Saturday

Planning for a Learning Environment

Planning effectively to get the best out of technologies in the classroom first requires some thinking about infrastructure.
The infrastructure is the boring bit.  The bit you don't often see or that doesn't look at all flashy.  But, infrastructure is key.  Like anything good, anything sustainable... technology in classrooms has to be built on solid foundations, and in this case that is a solid infrastructure.

This is what Year 5 & 6 classrooms at Robin Hood Primary School, Leeds, looked like in May 2012.


Classrooms at Robin Hood feature a hard-wired 'spine' throughout the building that allows us to have eight computers in every classroom that are hardwired into the network.  That means that they have a physical connection... a cable... into the network.  Hard-wiring the computers means that each classroom is less reliant on wireless to carry data.  The more pressure on the wireless system... the more potential for problems.

In this case, a wireless cloud overlaid on top of a hard-wired spine means that laptops can be added as an addition to the static computers in the classroom to give a Computer Suite as and where needed.  Classrooms can be 'ICT-heavy' or 'ICT-light(er)', depending on the subject being learned and the preferred style of the teacher and children.

There is also a data point for the teacher's laptop.  Again, this means that the teacher's device is hard-wired.  It does not rely on the wireless signal and is therefore more reliable.

The mix of hard-wired, static device and mobile wireless devices allows you to balance the data load and to be flexible in how resources are deployed.  This is much closer to a 'real world' engagement with ICT and technological devices than the old ICT Suite model allowed.

The bits that aren't on show....
There are ten data points in the classroom.  They are strategically planned in the room in order to enable a cluster of static computers that do not have a significant impact upon the classroom space itself.  One data point is next to the Interactive Whiteboard in order that the teacher's laptop can be hard-wired into the system.

The ten data points from all eleven classrooms are routed back to a panel in the centre of the building.  The panel has been considerable expanded over the years to cope with the number of data points in the classrooms and the additional data points that provide the wireless access, data to the School Hall, a data cluster in the Cyber Cafe, etc.  Beneath the panel is a hub that runs at the fastest speed we could buy.  Beneath the hub is a regularly updated, expanded, future-proofed, memory-enhanced, backed-up and souped-up server.  The server is connected to a 100Mb Internet link that goes out to a 3Gb Internet link, courtesy of Yorkshire & Humber Grid for Learning.

All of the equipment quoted in this last paragraph is all but invisible in the school itself.  It has come at considerable expense, and it is key to the effective running of 'the bits you can see.'  Invest in infrastructure first.  Get that right.  Then build on top of that towards your vision for a twenty first century school.

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