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Is your school ready for 1:1 computing and BYOD? It’s going to probably be your school’s reality within the next few years. Here are some helpful tips on preparing for the future.
1. Consider Your School’s Needs
Is your school large or small? Is it in a low-income area where students cannot afford their own devices? Where is your technology department? How is your cybersecurity?
These are all things you must consider when deciding what the best course for your school to take is. Taking a close look at what students need to fine tune your network will provide the best experience for your students.
2. Take a Look at Your Surroundings
If you work in an older building, finding a way to make it work best for internet can be difficult, finding what works best requires research.
Network administrators should spend time assessing the areas surrounding the school as well. You could find that the network has interference with nearby homes.
3. Keep A Close Eye On Your Network
Students can be quite tech savvy, and if there is a network problem, you might hear it from the students first.
In addition to user feedback, there should be built-in monitoring tools in the network’s access points. If a network isn’t functioning as it should, the access points — which are always monitoring the surrounding area — will send an alert to the IT department.
This constant stream of data also allows the IT department to monitor the network constantly.
4. Include your IT and Teaching Departments
This may sound like something obvious, but many forget when they are working with contractors. Your IT knows what type of network is needed for the school, and the teachers know what they need to get out of the network. It’s important to listen to everyone’s ideas and see what will work best for everyone.
5. Look to The Future
Though designing an infrastructure for a one-to-one or BYOD network addresses needs for the immediate future, many experts say that schools need to look even further beyond that.
Having a flexible infrastructure means that IT can roll out more access points if need be in the future. The network could be described as something “living” since it is always changing and adapting to the needs of the students and faculty.
If all these tips are taken into account, then moving into the future will be much easier than you might think.
(Story via Ed Tech Magazine)