SOLVE Q1 2015

Page 17

FIELD REPORT

Chris Lamb

Wylie ISD: Plugged in for Education A pioneering school district lassos the bandwidth it needs. THE CHALLENGE: The Wylie Independent School District (ISD) in Texas covers 41 square miles, includes five campuses, and serves a population that is 13,000 students strong. The district was eager to use the Internet to bring new teaching tools into every classroom. However, providing a computer for every student would have been enormously expensive—and hard to sustain as the district population continued to increase. “So the decision was made to create a bring-your-owndevice (BYOD) program and let students bring devices they already had into the classroom,” explains Chris Lamb, CIO for Wylie ISD. That included every student, from grades K through 12. But offering BYOD to more than 13,000 students meant Lamb needed more bandwidth than the 50 Mbps fiber circuit he had. In 2011, Lamb decided to upgrade and switch providers. THE SOLUTION: Time Warner Cable Business Class (TWCBC) was chosen to provide a 100 Mbps fiber circuit and 10 Mbps Dedicated Internet Access (DIA) to Wylie ISD. The DIA service delivers symmetrical, private, and redundant connectivity for school districts that require fast speeds to maximize performance of applications. The switch to TWCBC’s DIA was made easier by the fact that TWCBC is an E-Rate Eligible Telecommunications Provider (ETP). That meant that a portion of the DIA connectivity was supported by funding from the federal E-Rate

Program, which reimburses school districts and libraries for Internet, telecommunications services, and equipment, based on the percentage of the student population receiving free and reduced-cost lunches. E-Rate funding enabled Wylie schools to increase bandwidth so they could make the BYOD program available to students who own devices. Now Lamb is able to focus his limited budget on purchasing laptops and tablets for students who don’t already have them. That ensures a more inclusive and enriched learning experience for all. Ultimately, as more students came on board, Lamb realized the district needed even greater performance. He upgraded from a 100 Mbps circuit to 200 Mbps and, in 2014, to 1 Gbps. Each time, the upgrade process was as easy as making a phone call to TWCBC.

THE RESULT: Students and teachers have experienced increased classroom engagement and more teacher-student collaboration. Lamb says the reliability of TWCBC’s DIA service is as great as any he’s experienced during his 30 years in the technology field. Between that stability, and the increased bandwidth, “We don’t hesitate to say every student can use Internet-based apps,” he says. “When faculty looks at programs or new learning initiatives to add to the classroom, we look for cloud-based options now rather than creating material in-house.” Thanks to fiber-based DIA connectivity, Wylie ISD’s teachers and students now rely on Google Apps for Education, which securely integrates word processing, spreadsheet, presentation, and graphic tools. This change has allowed students and teachers to take collaboration and learning to a new level, Lamb says. “A lot of Wylie ISD teachers create assignments in Google. The students then create documents and share them with the teacher. The teacher opens them up and makes comments or notes. It’s very powerful.” Wylie ISD, named for a nineteenth century Texas pioneer, is determined to continue to explore the boundaries of twentyfirst century education. “Technology helps us increase the speed of what we do,” Lamb says. It also paves the way for pioneering ever-richer ways of learning.

SHARE YOUR STORY!

How did you partner with TWCBC to SOLVE your technology issues? Tell us about it for a chance to be featured in an upcoming issue of SOLVE. Visit business.twc.com/nomination to share your story.

Winter 2015

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