3 percent wireless backbones in their school LAN.

Other key survey findings include:

• Only 57 percent of elementary schools and 64 percent of secondary schools have all classrooms fully equipped with wireless Internet connectivity.
• 45 percent of districts participate in consortium buying, including 37 percent for Internet bandwidth, and overall nearly 44 percent of districts participate in more than one purchasing cooperative.
• Rural schools pay six times more for connections than other schools / school systems. Likewise, very large school districts (+50K students) spend over three times more for WAN than other schools / school systems.
• Schools need both financial support for ongoing monthly costs AND cost of capital or upfront / nonrecurring expenses covered by E-rate if we are to achieve broadband in schools. According to the survey, ongoing monthly costs (79 percent agreement) and cost of capital or upfront / nonrecurring expenses (59 percent agreement) are the two biggest barriers for schools.

To read the full report, visit: www.cosn.org/eratesurvey.

To help schools and school districts improve their broadband speeds and meet the increase in demand for bandwidth, AT&T is delivering secure, scalable networking services such as Switched Ethernet and Managed Internet Services.

According to the State Education Technology Directors Association, schools will need Wide Area Network connections of 1 Gbps per 1,000 students and staff by 2014-15. Many schools are preparing now for the future demand:

Bartow County (GA) Schools is upgrading its existing Metro Ethernet to attain speeds of 1-2 Gbps at each school and 5 Gbps in its central office to create a 21st century technology program for its students.

Caddo Parish (LA) Schools is installing AT&T’s Switched Ethernet service in anticipation of more mobile devices on its network and state testing assessments.

Cleveland County (NC) Schools is upgrading its infrastructure to AT&T’s Switched Ethernet service in order to increase the number of wireless access points and bandwidth to support online testing.

Cullman County (GA) Schools is moving towards a 1:1 mobile learning model and turned to AT&T to upgrade its bandwidth for all schools.

Sacramento City (CA) Unified School District has a high population of economically disadvantaged students, but despite budget constraints is upgrading its circuits to a new 100 Mbps Ethernet OPT-E-MAN service from AT&T, including 64 high-speed data lines.

Wayne (MI) Regional Educational Service Agency is working with AT&T to upgrade its capabilities by 1,000 percent – expanding to 20 Gbps.

For more information visit www.att.com/edu.

EarthLink, Inc. today announced the conclusion of its Eastern Tennessee Middle Mile Fiber Broadband Project and the completion of a more than 500 mile fiber optic broadband network connecting previously underserved communities across the eastern part of the state. In all, EarthLink deployed 15 Dense Wave Division Multiplexing (DWDM)-capable Points of Presence (POPs) in the state, from which it can provide long-haul DWDM service up to 10 Gigabits, plus metro service in Nashville and Memphis.

EarthLink’s Tennessee Broadband project was funded by $9.4 million in federal stimulus by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) through the Broadband Technology Opportunity Program (BTOP) to reach communities designated as underserved by Connected Tennessee, an independent non-profit organization that develops and implements effective strategies for technology deployment, use and literacy in Tennessee.

With this new Eastern Tennessee network in place, EarthLink can now offer its full suite of EarthLink Business® IT and communications services to businesses and community anchor institutions in these previously underserved areas. EarthLink Carrier® will also provide broadband interconnection to other carriers including last mile providers at speeds up to 10Gbps. Signed agreements are already in place between EarthLink and Morristown Fibernet for 1000M of dedicated Internet access and Twin Lakes Telephone Cooperative for one GigE of IP transport from Cookeville to Huntsville, AL.

Phase One of the network completion, announced in March, 2011, included a 343-mile overbuild of an existing diverse fiber optic route from Nashville to Knoxville, and the addition of a new diverse fiber optic route from Knoxville to Chattanooga. The Phase Two network expansion, completed in June of 2011, included deployment of a fiber optic route from Knoxville to Bristol, Tennessee. Point of Presence (POP) sites along the route include: Knoxville, TN; Morristown, TN; Johnson City, TN; and Bristol, TN. The final Phase Three of the project involved five network interconnection points including Cookeville, Oak Ridge, Cleveland, Sweetwater and Morristown, TN.

Ruckus Wireless today announced that Ventura Unified School District (VUSD) of Ventura, California has standardized on its Smart Wi-Fi products and technology to support its one-to-one computing program and foster a more interactive learning environment at its 28 K-12 schools and district offices.

VUSD selected Ruckus's ZoneFlex Smart Wireless LAN (WLAN) system to deliver high-capacity Wi-Fi to support its expanding use of mobile laptop carts and netbooks in the classroom, as well as a mobile healthcare clinic.

The district serves approximately 17,000 students with 1,000 faculty members across 28 different campuses. VUSD is purchasing and installing over 500 ZoneFlex dual-band 802.11n Smart Wi-Fi access points (APs) to deliver performance and capacity across all of its schools as well as its 140,000-square-foot district office.

A new public-private initiative has Discovery Education joining with other like-minded companies and the FCC to assist the broadband-challenged -- many of whom are poor, unemployed or live in rural areas -- from falling behind in today's tech-centric economy.

As a partner inConnect to Compete, Discovery Education will offer educational content, including video clips and digital lessons, to help needy children in K-12 with their homework. With topics ranging from two-digit addition to presidential elections, resources for student success will be accessible free of charge to the neediest students and their parents.

ERF Wireless, provider of enterprise-class wireless broadband products and services, announced today that the company has entered into four separate contractual agreements with four Texas Independent School Districts to design, engineer and construct wireless broadband networks utilizing the respective districts' 2.5GHz Education Broadband Service (EBS) licenses.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) released the long anticipated National Broadband Orders, laying out the FCC’s plan to promote affordable broadband access. While the plan affects a number of different government programs, some of its most sweeping changes involve the current E-rate program.

The most significant announcement for E-rate participants is that the funding cap will be indexed to general economy inflation in an effort to stifle depreciation and increase the number of applicants vying for Priority 2 funding for internal connections projects. The Commission also is allowing applicants to open up E-rate funded services to the community for after-hour use, so long as it does not interfere with educational purposes.

For up-to-date information on the National Broadband Orders and the implications for the E-rate program, visit www.fundsforlearning.com.

The National School Boards Association (NSBA) applauds the effort and commitment in the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) National Broadband Plan to identify options for improving educational achievement and global competiveness.

At the same time, implementation of many of the recommendations will require additional resources.

"We support the FCC recommendation to increase the cap for E-Rate funds for Internet connections but urge the FCC and Congress to preserve and enhance this resource for schools and libraries before expanding to other uses," Bryant said. "Strengthening the role of schools and libraries through the E-Rate program and other resources is vital to provide 21st century skills and prepare students and communities to be competitive in a global economy."

For more information, visit www.nsba.org

Funds For Learning announces that John Harrington, CEO, will be presenting at the 2011 International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) Conference on Tuesday, June 28, 2011 at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia. The presentation, Historical Day for E-rate: The National Broadband Plan, will include best practices for E-rate stakeholders as they work with the E-rate program administrator during the time of regulatory change.

In his presentation, Harrington will step participants through the numerous changes implemented through the Federal Communications Commission’s Sixth Report and Order, highlighting its implications for the E-rate program.

Xirrus® announced today the deployment of Xirrus high performance Wi-Fi Arrays at Millis Public Schools in Millis, Massachusetts. Located approximately 19 miles southwest of downtown Boston, Millis Public Schools earned the Silver Medal status in 2010 as one of America's Best High Schools, placing them in the top 3% in the United States. Millis has been a leader in technology-driven learning programs to improve learning and communications for their 1,700 students and faculty. By Deploying Xirrus Wi-Fi Arrays, Millis Public Schools has been able to further expand on their personalized learning initiative, providing solid and reliable wireless connections for their computer-based applications and 1:1 Apple® iPad initiative.

“We have always used technology in our district to help leverage teaching and learning programs,” said Grace Magley, Director of Educational Technology for Millis Public Schools. “We were looking to embrace a personalized learning initiative and needed to upgrade to a wireless solution that could support our impending wireless saturation requirements of 30 devices in every classroom, in addition to the devices brought from home. Our hallways have up to 150 devices online at any given time, so it was crucial for us to find a wireless network that could handle a 1:1 initiative while also saving us money over time. Of the five wireless vendors we researched, Xirrus was the only one that could offer a solid and reliable solution to support the density demands we required without having to place an AP in every classroom.”

Grace further explained their decision to select Xirrus by stating, “We have always been in the forefront of embracing wireless technology in our district. By selecting Xirrus we have been able to further expand on our personalized learning initiative, providing our students with access to whatever technology based applications they need to be successful. Xirrus has been integral in allowing us to propel our technology-driven learning programs.”

Grace concluded by saying, “We are still in the pilot stage of our iPad initiative but we are seeing amazing things and the Xirrus product is a huge part of its success so far. In the future, we envision implementing a complete 1:1 across our entire district. We knew whatever wireless solution we brought in had to work flawlessly and Xirrus has been extremely solid and reliable - greatly exceeding our expectations! After spending a lot of time selecting the right vendor – we feel really great about our partnership with Xirrus.”

Funds For Learning announces that John Harrington, CEO, will be presenting at the 2011 International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) Conference on Tuesday, June 28, 2011 at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia. The presentation, Historical Day for E-rate: The National Broadband Plan, will include best practices for E-rate stakeholders as they work with the E-rate program administrator during the time of regulatory change.

In his presentation, Harrington will step participants through the numerous changes implemented through the Federal Communications Commission’s Sixth Report and Order, highlighting its implications for the E-rate program.

The federal E-rate program provides more than $2.25 billion annually for services and products that are essential for schools and libraries to receive voice, data and Internet communications. The E-rate, which started in 1998, is the single largest source of recurring K-12 technology funding in the country, according to Funds for Learning (www.fundsforlearning.com), which provides support services that help schools stay compliant with E -rate regulations.

To further promote Internet connectivity across the country, the FCC in September 2010 released the National Broadband Orders. The Orders affect a number of different government programs, but none as strongly as E-rate.

The most substantial changes to the program such as indexing the annual funding cap to inflation and the codifying of the gift rules went into effect earlier this year. However, there are some aspects of the Order that are scheduled to take effect this summer.
Two of the changes that are scheduled to go into effect on July 1, are the expanded access to low-cost fiber optic data networks and the elimination of the technology plan requirement for telecommunications and Internet access.

With the Order, applicants can lease dark or lit fiber optic networks from any provider of services, even if the provider is not a traditional telephone company. This change will allow applicants to choose the most cost effective services that best meet their needs.

Another change that will see an increase in participation after July 1 is the new rules regarding technology plans. Under the new rules, a technology plan is no longer required for telecommunications and Internet access services. Applicants must still budget funds and competitively bid these services, but will no longer need a specific technology plan for using these services.

Good planning and timely application submission help applicants succeed. Effective E-rate applicants stay abreast of these changes and others like them that are sure to come.

Ruckus Wireless™ today announced that its ZoneFlex Smart Wi-Fi system has been recently selected by a number of K-12 schools to support a new era of wireless applications that exploit the power and mobility of smart tablet devices such as Apple iPads.

Emerging smart tablet devices present new wireless connectivity challenges for corporations. Unlike conventional laptops that tend to stay in a fixed position, iPads and other new smart mobile devices are constantly moving because they are held in the hands of users who are continually altering the orientation of the device. The slightest change in antenna orientation of these devices has shown to cause dramatic swings in wireless performance as the integrity of the signal path is in a continual state of change.

Conventional Wi-Fi systems, using standard omni-directional antennas, have no ability to adaptively cope with device orientation changes. These systems, functioning like audio speakers, blast Wi-Fi signals in all directions. Patented advances in Wi-Fi, called adaptive antenna technology, overcome these problems by constantly steering Wi-Fi signals over the best path for each device, even as the device changes its orientation. This adaptation happens on a packet-by-packet basis as the Smart Wi-Fi system learns how it is performing based on real-time feedback from each client device.

Wi-Fi Capable Devices Dominate Data Traffic

Research firm iSuppli predicts that global shipments of mobile Internet devices are set to rise to 416 million units in 2012, rising at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 50.6 percent from 53.8 million in 2007. According to AdMob's Mobile Metrics report (May 2010), 60 percent of data traffic in the U.S. came from Wi-Fi capable devices with 58 percent of the world's iPad users located in the U.S.

Throughout the U.S. and abroad, K-12 schools and universities are utilizing iPads, iPhones, tablets and other handheld devices to enable mobility in the classroom and achieve higher standards of learning. Meanwhile hospitals and clinics rely on iPads and mobile devices to support Electronic Medical Records (EMR) software and deliver better bedside patient care.

The Ruckus Wireless Smart Wi-Fi equipment is often selected in these environments over other available wireless LAN solutions because of its reliable performance and ability to support high client density requirements, typical of large-scale mobile device usage.

Among the recent schools to deploy Ruckus Smart Wi-Fi to support a mobile computing environment are Hood River School District in northern Oregon, and Central York School District in south central Pennsylvania – both of which have standardized their entire districts on the ZoneFlex wireless LAN (WLAN) system.

"Our teachers rely heavily on the Internet and Web-based applications for instruction, giving tests and quizzes, grading work, logging attendance and even streaming video from time to time," said Joe Lucia, network administrator for Central York School District. "Between our teachers and students, we have 400 mobile devices in use at any given time at some of our schools, and we needed a robust, reliable wireless network to support such high usage. Ruckus has performed beyond our expectations, and for a fraction of the cost of other systems we evaluated."

iPads at School

Pennsylvania's Central York School District, comprising five elementary schools, one middle and one high school, and with 5,600 students and 425 teachers, has an all Apple computing infrastructure. Students use district-purchased Apple Macbooks, iPod Touches with educational applications, and iMacs in the classroom.

With the district's previous wireless network, there were continuous problems. The Wi-Fi gear had difficulty interoperating with the various Apple devices, and connections were constantly dropped and signal range was poor. As the district's use of mobile devices and laptop computers grew, the need to move to 802.11n became increasingly important, according to Lucia.

"With such heavy use of mobile devices, as well as our plans to beta test certain devices in the classroom, we knew we needed a more powerful wireless network that was more adaptive," said Lucia.

Working with its integration partner Dauphin Datacom, Central York was able to provide campus-wide coverage at all seven schools, as well as to the central district office, by deploying 250 ZoneFlex 802.11n Smart Wi-Fi APs – and ZoneDirector controllers for centralized network management.

Each Ruckus ZoneFlex Smart Wi-Fi AP integrates a patented smart antenna array that focuses and directs Wi-Fi signals over the best signal path, automatically mitigating interference to ensure the highest data rates and consistent performance wherever clients roam. ZoneFlex Smart Wi-Fi access points can be deployed as standalone APs without a controller or with a controller as a fully centralized wireless LAN system.

"Not only does the Ruckus Wi-Fi network support our high density requirements, but we also use the wireless network for pretty much all our operational needs," said Lucia. "Without it, our entire system would be crippled."

At the Hood River School District, with close to 4,000 students across five elementary and two middle schools, one high school and one K-8 school, creation of "technology-rich" classrooms is the driving force behind their use of Ruckus Smart Wi-Fi. With a $250 million grant to purchase laptop computers, iPads and other handheld devices, the school district knew it needed to upgrade its previous 802.11g wireless infrastructure to support a high-user density mobile computing environment.

"Our aim is to create an infrastructure that inspires students to stay engaged in the curriculum," said Tod Hilstad, director of IT at Hood River School District. "We have several mobile laptop carts that go from classroom to classroom, and we're also undergoing a pilot program using iPads and other handheld devices as teaching and learning tools.

"The iPad is magical – it captures kids' attention and makes learning fun. With schools under pressure to have wireless in the classroom for laptops and other devices, use of the iPad and Ruckus Smart Wi-Fi presents the perfect opportunity to use advanced technology as a foundation for learning," he said.

Hilstad said that over a two-month period his team evaluated equipment from Ruckus and two other providers. They performed real-world tests on each system in the classroom, with high amounts of interference from many devices using the 2.4 Ghz band. "Our technology-rich classrooms are an incredibly challenging environment, and yet the Ruckus system was superior at handling interference and optimizing power to client devices. It was an easy choice for us to make," he said.

To blanket all of the district's schools with reliable, high-performance Wi-Fi, he purchased 70 Ruckus ZoneFlex 802.11n dual-band access points, and ZoneDirector 3000 controllers.

"I wrestled with the inadequacies of our previous system for years, and it's such a relief to have a self-optimizing, self-healing Wi-Fi network that not only keeps up with current demands, but that will also serve us long into the future," said Hilstad.

Xirrus® announced today the deployment of Xirrus high performance Wi-Fi Arrays throughout Fountain Fort Carson School District Eight in Fountain, Colorado.

The district has a total enrollment of 7,502 students along with over a thousand staff members throughout 15 buildings. Academic achievement is the district’s number one priority and their reason for continually striving to enhance the technologies available within their learning environment. In an effort to maximize student learning after implementing their 1-1 laptop initiative, Fountain Fort Carson replaced their existing wireless network with the Wi-Fi Arrays manufactured by Xirrus.

“Our foray into wireless started at the high school with the 1-1 laptop initiative pilot,” said Tammy Woods, Network Manager at Fountain Fort Carson School District. “The program eventually developed and matured to a level at which we had to re-evaluate the wireless infrastructure we had in place. Now that we’ve replaced the [previous] gear with Xirrus, we have half the number of devices to manage and our density issues are a thing of the past.

“Another wireless challenge we faced was using laptops in our elementary schools for testing with Scantron, a web-based assessment tool that requires a stable point-to-point connection,” continued Tammy. “We needed our wireless in those buildings to work as well as our wired network. Having dropped connections when kids are taking tests just wasn’t an option."

"From the start, though, we were intrigued by Xirrus’ ability to support the user density we have at our high school, by their ability to provide a viable replacement for the Ethernet network, and by their ability to expand and adapt to handle the unknowns of the future. While the technology Xirrus has is great, it was actually their knowledgeable staff, willingness to go above and beyond to make sure we had everything we needed, and great technical support that put them over-the-top in our eyes. When you have a small support staff like we do, it’s important to have such robust backup from the vendors,” she concluded.

The Federal Communications Commission has released the longanticipated National Broadband Orders, which lays out the agency’s plan to promote affordable broadband access. While the plan affects a number of government programs, some of its most sweeping changes involve the current E-rate program.

The most significant announcement for E-rate participants is that the funding cap will be indexed to general economy inflation in an effort to stifle depreciation and increase the number of applicants vying for Priority 2 funding for internal connection projects. The commission is also allowing applicants to open up E-rate–funded services to the community for after-hours use so long as it does not interfere with educational purposes.

For more information on the E-rate program, visit www.fundsforlearning.com.

For the first time in the U.S., unused TV broadcast channels freed by the transition to digital TV are being used to deliver wireless high-speed Internet connectivity to education, business and community users. These unused frequencies are commonly referred to as "TV white spaces" - vacant channels in the television band that are ideal for sending broadband signals across long distances and for penetrating walls, trees and other objects. These TV white spaces hold enormous potential for expanding broadband access, particularly in rural and other underserved areas.

One such underserved community is - or was - Claudville, Virginia, where, under an experimental license granted by the Federal Communications Commission, Spectrum Bridge has designed and deployed a wireless TV white spaces network to distribute broadband Internet connectivity. To ensure that Claudville residents can make the most of this new high-speed connectivity, Dell, Microsoft and the TDF Foundation contributed state-of-the-art computer systems and software applications to the local school, as well as the town's new computer center. As a result, Claudville residents have already begun to reap the benefits of joining the online community.

"Our students and teachers did not have access to computers or broadband connectivity until now," said Jerry Whitlow, administrator of Trinity Christian School. "The advantages these new technologies bring to our classrooms will be numerous, including expanded research and information resources, greater understanding of important world events and access to new distance learning opportunities."

The TV white spaces network is providing the "middle mile" link between the wired backhaul and the WiFi hot spot networks deployed in Claudville's school as well as the business area. The same network is also providing last mile broadband connectivity directly to end users.

Roger Hayden, Director of Claudville Computer Center and Chairman of the Patrick County Broadband Task Force said, "The citizens here are directly benefiting from the digital dividend created by availability of TV white spaces frequencies. Being able to leverage a TV white spaces network that covers Claudville's residential, business and the surrounding areas is a major step towards meeting this goal."

Signals delivered over TV white spaces can cover large areas and are unlicensed in keeping with a November 2008 FCC decision, so device-makers and network operators using these frequencies take precautions to prevent interference with licensed television broadcasts. To ensure that the use of TV white spaces in Claudville does not cause interference with local TV signals, the network is controlled by Spectrum Bridge's intelligent TV white spaces database system. This database assigns non-interfering frequencies to white spaces devices, and can adapt in real time to new TV broadcasts, as well as to other protected TV band users operating in the area.

"Due to its availability and range, TV white spaces have proved to be a very cost-effective way to distribute high-speed Internet in this heavily forested and hilly rural community," said Peter Stanforth, CTO of Spectrum Bridge. "The non-line of sight conditions, coupled with long distances between radios, would have posed significant challenges to existing unlicensed alternatives."

TV white spaces hold promise for other rural communities throughout the country, as well as underserved areas, such as some inner cities. The rapid adoption of TV white spaces rules will allow industry to respond to government initiatives that seek increased broadband penetration on the state and national levels.

"I hope that Claudville will become a model for delivering broadband services to more rural communities in a cost-effective manner in the future," said Congressman Rick Boucher, Chairman of the Subcommittee on Communications, Technology and the Internet.

The Web site ShowMyWhiteSpace.com offers a free search tool that lists all open white spaces channels at any address in the U.S. This site also contains white spaces news and information, as well as links to FCC documents and other valuable white spaces resources.

Tip:
JiWire is a free service that allows you to find WiFi spots wherever you're planning to be — extremely useful in advanced planning when you know you'll need Internet Connectivity on that upcoming trip.

I was pleasantly surprised by the number of WiFi spots that I found in unexpected locations, even outside the U.S. I have used it on trips to Scandinavia and Western Canada.

It is really helpful to be able use their free software on the road to find hot spots when you are not online.

All you need to do is put in the local postal code or a street address to find the hot spots. They can be sorted by proximity.

Submitted by:
Ken Peterson, Educational Consultant
kpete46@hotmail.com
San Diego COE, U of Phoenix, National University

Next Tip: Tips for New Teachers

Despite the high tech bubble burst a few years ago, one area has continued to grow beyond all but a few observers’ wildest dreams — broadband. According to Nielsen/NetRatings, home users of broadband have quadrupled since January 2000, and now represent about forty percent of the home online market. If current trends continue, broadband will reach seventy percent of the home market by mid-2005.

The remarkable growth of broadband has profound effects on distance learning. Innumerable organizations, private and public alike, have spent a small fortune creating online content designed for the lowest common denominator, narrowband user -- mostly text, graphics, and some very light weight interactives, content that can bleed its way through a narrow pipe.

Big problem, because broadband is a unique medium with its own affordances.

A good analogy would be the relationship between radio and television. Television is, literally, a higher bandwidth application than radio -- and in fact, was initially thought by many to be simply “radio with picturesâ€. However, the increased bandwidth television provided afforded users the ability to see full motion, which changed everything. Television quickly developed its own unique forms of storytelling, news, and so on, to take advantage of the unique medium’s affordances.

The same is true for the relationship between narrowband and broadband Internet content. The ability to send more data through the pipe completely changes the nature of the user experience. In addition to smaller data applications like text and graphics, now web content can contain full motion video streams, high-quality stereo audio streams, even complex animations and simulations. The result is a more involving, more emotive, user experience. So once again, increased bandwidth changes everything.

Broadband users can certainly access Narrowband content, just as it’s equally true that radio programs could be broadcast on television — and they practically were, early on. The problem, however, comes when users’ expectations change. Once people become used to richer multimedia experiences in news and entertainment, they will expect the same kinds of experiences in education, and content that doesn’t contain media streaming and elaborate animations will seem “very 1996".

The change in users’ expectations won’t happen overnight. Broadband needs a couple more years before it reaches the majority of the online population, then news, advertising and entertainment companies need to gain more experience and produce more broadband content before the bar will be raised for education.

But the bar will be raised, and a couple of more years is only a couple of more years. Can existing online content be upgraded to broadband with the simple addition of some video files and a couple of Flash animations? Isn’t that all you need?

Well, no. But that, my friends, is another story....

This article first appeared in the USDLA Journal and is reprinted with permission.

Written by: Craig Ullman

Not long ago we were accessing the Internet using dial-up modems. But according to the Nielsen Ratings as of last summer, broadband connections for the first time reached 51 percent of the American online population. (For more, see www.nielsen-netratings.com/ pr/pr_040818.pdf).

What Can You Do with a Broadband Connection that You Can't with a Dial-Up Connection?

Video-on-demand and multimedia downloading (such as music) work extremely well over broadband connections; downloading a video over a dial-up connection can be an exercise in frustration due to the tollbooth effect (see "Broadband Defined"). Web pages, especially those with many graphics, load significantly faster over broadband. E-mail, especially with large attachments, also takes significantly less time.

How Do Broadband Connections Differ from Each Other and from Dial-Up?

Broadband connections are "always on" — no need to dial up through a modem. Turn on your computer, and you're connected to the Internet.

Cable modem access to the Internet is transmitted over your cable TV lines, and is offered by cable television companies. Like cable TV, neighbors share the signal; some people believe that this can affect speed. DSL is a telephone technology that sets up a direct connection over your telephone line from you to the phone company, and is not shared. It does begin at a lower speed than cable, though. (See below for a speed discussion.) T1 lines are a third type of telephone communication line, directly connecting two points, and capable of transmitting data even faster (and at quite a higher cost) than DSL or cable. While DSL and cable can be used in the home ($30 to $50 per month), a T1 line (at $300 per month or more) is business — and education-oriented.

Speed: Which Broadband Connection Is the Fastest?

People use broadband mainly for the increased speed. In April 2004, comScore, an ISP tracking service, analyzed the average download speed of dial-up, DSL, and cable Internet access. Their average results showed DSL to be 25 times as fast as dial-up, and cable to be over twice as fast as DSL. A T1 line can be twice as fast (or more) than cable.

Installation

Cable television companies and telephone companies offering broadband advertise that customers can install their own systems. I installed a DSL modem in my home, and it was a relatively painless procedure. The installation kit included all necessary hardware, as well as a step-by-step tutorial. On the other hand, a T1 line requires professional installation.

Jeffrey Branzburg is a contributing editor and regular columnist for Technology & Learning.

Broadband Defined

Broadband is the term used for different types of high-speed, high-bandwidth connections to the Internet, including DSL and cable. Additionally, many schools access the Internet through a T1 line, another type of broadband connection. Bandwidth means the amount of information that can be sent from one computer to another through an Internet connection in a specific amount of time. An analogy is a highway tollbooth-hundreds of cars approaching the George Washington Bridge tollbooths simultaneously means everybody needs to wait their turn. The more tollbooths (or higher bandwidth), the faster people get through.

Please feel free to reproduce this page for your novice in-service sessions.