Education & Distance Learning Enthusiasts- The technology learning curve: rich multimedia content delivered to students via a variety of networked devices is the UK government's goal for education.

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The technology learning curve: rich multimedia content delivered to students via a variety of networked devices is the UK government's goal for education.

Communicate - March 1, 2004

Universities, colleges, primary and secondary schools are greatly polarised in their ICT needs. But below the surface the mission of all these organisations is broadly the same--to impart knowledge and understanding to students. So technology should improve the education process, whether it's by making learning more enjoyable, monitoring when students aren't learning or cutting operational costs so that more budget can be student-focused.

An overview of ICT in use in educational organisations provides some interesting and predictable correlations. Universities and further education colleges have the most complex and modern networks and many are now focused on more leading-edge technologies like IP telephony, wireless LANs and multimedia support for both on-site students and distance learning. They have had a pretty free rein to implement technology as they see fit, and many now have infrastructure on a par with that of large businesses.

But for secondary and especially primary schools, the government's push to improve the use of technology has shifted the focus to meeting targets--rather than meeting actual needs. This is leading to technology implementations and upgrades that seem jumbled in their order.

Jeff Smith heads 3Com's education market-focused Direct Touch group. He explains how government initiatives have driven ICT spend in schools in the past few years. "One early initiative was all about the ratio of pupils to computers--ideally about one computer for every three pupils. There was government funding directly to schools and these targets have now been met. Next was the National Learning Grid, to make sure all schools have a sizeable Internet connection. Once this is achieved, the next step is introducing rich content and multimedia learning environments."

"There are plenty of UK providers out there, but many schools don't have LAN infrastructure capable of delivering their new 10Mbps connection to their desktop computers. A lot of schools' networks still run on a hub and early switches. There were ring-fenced budgets for content, but take-up was slow. Now I think schools are being allowed to use this budget to upgrade their infrastructure."

Bright futures

Smith says that schools should try to prioritise the future-proofing of their basic LAN infrastructure before they consider introducing wireless networks or IP telephony solutions. Schools in several areas such as Glasgow and York have now turned to managed services to help them achieve this while staying within their current budgets.

Roy Grant of the City of York Council was involved with the roll out of broadband to schools in the York area. There are now two managed service contracts in place, one for 2mbps connections to schools with anti-virus, support and 24 by 7 monitoring. However, Grant warns that it is all too easy to overlook the needs of individual schools when you are tasked with implementing wider policies.

When the project was first designed, no one told the broadband supplier that the school sites were all different sizes, so it tried to deliver a 'one size fits all' solution. Luckily this was remedied without extra cost to the council. Grant also adds:

"At first we didn't bring the schools' head teachers into the project reviews--a painful lesson learned, But once we got the schools involved, all of a sudden the relationship changed."

Once the infrastructure obstacles are overcome then the delivery of rich content can become a reality. At Aston University, pioneering work has been undertaken by its media support department, Aston Media. It is delivering multimedia learning content to both the university's students and private enterprises of a quality that should be accessible to schools in the next few years.

It produces video DVDs backed up with PDFs of notes for distance learning students, video conferencing and graphics and technical animations which are all designed to make it easier to learn. It is also involved with the development of the first UK-focused business TV channel, which will deliver news and training in the West Midlands area.

www.3com.com www.aston.ac.uk/media

Universities leading voice revolution

London's Roehampton University is one of many higher education establishments currently rolling out an IP telephony solution across its networks.

The University's Information Services (IS) department decided that the traditional analogue telephone system was hampering effective communications across the campus. This along with the significant building and re-fitting programme planned by the University provided the opportunity to investigate IP telephony.

There ale already 250 IP telephony users on the new Cisco Call Manager system provided by Damovo. This will rise to 1700 in the next three years as the analogue system is phased out. Until then, the hybrid solution allows the two technologies to run alongside each other.

The building programme means that one of the first aspects of the new system to achieve immediate and potentially dramatic cost savings has been the 'follow-me' technology of the IP telephony system. "Many senior managers don't have desktop PCs, prefer ring mobile technologies instead, This technology enables users to change the way they work easily, should they want or need to," explains IS Director, John Hill.

Roehampton University will also be looking into the possibility of utilising the new voice system across the academic Wide Area Network (JANet) to other similarly-enabled universities.

www.damovo.com

Case study

Oakham School in Leicestershire has already righted the disparity between the quality of the services and applications it aims to deliver to pupils and its LAN infrastructure.

By 2001, the school's 1500 users were accessing 200 applications on a regular basis. The demand for email and web access was causing considerable strain on the network, plus there was an initiative to make sure every student had access to notebook computers.

Colin Revell, Oakham School's IT manager, needed a network solution that would meet the wide range of disparate needs over the longer term. He explains:

"Our aim was to increase overall flexibility of access to the web, email and network resources. It was also imperative that we improved switching speed across the network to gigabit level, particularly at the edge. While a priority, speed alone wasn't going to be enough. We were looking for a means by which we could 'harmoniously' connect the wide range of operating systems and devices in everyday use across the school."

The 3Com solution, delivered by channel partner Misco, brings together a multiplayer gigabit ehternet backbone switch--the SuperStack 3 Switch 495--with ten 48 port 4400 switches across the campus. An 11mbps wireless LAN ahs also been set up with 3Com's Access Point 8000 and PCI adapters and PC cards for the school's notebooks. Revell can also now manage the whole network from a notebook PC, if necessary, with 3Com's Network Supervisor application.

Revell concludes: "From the moment if went live, the 3Com technology has performed exactly as we were promised. Implementing the network was a true plug-and-go process. In fact, it took only 15 minutes to install the Switch 4950. Even setting up the VLAN's was a breeze as the Switch 4950 comes complete with easy-to-use VLAN capabilities. The VLANs will be doubly useful when we start to trial Voice over IP in the future."

www.3com.co.uk

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