Work beginson division’shigh-speed network
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 07/07/2011 (5382 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
Brandon School Division students can look forward to zippier computers — and perhaps more of them — in the 2012-13 school year.
After years of planning, construction of a high-speed computer network linking all Brandon schools and division offices has begun this summer.
When complete in the fall of 2012, the upgrades will allow for more bandwidth across the division, make it possible to upgrade and consolidate servers and will bring the division closer to its goal of computer availability for every student during the entire school day.
“Right now, the number of computers we are trying to support (in the division) with the bandwidth that’s available to us is challenging,” said Brent Ewasiuk, the division’s director of management and information systems technology.
“Over the years, the number of computers has evolved in the classrooms, based on the infrastructure that was in place and the budget dollars that were available. What we need to do now is to start moving forward and increasing the number of computers in the classroom and at the students’ disposal so that we can start teaching them in the manner to which they’ve become accustomed.”
The division has partnered with Westman Communications Group for a 20-year lease of the company’s fibre network, which was awarded the approximately $1-million contract by the division’s board of trustees in late 2009.
Additional computer purchases once the upgrade is complete will be an above-and-beyond expense, Ewasiuk said, with the ultimate goal to be able to boast one computer for each student in coming years.
But that’s not to say that the division will be purchasing several thousand computers all at once.
“Other divisions are looking at the option of ‘bring your own device,'” he said. “I think we need to move toward the one-to-one computing environment, leveraging the fact that some kids out there have those devices and would be more than willing to bring them to school and would be happy to be allowed to use them in school.”
Not included in the upgrade are the division’s rural schools in Alexander, Shilo and on the Spring Valley Hutterite Colony, due to the expensive nature of running cable outside of the city. However, upgrades at those sites will be undertaken separately once the network project is complete, Ewasiuk said.