Learn from the Director of Technology at Olathe, KS District Schools how they are using WLAN to bring technology to the classroom to improve student learning, while meeting state mandates for online testing and compliance with No Child Left Behind requirements. 

To view the latest webinar Bringing Wi-Fi to the classroom: How to choose and fund the best WLAN solution for your school,

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Enabling Ubiquitous Connectivity in Schools
K-12 educators are witnessing a growing divide between the technology resources available at school, and the access to technology that students have at home or even in their back pocket! Although almost 90% of students have access to a computer at home, while at school, they must share a PC with 3 or 4 other students. Not surprisingly, educators are at a loss as to how to get technology into the classroom as an integrated component of the entire curriculum, not just a contrived Computer Lab session once a week. Crippled with tiny budgets and outdated network infrastructure, educators are often torn between buying up-to-date computers and building out the network. One without the other is not enough - both are required, to give students the 21st Century learning environment they deserve.

Deployment Barriers beyond Funding
As if funding was the only problem! Sadly it isn’t. Schools also face major deployment barriers because most classrooms are too small to be equipped with a computer at each desk. Furthermore, very few classrooms are wired with more than a handful of LAN ports, and this isn’t going to change soon, because the cost of wiring up every classroom is unaffordable for most school districts. Not to mention the inconvenience and red-tape involved, since older buildings often contain hazardous materials, requiring special permits and major disruption to classroom schedules before wiring can be installed.

Wireless LANs to the Rescue
For these reasons and many more, school districts are turning to Wi-Fi. Costing one third of an equivalent wired network, Wireless LANs can be installed in days not weeks with no disruption to classroom schedules and no red tape. In addition, a properly configured WLAN can deliver ubiquitous network access supporting unified voice, video and data. Not only in classrooms and library, but also in hallways, cafeteria and open spaces, with as high user density as needed. And by switching to wireless enabled laptops, instead of desktops, they can largely solve the space problems, as well as making headway toward one-to-one computing.

Easy Deployment and Management
Not all Wireless LANs are born equal. Clearly, low-cost consumer targeted Wireless LAN Access Points are not suitable, because they don’t support multiple SSIDs and rapidly become unmanageable once you install more than a handful of them.

Along with a shortage of money, school districts also have a distinct shortage of networking experts, especially at the local level, so a primary requirement for WLANs is ease of deployment – they need WLAN management tools that are comprehensible, and take the guesswork out of RF planning, deployment and configuration.

Longevity and Investment Protection
Additionally, because of lack of funds, any solution must last… a long time – and perform as well in the final year as it did in the first. That means it has got to scale to support new applications, huge increases in bandwidth demand and enable the introduction of complimentary new technologies without needing forklift upgrades – even in the face of rapidly evolving wireless LAN standards.

Enabling Unified Communications
A common myth propagated by wired-infrastructure equipment vendors, is that Unified Communications requires their wireless network gear as well. This is of course nonsense, and educators should not be fooled by this classic vendor lock-in strategy. The fact is, wireless LANs represent an inflection point that lets customers start-over and cut-loose from the shackles and price premiums of previous wired-network vendor choices.

Industry analysts agree that wireless is the future of networking, many suggesting that most new networks will be "all wireless". Further, they also agree that WLANs can be overlaid on the wired infrastructure without dependence on wired-networking components or specific networking topologies. In other words, a best of breed pure-play WLAN solution, delivers the best price / performance, and does not require any changes to the existing wired network configuration. 

Let Trapeze Networks show you how …