INDEPENDENT TECHNOLOGY SPECIALISTS IN EDUCATION CONSIDERATIONS FOR DEVELOPING AND DEPLOYING A MOBILE LEARNING STRATEGY Many schools we are working with are looking to extend their use of tablet technology, and in some cases, move to 1:1 through a school funded scheme, shared class sets, bring your own device (BYOD) or bring your own designated device (BYODD). Whether you are looking to deploy a few or many hundreds, this whitepaper will take you through a number of important considerations needed to complete your vision, strategy and plan. GETTING STARTED; MOBILE LEARNING, VISION, STRATEGY & PLAN Starting off, there are four key factors that you need to consider and keep updated in delivering your mobile learning strategy. These are: 1. VISION for using mobile technology in school - Why are you considering a mobile learning strategy and do you have a clear understanding of the expected impact that the use of this technology will have on teaching and learning? 2. STRATEGY to deliver your vision - How, and with what technology, will the benefits be realised? 3. ROLL OUT PLAN - What, when and how will the technology be implemented? 4. ONGOING PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT and support plans for your existing staff and new starters. This will enable continued confidence of use and the sharing of best practice and collaboration across your school. It is a vital component, often not prioritised in schools. Think about the vision as your why, the strategy as your how and the plan as your what. It is important that you do not start with the what. Your vision should be clear and have a purpose that can be demonstrated to impact on your school priorities and teaching and learning. In creating your vision, strategy and plan you will need to consider the following: Your curriculum and pedagogical model Your school development plan Your school s appetite to risk and change The software applications currently used The types of teaching materials currently used (PDFs, Powerpoints, hard copies), The systems architecture (servers, network, wireless, internet) and budget. Most organisations require support to bring these together, and in doing so, enabling your strategy to be delivered quicker. VISION: Your vision should be short and to the point. It must reflect the culture, ethos and values of your school. It should take into consideration the aspirations of your school and link to the overall school vision. It should be no longer than five paragraphs, easily understood and be timely.
Once completed, all decisions required to support the delivery of the vision need to be aligned to have answered a single question; Does this decision support our school and align to achieving our vision? If the answer is yes, that decision will help you achieve your vision. If the answer is no, then you need to look at other possible options for that specific decision. STRATEGY: The strategy is the approach you will take and the governance you will create to manage the project. It is important to call it a teaching and learning project to ensure that everyone is focussed on teaching and learning, rather than technology. You should create a project group and set yourselves key milestones. At 9ine, we seek to plan over 18-24 months, breaking this down into 3 month tranches of work. Each tranche is then measured on a monthly basis to track progress, performance and to ensure alignment with the school s vision statement. We also break down the strategy into three areas, teaching and learning, digital content and inspire and technical. Ideally you will have an individual focussed on each area. This individual being responsible and accountable for building a team to complete the associated plans and deliverables. In setting up this model you will see organic progress within the school, however only if the individuals responsible for each area are provided with the right level of support. PLAN: The plan for your mobile learning project reflects the actual week by week deliverables you need to complete to deliver your vision. This includes everything from putting dates in diaries for parental engagement sessions, to the performance and capacity assessment of your network. Your plan should be reviewed in its entirety every 3 months and re-baselined. This will help in keeping on track. At 9ine we do this with our schools in the 9ine Sandpit, a strategic think tank area where we can discuss and share ideas, to agree a strategy plan with our clients. With many schools, 9ine complete a mobile learning health check, which develops your vision, strategy and a high level plan. This takes into consideration views of staff, students, parents and governors, and your existing systems. TECHNICAL CONSIDERATIONS During the strategy and planning stages of your tablet implementation you need to have independently reviewed and evaluated the technical infrastructure required. The following outlines the technical areas you need to consider; Wired Network / Local Area Network: Begin by evaluating the age, capacity, capability and connectivity in your existing Local Area Network (LAN). Each mobile device will require an Internet Protocol (IP) address. With many schools having a limited IP range 1086, the addition of hundreds or thousands of mobile devices will use up these addresses. In many cases these are assigned by the Regional Broadband Consortium (RBC) and a request will need to be made with your Internet Service Provider (ISP) for an addition or extension to your range. Mobile devices affect the routing and type of data across your network. Historically, with fixed devices, data is carried from one location (server room) to the PC, via a configured path. Many school networks are configured with higher specification network equipment serving fixed PC suites. With more mobile devices, especially with 1:1 or BYODD, data is far more transient across your network. This is due to students moving around the school with the device causing the demands on your network to change as they move from one location to the next. Compounding this issue, is the need of devices to be connected even when not in use. As such, even when students aren t actively using the devices, they will still be sending and receiving data. Therefore, there will be background usage which needs to be planned for. In planning for this, you can take some very simple steps: PAGE 2
With more mobile devices, especially with 1:1 or BYODD, data is far more transient across your network. This is due to students moving around the school with the device causing the demands on your network to change as they move from one location to the next. Compounding this issue, is the need of devices to be connected even when not in use. As such, even when students aren t actively using the devices, they will still be sending and receiving data. Therefore, there will be background usage which needs to be planned for. In planning for this, you can take some very simple steps: HARDWIRED TOPOLOGY - Document your existing network to identify how each edge switch or switch stack is connected back to the core. You should look to remove any daisy chaining of switches, and that the connection from each switch or stack is at least 1GB, with the connection being fibre. ASSESS CURRENT USAGE - Ensure your network is configured so you can monitor current usage and performance. If you do not have network monitoring software then you should look to install a suitable solution. This will help you to baseline current data usage, and inform improvements and capacity planning for key components of your network including wireless and internet. CONFIGURATION - Ensure your network is configured properly so that data is routed efficiently. Identify any bottlenecks and make improvements as required. Bottlenecks include the primary switch in a stack, the core switch, filtering solution and internet connectivity. INTERNET - It s important to remember that the speed of access to the internet across the network will always be dictated by your connection and route to the internet. If you have a managed internet connection, for example via a broadband consortia, you need to check that the configuration of the internet connection provide by the consortia is amenable to your plans. AUDIO VISUAL: With the deployment of mobile devices there may be a requirement to project content onto a larger screen. Depending on the type of device selected there are a number of possible solutions to this which we have seen successfully implemented. Devices such as Apple TVs and Chrome Cast, connected over HDMI, provide a user friendly way of mirroring devices wirelessly to a larger display. Consideration should be made when using these types of devices to the effect they will have on the network in regards to traffic and bandwidth. An alternative to the hardware based devices such as Apple TVs are software based products which offer the same mirroring functionality. AirServer has support for both Windows and Mac based operating systems utilising existing hardware and wired connections, this also allows for two devices to be displayed side-by-side. With this type of application the computer, connected through a projector or display unit, can achieve the same purpose of an Apple TV at a fraction of the cost. PRINTING: One aim of mobile devices may be to reduce the amount of printed documentation that is produced, but sometimes there is no other option. Printing from mobile devices can be a technically complex task to setup and manage. Solutions exist such as, AirPrint over Bonjour and Google Cloud Print, which can both be integrated with print management solutions such as Papercut. WIRELESS NETWORKS Performance of wireless systems is often constrained by a number of factors. These include; coverage, density, RF interference, channel management, IP allocation, filtering, wired network performance, E-safety, internet & filtering. These are explained below: COVERAGE: You need to identify which areas of your School need wireless coverage. Our experience demonstrates that Schools should have complete wireless coverage to maximise the use of tablet devices. PAGE 3
Ideally, you should allow for one Wireless Access Point (WAP) per classroom, two or more for large spaces such as dining hall / gymnasium and sufficient external access points for communal external spaces. DENSITY: With more tablets being used, there will be more demand for wireless bandwidth. Simply put, a WAP provides each user with a time window for which they send and receive data. The more users attached to a WAP, the less time available for each user to send / receive data. You therefore need to be comfortable that your wireless system can accommodate having over 100 simultaneous connections, and also be clear on how the access point communicates with devices that are connected. Home style access points or very inexpensive access points are not advisable and will pose a significant risk to success. RF INTERFERENCE: If your school is within a densely populated area then there is the risk that wireless systems from local houses / businesses can have a detrimental impact on the performance of your system. It is therefore important to understand the level of potential RF interference and plan accordingly. CHANNEL MANAGEMENT: Most wireless access points broadcast on separate wireless channels to the wireless access points in their proximity. This minimises channel overlapping and as a consequence, poor performance. Within buildings with multiple stories or on densely populated campuses this can be an issue. You therefore may want to consider wireless systems with in built channel management systems or, a single channel wireless system. IP ALLOCATION: Your wireless system and network should be configured to allow the wireless network to give an IP address to the maximum number of concurrent devices that you envisage on the network. If this is not the case then people may try to join the wireless and be unable to do so, or will kick other active users off the network. To do this you will need to have available the maximum number of IP addresses needed, and the skills / expertise to manage and configure your network. E-SAFETY, INTERNET & FILTERING: It is now statutory for schools to develop policy and curriculum around e-safety. Much of this is less about the technology and more about the policy and educational approach taken across the activities of the school. To successfully determine the technologies that are required it is imperative that a robust, jointly authored set of use policies is developed. That said, it is necessary to adopt, review and implement a set of technologies that protect individuals and their data. Filtering is the process of looking at each packet of information sent / requested to see whether the user sending / requesting is allowed to send or receive that type of data. As an example, this could be requesting access to a specific website, or the sending of an email with specific non-allowed words in the content. Without a filtering platform it will be more difficult to control access to inappropriate content or websites. Most schools already have a filtering system usually provided upstream. With the addition of more mobile devices you will need to assess the capacity and capability of the filtering platform to accommodate all the additional filtering requests as some filtering systems can be clunky to work with, for example, having to login through a web interface every 15 minutes. Without doing this, you may find a significant detrimental impact on wireless speed, performance and usability. Another consideration are the ports that will be used by applications to access services online. A port can be seen as a known point of access to a resource on the internet, an example being web traffic that uses ports 80 and 443 to access web pages stored on a web server. x 1GB ports should be suitable, PAGE 4
The fibre connections between the edge and the core also need to be checked for performance. The more fibre pair connections between the core and the edge, the greater the data capacity. Other applications and services make use of different ports many of which may be blocked through the filtering solution/firewall. Common ports and ranges for services provided by companies such as Apple and Google should be requested to your ISP to minimise problems during setup. WIRED NETWORK PERFORMANCE: With most wireless systems the WAP connects to a copper network cable. Simply explained, this copper cable connects to a switch port. The switch aggregates all data received from its ports into a single connection, usually fibre, back to a core switch. The core switch will then route the data either to an in-house service or out to the internet. For the wireless system to perform each connection needs to be robust. Using the analogy of a garden hose, if the hose has holes in it, water will leak, using more water and taking more time to water your garden. The same applies to data. Ideally the copper connections are Cat5e or Cat6 and have been recently installed and are warrantied to IEC60603 7 compliant (RJ45) and IEEE 802.3 standards by the installer. If the connections are older, then you will need to performance test each connection to identify whether it has any leaks. The port which the WAP connects to on the switch should be rated the same or higher than the WAP - in most cases this means having 1GB switch ports. The connection from the switch to the core should ideally be able to accommodate the maximum potential traffic. ECOSYSTEMS Prior to choosing a device you need to understand how teachers and learners will engage with content, software, apps and systems. The aggregation of these is called the ecosystem. To do this you need to analyse your existing setup. This includes a detailed analysis, by department and function, of all software, content and functionality. A critical success factor in transitioning from an environment with laptops and PCs to one with many tablet devices is the ability to understand and plan for the change arising from changing ecosystems. Without an understanding of the type of content that is currently in use you may find push-back from teachers if they cannot access their resources once you have deployed the ecosystem. As an example, many schools will start with a Microsoft ecosystem, using active directory, exchange for email, SIMS for MIS, Microsoft for file storage and sharing, and a learning environment for access to content for learners. In addition to this, there will be a range of curriculum and subject specific software and applications which operate either via a local PC or networked server. On moving to a tablet platform, the level of detail you go into accessing, using and sharing all of these aspects will determine the success of your move to a tablet platform. There are currently three different foundation offerings for your ecosystem. These are; Android, ios and Windows. When selecting an ecosystem there are a range of considerations that require investigation, including; management of devices, deployment of applications, availability of content, availability of apps and licensing costs. The availability of educational apps will play a crucial role in the device usage in the classroom. The suitability of apps to your environment should be considered against what is wanted to be achieved. Another consideration is the usability of the device and the level of training that will be required. Sticking with an ecosystem that is already familiar to users may be the best option, but it may not be the case when trying to differentiate new from old. How easy an ecosystem is to use will play an important role in how users will initially perceive the devices and effect overall usage. PAGE 5
How devices will be deployed and managed should be considered when selecting an ecosystem. There are a number of strategies to achieve this which differ depending on the ecosystem selected e.g. how the devices will be initially setup, will this be done centrally or by the users, how will shared devices be cleared and refreshed? These are all important questions to ask. Management Mobile Device Management (MDM) is one of the ways of achieving manageability of devices. MDM solutions usually support a variety of ecosystems and most commonly provide ways of managing device settings, deploying apps and viewing device details. SUMMARY There are many considerations when developing a mobile learning strategy. Within this whitepaper we have highlighted a number which we believe to be critical for review and assessment during the vision, strategy and planning stages. However, every school is different, as such there will be many more that need identifying given your unique circumstances. For more information on any of the topics covered herein, please contact info@9ine.uk.com. Our consultants have co-authored this whitepaper and have experience in each area. To keep up to date with more information like this and to see what our schools are up to, follow us on twitter @9ineconsulting or join our mailing list by visiting our website www.9ine.uk.com and signing up. About 9ine Consulting: 9ine Consulting are independent technology specialists in Education. We believe that effective use of technology can support schools to increase engagement, create efficiencies and support teaching and learning. Every school we work with has a lever for change. It s our role to identify that lever, and support in delivering positive change through three key areas; Teaching and Learning, Digital Content and Inspire and Technology. Nine Consulting Ltd. All rights reserved January 2015. This document must not be quoted from, referred to, used by or distributed to any other party without the prior consent of Nine Consulting Ltd who accept no liability of whatsoever nature for any use by any other party. NOTES: PAGE 6