DORRINGTON PRIMARY SCHOOL CREATES THE PERFECT ICT ENVIRONMENT USING TOSHIBA’S
PORTABLE PC TECHNOLOGY
During the 1998/1999 period, as part of its ‘National Grid for
Learning’, the Government committed £100 million towards IT infrastructure
and equipment in schools nationally, with similar amounts probably being made
available in the year 2000. This
money has been used to boost every school’s Information Communication Technology
(ICT) ability, enabling them to access the Government’s Internet based National
Grid for Learning.
Because every school in the country was handed the responsibility
of assessing how to invest its IT budget, for the first time ever they had
the opportunity to instal technological solutions appropriate to their own
particular needs. The most pressing problem facing many schools was the task
of ensuring the money was spent wisely and that both children and teachers
benefited from the investment.
Dorrington Primary School in Birmingham has a current register
count of about 610 pupils plus Nursery provision from 3 years old up.
The school is spread across a large site; comprising one main building
and extra classrooms in six external huts or Portakabins.
Ken Holmes, IT Co-ordinator at Dorrington Primary School had to ensure
that each child in the school had sufficient access to a PC, as well as catering
for the needs of his colleagues and the Administration staff also.
A concern was that no area of the school could be cut off from the
network, an onerous task considering the six extra classrooms.
While planning the school’s new PC network, Ken Holmes knew he was up against a familiar problem - traditional computer networks require cabling to link each PC in the chain and in the case of Dorrington Primary School this would have meant digging up the playground in order to lay the cabling in an underground pipe to the six external huts. Not only was the cost of the cabling prohibitive but there was the added problem of the cost of the excavation work needed to install it. It was while he was casting around for an alternative solution that Ken Holmes was able to enlist the help of two people who were able to offer practical and expert advice and who have since become highly involved in this network project.
James King, Toshiba PC Division’s sector manager responsible for Education
and Harvey Harrison, Networking Solutions Manager at XMA, one of Toshiba’s
national education suppliers, met Ken Holmes at a local IT Exhibition and
Conference for Birmingham’s schools - BITE.
The three together applied lateral thinking to the problem facing Dorrington
Primary School and once they had rejected the idea of a traditional PC network,
began to seriously consider a wireless LAN option.
This was to prove to be a highly innovative ICT solution and on this
basis Dorrington Primary School successfully applied for ICT funding from
its local authority.
An official ‘Pathfinder’ Authority, Birmingham is one of four
national Councils charged with the task of ensuring the government funding
is spent wisely and in ways which other schools can emulate. Dorrington Primary
School was one of the first 89 schools in Birmingham to be awarded an ICT
National Grid funding grant in order to purchase the new network.
Although the logistics of the operation at Dorrington Primary
School were straightforward they required meticulous planning in order to
ensure the system worked, Ken Holmes explains: ‘We decided on an initial purchase
of 15 Toshiba 4010 Satellite portable PCs and 18 Toshiba Equium 3000M desktop
PCs. Each of the Toshiba Satellite
portable PCs were fitted with an aerial which interacts with a central wireless
network infrastructure. The Equiums
are included in the network through normal Category 5 cabling.
The wireless local area network (LAN) needs just six access points
positioned around the school in order to create a seamless network which is
accessible from every classroom without the need for wires, even in the Portakabins
outside.’
‘In fact the set up has turned out even better than expected. The portables are in constant use around the school and are operated by all year groups, from Reception through to Year 6. Each year group has an area on the server to store its work which means that data can be loaded onto the portables, stored and then accessed from the classroom computers, if required. The children’s motivation and concentration levels are high when using the laptops and we have been able to further develop their literacy and numeracy abilities through the medium of IT. This has proved to be an incredibly flexible situation.’
However, not only do the Toshiba portable Satellite PCs boost
classroom capacity to one PC between two children (a big advantage over the
alternative of a class of, say, 28 pupils having to share one or two desktop
machines between them) but they are also available for the teachers out of
school hours. Teachers often
take the computers home so that they can prepare work on them, often accessing
the Internet for information or suitable worksheets that enhance the curriculum.
This also helps them expand their IT knowledge and get training they
might otherwise miss out on, plus, the computers are readily available for
use on INSET days.
Ken Holmes also feels that there have been significant benefits
from involving Toshiba at both the planning and implementation stages of the
project. It was James King who
had already seen the benefits portable computing had brought to other industries.
He was keen to see educational establishments being able to reap the
benefits also. His summary of
the benefits being: ‘Portable
technology allows pupils maximum exposure to the use of PCs because the computing
resource can be easily moved from classroom to classroom.
Because they are powerful but light (weighing just 3.18kg) they are
easily packed up for use on school day trips and other occasions when they
study off site.’
‘The Toshiba Satellites are easily able to cope with large amounts
of data and Dorrington Primary School pupils will be able to download relevant
information surrounding an educational visit from the Internet before setting
off and then record a diary of
their day. They can also collect
relevant information and input it straight onto the harddisk.
Once back in school the work can be printed out or integrated into
a presentation package.’
The hardware driving the wireless network at Dorrington Primary School (one of Aironet Inc.’s new BRE500 series of high-speed 11Mbps bridges). Harvey Harrison at XMA Computer Products was responsible for the design and implementation of the new network, he feels that another area where Dorrington Primary School benefits is in the level of care it receives as a result of its close relationship with its IT providers. Ken Holmes agrees: ‘We have found that any small glitches which came up with the initial implementation of the system have been quickly ironed out. Problems are always quickly solved.’
Dorrington
Primiary School is planning to expand on its current total of portable PCs
and Harvey Harrison sees no problems with integrating them into the current
system: ‘Because of the wireless
nature of this LAN the network
can be easily expanded in a simple modular fashion, without any disruptive
cabling work. Even in the unlikely
event that the school moves to another site the whole infrastructure could
be moved with it.’
There
have been financial benefits too: ‘This
system has been purchased just the once by Dorrington, rather than leased.
Because it is able to perform at usual Ethernet speeds it will continually
be able to deliver data to the classrooms or administration areas, as necessary.’
An
excellent testimony to the success of this new network is the number of local
Advisors and teachers who visit the school to learn from its innovative ICT
solution. Even the Government
has expressed its support and the Prime Minister himself has said that he
would like to visit too, when the opportunity arises.
The specification for the Toshiba Satellite 4010CDS includes 32mb RAM and a hard disk capacity of 3.82GB. Each PC contains an Intel Pentium II® processor and a CD-Rom drive as well as a wireless LAN card (the aerial).
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