Wifi Revolution

Auburn City Schools (ACS (News - Alert)) has deployed a Trapeze Smart Mobile Wi-Fi wireless network to provide anytime, anywhere mobility for more than 1,000 laptop-equipped students and teachers at the district's junior high and high schools.

 

The wireless network is part of the district’s "21st Century Learning Initiative" that was launched in 2005 in response to the No Child Left Behind Act. The network will eventually support more than 5,000 students and teachers across nine schools, including the district’s middle and elementary schools.

 

Auburn City Schools initiated a program to provide a Wi-Fi -enabled laptop to every ninth grader at Auburn Junior High School. Beginning with the 2006-07 school year, all ninth graders will receive laptops and keep them through their senior year at Auburn High School.

 

ACS decided to deploy wireless networking in the district schools to provide ubiquitous connectivity for the laptop-equipped students and selected Trapeze to provide the wireless infrastructure. ACS has already installed the networks in the junior high and high schools, and will roll out Trapeze Wi-Fi networks in media centers at the district’s middle school and five elementary schools. A new elementary school under construction will be fully wireless when it opens.

 

Debbie B. Rice, director of technology, Auburn City Schools said that they chose Trapeze Smart Mobile for a number of reasons, including its ease of use and reliability.

 

“A wireless network should operate like the power system -- you turn it on and it works without having to worry about it. That's the experience we've had with Trapeze,” said Rice in a statement. She spoke about that positive feedback from the students and the staff and said that students in particular enjoy the freedom to move about the campus while remaining connected to the network.

 

Jay E. Sandefur, network engineer, Auburn City Schools said that they were really impressed by how easy it was to plan the network coverage and automatically compute placement of access points using the RingMaster management application. Managing the network has also been quite easy, which Sandefur believes is important since like most school districts their IT resources are limited.

 

According to Jim Vogt, president and chief executive officer, Trapeze Networks (News - Alert), Auburn City Schools is a classic example of how to leverage information technology to engage students and advance their learning abilities.

 

 

 

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