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PROXIM: HAYT SCHOOL CASE STUDY
6/25/01
INTEGRATING TECHNOLOGY ACROSS THE CURRICULUM AND THE CAMPUS
A School Enhances Learning Opportunities through Wireless Connectivity
The computer-less classroom, once standard, has disappeared much
the same as the one-room schoolhouse. In addition to the traditional
"basics," today's schools must prepare their students for the
technology-rich environment where they will compete as adults. Today's
students have grown up with video games, "special effect" movies, and
computers in their homes. They are ripe for the type of hands-on learning
that computers provide. According to a recent study, there are currently
82,065 K-12 schools with computers in the US, and 89-95% of these use the
Internet as a teaching tool. 95% of the 16 million students in higher
educational institutions will be online by 2003. As educators plan for
this future, a key question they face is, "How can schools more
effectively incorporate the Internet and computers into the
curriculum?"
One way to do this is
through wireless networking, which allows students to carry laptops that
connect wirelessly to the school's network and to the Internet. Lessons
are no longer confined to a classroom or a lab. Students can study
photosynthesis outside, study muscle groups in the gym, or use the space
provided in an auditorium to do large art projects, while also researching
those topics on the Internet at the same time. The possibilities
abound.
Stephen K. Hayt Elementary
School (K-12), located in the Chicago, Illinois, community of Edgewater,
recently came up with an innovative approach to integrating technology
into the curriculum. They wanted to provide students with enhanced
learning opportunities anywhere on campus by combining hands-on learning
projects with wireless Internet access. The school administrators
contacted Technocrats Consulting, Inc.,[Now Wirehead Technology] specialists in educational
systems, to develop a plan to achieve this vision.
Wirehaed Technology worked with
school personnel to develop the following goals:
- Implement mobile
computing, so that lessons aren't confined to the classroom
- Design a system that
lets students face the teacher rather than the wall.
- Continue to utilize the
investment made in Mac and PC computers and software.
To accomplish these goals,
Wirehead Technology needed to implement a single wireless networking system
throughout the school that worked with Hayt School's existing PCs and
Macs. Technocrats provided a solution that met these requirements
cost-effectively and ahead of schedule. This solution utilizes Proxim's
Harmony wireless networking solution and allows both Macs and PCs to be
recognized on one wireless LAN system. All of the school's 65 laptops (50
Apple iBooks ; 15 Dell Inspiron PCs) can be used at the same time on
the same LAN from anywhere on the campus. Students can access the
Internet, the school website, classroom files, lesson plans, and
collaborative projects from any machine from anywhere on the school
grounds.
THE WIRELESS NETWORKING
SOLUTION Proxim' s
Harmony solution was chosen for its flexibility and investment protection.
The Harmony wireless network supports the leading networking standard,
IEEE 802.11b. Plus, Harmony is designed to allow easy and inexpensive
migration to new wireless standards as they become available, while
maintaining the same configuration and management interface, without
disturbing the existing installation. With their Harmony solution, Hayt
School has been able to connect all of their existing notebook computers
wirelessly to their network, while assuring that their investment in
wireless networking can be leveraged when they are ready to move to a new
wireless technology in the future.
THE INSTALLATION PROCESS
The
initial call to Wirehead Technology was made on April 27, 2001. By May 29,
students were logging onto the new wireless LAN from both Mac and Dell PC
laptops. To make sure the learning environment was not disturbed,
technicians installed the entire wireless network over the 3-day Memorial
Day holiday.
The Wednesday before, Wirehead did a site survey,
mapping exactly where each access point would be placed, the coverage
range of each, and its channel designation. Once this was done, the access
point channels were programmed before bringing them to the school.
Technocrats also customized the solution to ensure that both the PC and
Apple iBook notebook computers could run seamlessly over one wireless
LAN.
During the 3-day holiday, technicians installed 49
Harmony Access Points , 44 in classrooms and the other five in the auditorium,
cafeteria and main office - to provide coverage throughout the school.
Because of their range, the 44 classroom access points actually cover 55
rooms. The access points have been placed so that their different channel
signals do not interfere with each other. Also, though the channels are
different, a student walking across campus with a "logged on" laptop is
not aware of the different channel or signal changes entailed as he
travels from one access point coverage area to another - like a cell
phone, this is invisible to the user.
WHAT THIS MEANS FOR
STUDENTS
Teachers and students have already benefited from
this new-found liberty. The 3rd grade classes have taken laptops into the
cafeteria, taking advantage of the larger space to create life-sized
drawings of the human form. They then used a correlating student Internet
learning site to identify and label the different internal
organs. 7th grade students are using the laptops to participate in the
Northwestern University Collaborative Project. This project works with
individual teachers, school project teams, and multi-school collaborations
in school districts throughout Illinois. Students are able to use the
resources of participating museums, libraries, and cultural institutions
for innovative, web-based learning opportunities. One class created a "Wonderful World" environmental
slide show, and saved the file on the server. They were then able to
present their work in their classrooms and to other classes in the
auditorium.
FUTURE
POSSIBILITIES
School administrators are already looking toward the future
possibilities of their new wireless LAN. They are planning a formal
keyboarding program that will enhance the students' ability to use the
laptops to fullest advantage. Because any hand-held Windows CE device can
be recognized on their LAN, the school is also contemplating how these can
be used to enhance the curriculum. According to Linda Smentek,
Technology Coordinator for Hayt School, "The new system has enhanced
learning tremendously. The laptops integrate technology across the
curriculum, and by having such mobility, you can teach in a much more
hands-on way, wherever the lesson happens to be. We're excited about the
new opportunities - a lot of which I'm sure we haven't even discovered
yet." Proxim, Inc. is
located in Sunnyvale, California, and can be reached at
www.proxim.com
To download a copy of the Hayt Elementary Case Study Click Here
E-Mail:
tcrats321@yahoo.com
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