Wireless - its got to be the way, hasn’t it?
September 27th, 2007I found myself having a conversation (actually it was an email but it’s so familiar now that it feels like a conversation) with a teacher today who I’ve known for at least 10 years in Bolton. It was about wireless vs. desktops in the classroom and the issues that they were experiencing with poor network coverage in the school - which by the way is pretty open plan and single storey.
She was considering the pros and cons of returning to desktop clusters and getting away from aging laptops with useless batteries. Fair enough.
“How would it go down with Ofsted?” she probed. Hmmm. Depends on the team you get, any other priorities and of course the quality of existing teaching. It’s said that schools’ experiences of Ofsted and ICT can fluctuate like Madonna’s accent.
Well the thing that surprised me most was how strongly I suddenly felt about being wireless. When I pictured children and teachers going back to using desktops again it was almost as if I could see them being tethered down like goats in a open field. What poetic nonsense and ridiculous imagery to get in your head about the notion of being wireless! Still - there I was and it’s bothered me ever since I sent the reply, even though I counter-balanced my view further on.
Panorama’s documentary on wireless technology didn’t enter my head really and I think that the issues of wireless are, by and large, fading. Did you know that those boffins at MIT have even worked out how to deliver wireless electricity? Eureeeeeka!
Naturally there’s a growing market for wi-fi ’stuff’ nowadays and if you’re a young person in school reading this I’d suggest you look into it as a career option. Try this.
“..the PillCam [is] a tiny two-sided camera the size of a very large pill which patients swallow. It has been used in more than half a million gastro-intestinal endoscopy tests since 2001. One version is used to diagnose disorders of the oesophagus and another for those of the small intestine. It snaps a pre-set number of pictures per second and sends them wirelessly to a data recorder worn on the patient’s waist. The images are downloaded to a computer for diagnosis. The $450 capsule passes through the bowel naturally and is flushed down the toilet.
Source: The Economist April 2007
So I’d say to schools, if wireless is getting so advanced and so cheap to produce now that it can now be just flushed away, we have to take the long term view that it’s only going to become more prevalent in education and life in general. [More on this: Economist] If you’re wireless you’re less tied down (!) with fewer boundaries to limit your options for collaboration and resource finding. Wireless brings it’s own challenges for sure but on balance I feel that the pros outweigh the cons.
Oh dear. Better wipe the butter off the underside of my laptop now. That’ll teach me not to blog between the toaster and the kitchen hob. Now if I’d been sat safely at the desk upstairs…
[JB]
September 28th, 2007 at 5:39 pm
JB you are obviously from the “it works for me so it should work for everyone” school of thought. The type of person who does not look in to the facts of the matter before offering their opinion. Wireless access points share one 100Mbit wired connection over a shared wireless bandwidth which is typically 54Mbit, if the wireless cards and access points are compatible. Divide this theoretical bandwidth by the number of laptops you are trying to use and you end up with a solution that is not fit for purpose. I say theoretical because unlike wired networking wireless networks use a radio frequency around 2.4Ghz with a limit of 11 channels. This frequency is a noisy public one which is used for such things as cordless telephones etc. Have you considered that most schools have houses nearby that could at any point introduce a wireless access point of their own? This access point could be configured on the same channel as a point in a school which would render it and the one in the local house almost useless. How exactly is a school supposed to rely on this not fit for use approach? I would like to see video conferencing work with this solution. You are simply sending schools down a road that will lead to them wasting their money in the long run. Consider also that when you are asking anyone to wander around with a laptop in there hands you are asking for trouble. In my experience children have enough to think about getting around schools without the added danger of tripping whilst trying not to drop a laptop. How many schools have an up to date risk assessment or adequate insurance for the damage to the child or the laptop I wonder?
Wireless networks do have their place, for example where you need a temporary solution. Their application in the past was mainly in the business sector. When a company such as a bank had a big push on loans for example they would hire temporary office space and rig up a wireless network for the duration of the promotion. After the promotion the wireless network could be removed and stored until the next promotion. Thus saving the bank the expense of installing wired networking and the need for permanent offices space both of which would not be used all of the time. Companies producing wireless equipment realized that once that marked was saturated they needed to sell them in other markets hence the clever marketing that gives gullible people the impression that they can simple switch on their laptop and access the internet anywhere in the world regardless of whether there is any wireless infrastructure available.
Compare this to wired networking where each client laptop or PC has a dedicated 100Mbit connection (1000Mbit if it is a modern PC or laptop and the school has upgraded their network switch). The image of a primary school child carrying a laptop around school fills me with foreboding. The school is risking the health and safety of children in their care when they expect then to do such a thing
“Wireless brings it???s own challenges for sure but on balance I feel that the pros outweigh the cons” I feel the cons outweigh the pros
Schools in particular given the financial strains put on them should consider very carefully whether they invest in a technology they will constantly have to maintain and replace when it inevitably becomes obsolete in a short period or whether they invest in tried and tested technology which will continue to be appropriate and easily upgradeable (one network switch as opposed to multiple access points and wireless cards) for the foreseeable future.
October 1st, 2007 at 6:28 pm
Hi! Thanks for your heartfelt contribution!
You make some reasonable points here. So that I don’t have to quote the email, here’s the gist of one part you didn’t get but in the words of BECTA . Non-technical people should skip the next 2 para’s as they’re accurate but rather dull.
It’s great that you feel so passionately about the technology - you’re from the US industry right? Wireless here in the UK is going from strength to strength and is part of a blended solution in schools. You understandably presumed that I was saying ‘just be wireless’ - not so.
I and many others in the UK education sphere would join me in whole-heartedly disagreeing with your view that wireless is a ‘temporary solution’. I struggle to see how providing a teacher with the flexibility to seat their children in whatever groups or chairs near whatever resources should be a temporary solution. I don’t see that one at all. Indeed, a wireless network can give access to areas that may be hard to cable e.g. school study / sports halls, science labs etc.
As a country, the Government here push harder and harder for schools to harness the technology instead of being harnessed by the technology, wireless is becoming more and more critical to enable more children to access learning.
In the UK we now have entire cities coming online with Council provided broadband wireless clouds that offer inclusive access for those lucky enough to have a mobile device to access it. I say ‘mobile device’ because sticking to laptops and desktops is just too narrow these days. Now, there’s no waiting about for someone to come and unlock the IT room to begin learning - more young people can now start engage in their learning at anytime and from anywhere - thanks to wireless they’ve got more control.
So for me I’d say the challenge is about achieving a solution that balances what’s manageable for the school’s budget/techs against what offers the greatest flexibility, reliability and performance for learning.
October 2nd, 2007 at 10:28 pm
“So for me I???d say the challenge is about achieving a solution that balances what???s manageable for the school???s budget/techs against what offers the greatest flexibility, reliability and performance for learning.”
I think that hits the nail right on the head John.
At the moment our two amalgamated schools has just moved into a new site where we have both wired and wireless access. The balance as we install and set up equipment is critical. The older laptops with fading batteries are to be ‘hard wired’ to the network in clusters to extend their life, while new laptops will remain wireless. This I feel gives us a ‘balance’ to prevent learning being hindered by technology.
As you mentioned earier…We should harness the technology not let technology harness the children’s learning.
Flexibilty is the keyword!