Mark Verbloot, Systems Engineering Director, Aruba Networks, Australia and New Zealand told The Educator that technology use in the education space is revolutionising the way students learn and how teachers communicate and explain key learnings.
“In more and more schools, textbooks are being swapped for e-books that download and update learning content in real time,” Verbloot said.
One school that Verbloot said is “almost paperless” is Stuartholme School in Queensland, where technology has been integrated into almost every area of its curriculum.
“Technology is an essential element integrated into the student learning and teaching agenda at Stuartholme School,” Verbloot said.
“The school has a one-to-one device program and the entire school is almost paperless, with students using the Tablet PC’s Stylus to ‘write’ on their Tablet screens, substituting the use of pen and paper.”
Students at Stuartholme complete and submit all their work electronically via their device, and teachers mark student submissions and send feedback to students all online.”
“With students and teachers increasingly bringing their own devices – often multiple per student – into the learning environment, schools are recognising that in order to support digital learning they’ll need a mobility network infrastructure that can support the influx of mobile devices – with upwards of 600 users accessing Stuartholme’s Wi-Fi network at any one time.
“Supporting collaborative learning and enhancing teaching capabilities with Wi-Fi technology is already paying dividends for schools that have priorisited a connected learning environment,” Verbloot said.
One such school is Mt Waverley Secondary College in Victoria.
Verbloot said that with digital learning playing “a key role” in its teacher’s day-to-day student activities, it was critical for the school to embrace a mobility network that created smarter classrooms.
“Up until late 2013, the College was using a wired and wireless solution that supported a mix of netbooks, laptops and desktop, however, in order to provide a richer learning experience for students, the College introduced the use of 1:1 iPads for all students in Years 7-10 in 2014,” Verbloot said.
Verbloot said that the digitally savvy generation is the main driving force behind the growing trend towards paperless and wireless classrooms.
“From my discussions with Principals, teaching staff and the IT teams at educational institutions, it’s clear that the digitally savvy ‘GenMobile’ generation are leading primary and secondary schools to upgrade to new wireless network technologies.
“Given the rapid change in technology that’s continually taking place, it is an increasing expectation that schools are able to provide fast, reliable and secure Wi-Fi systems that foster engaging, more innovative teaching and learning to take place.”
Aruba is based in Sunnyvale, California, and has operations throughout the Americas, Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific regions. To learn more, visit Aruba at http://www.arubanetworks.com