Saturday, May 24, 2014

#SampleSunday from Philadelphia Story: A Lance Carter Detective Novel

This Sample Sunday is from Philadelphia Story: A Lance Carter Detective Novel. Philadelphia Story has been a Top 10 Hard Boiled Detective Novel on Amazon and is available via:
Paperback
Amazon Kindle
B&N Nook
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The thumping of the bass and the glare of the lights was terribly distracting but I had her eyes locked on mine and I wasn’t letting them go.  Not this time, not again.
“Let’s go, Carolyn.”
“You let go of me, Carter.  You let go of me now!  You don’t own me.”  She dangled her hand in front of my face.  “There’s no ring on this finger, you can’t tell me what to do.”  My mind was racing, my blood was pumping and I couldn’t get the image of her on that stage out of my mind.  But there she was, standing in front of me in a pair of satin and lace panties with a matching bra.  The lace negligee danced around her tanned skin giving the alluring illusion of cover and  nudity at the same time.
“Carol, these people are dangerous.  They don’t screw around… is this the life you want?  Come on… we need to get you out of here!”  Her gaze was as fiery as ever and I could feel those baby blues penetrating the back of my skull like a laser.  “Now, dammit!”  I reached out and grabbed her arm.
“Let — GO!”  she screamed and jerked her arm free of my grasp.  I was reaching to regain my grasp when an extremely large black man that would make Ving Rahmes shudder blocked my view of Carolyn.
“Is there a problem here, muthfucka?”  he growled in my direction.
“Fuck.  You!”  I spat back at him.
“I think you gonna find you getting the fuckin’ round here… muthfucka!” He spat the words out at me.
“I think you might find me kicking your ass… mutha fucka.”  I had properly enunciated those last two words just at the time his big meaty hand found my jaw.  My feet left the ground and I was sent reeling backward into a table.
Knock! Knock! Knock!
I was jolted awake from my horrible dream by the rapping at the door.
“What the... how...?”  I sat up on the couch, looking around the room frantically.  After a minute I had surmised I was in my apartment on my couch.  And the only person here was the lovable fluff ball Copper trying to sleep under my desk on the far wall of the living room.
Bang! Bang! Bang! “Hello, delivery…”  Bang! Bang! Bang!  “FedEx!  I need a signature!”


Philadelphia Story has been a Top 10 Hard Boiled Detective Novel on Amazon and is available via:
Paperback
Amazon Kindle
B&N Nook

~~~~
Bruce has worked in educational technology for over 17 years and has implemented several 1:1/BYOD programs.  He also has been a classroom teacher for various subjects.  Bruce is the author of five books: Sands of TimeTowering Pines Volume One:Room 509The Star of ChristmasPhiladelphia Story: A Lance Carter Detective Novel and The Insider's Story: A Lance Carter Detective Novel.  He also has a new novel coming out in June 2014, The Kill Commission.  Follow Bruce's Novel releases by subscribing to his FREE newsletter!

Friday, May 23, 2014

ChalkUp for Google Drive - Great Classroom Collaboration Resource!

Does your school use Google Apps for Education?  If the answer is yes -- then have I got a tool for you!

It's called ChalkUp!  Chalkup helps transform the teaching and learning experience for you and your students by enabling live, real-time collaborative work on projects.  In Chalkup, you can create your class -- assign work to your students then monitor, engage and collaborate with them while they work.  They call it a "Student Engagement Platform".  I call it awesome.



One of the best parts about it is that it is fully integrated with Google Apps and, in particular, Google Drive.  It makes it easy to create and share documents with students in your classes with a click and a drag and a drop.


Additionally, students can turn in their assignments by dragging and dropping or uploading via the web browser interface just like they do with any other Google Drive operation.  It's easy to do -- it is something they are already doing!

Chalkup offers great deals for schools as a whole that allow administrators, teachers, students and even parents access to the class information. But if you want to use it in your class -- they have a free teacher account that allows you to get started using it at no cost!




~~~~
Bruce has worked in educational technology for over 17 years and has implemented several 1:1/BYOD programs.  He also has been a classroom teacher for various subjects.  Bruce is the author of five books: Sands of TimeTowering Pines Volume One:Room 509The Star of ChristmasPhiladelphia Story: A Lance Carter Detective Novel and The Insider's Story: A Lance Carter Detective Novel.  He also has a new novel coming out in June 2014, The Kill Commission.  Follow Bruce's Novel releases by subscribing to his FREE newsletter!

Tuesday, May 20, 2014

Tips for Teaching with Technology in the Classroom


These days everyone is chattering about using technology in the classroom... integrating technology into curriculum... flipping the classroom... did I miss any buzzwords?  The bonus stressor is that in some schools and districts teachers are evaluated based on how well they are using technology in their classes.  I've been around and worked with a large number of schools in public, private and parochial spaces -- and I can tell you that no two schools do this the same way.  But... they often push their teachers into common pitfalls.  In this BLOG post, I'm going to address some of those pitfalls!

Keep It Simple
Whatever you are thinking about doing with technology in your class, keep it as simple as you can.  Plot out your lesson and think about how technology an enhance that lesson, don't plot out the technology and try and shove a lesson into it.  Another way of thinking about it is, don't use technology for technology's sake.

Plan Ahead
I know -- sounds simple, right?  I know it isn't always.  However, when you are planning a lesson that uses technology you need to know if you have that technology available to you -- and how it works!  Not just for you, but for the students too!  That might mean reaching out to your technology folks at your school.  Remember, there are usually only one or two of those folks, and they are usually vastly outnumbered by teachers... so you'll need to make sure you have enough time to ask them if Skype is installed in the computer lab, or if the projector in your room can be hooked up to student computers.  That way -- if the answer is no, they can make sure you have what you need.

Set Guidelines
Make sure you've set guidelines for you and your students on how, what and why the technology can be used in your class and/or for that specific project.  If you are opening up the project to allow the students to pick their own technology to use, make sure you know what that is ahead of time.  This way everyone in the room knows what to expect and there are no surprises (or at least fewer).

Prepare to Lose Control
When you are flipping your classroom, you are giving students control of it to some degree.  Don't let that stress you out.  Be flexible, and go with the flow. 

Know What You Have
Understanding your resources is super-important.  If you get a great idea from a teacher at another school, make sure you have what you need to implement that idea.  If students are supposed to FaceTime with students at another school -- make sure you can do that at your school with what you have there.  Are there enough available computers?  Can your wireless network support it?  Is your Internet good enough to give you high-quality video? 

Know when to use it...
I'll repeat it because it seems important... don't use technology for technology's sake.  There is still room in the classroom for pencils and paper!

Integration Help
Don't be afraid to reach out to others who have done it.  Integrating technology into lesson plans isn't as easy as just turning on the projector or having students go on the Internet.  There are a lot of really great resources on the Internet -- and probably even at your own school.  Check out PBS Learning Media for some great ideas.

Overall, the key to great classroom technology integration is preparation and knowledge.  You don't have to be a tech expert, but you do have to know what you have available to you (including in the help area) and how it works in a general sense.

A great book for thinking about technology in classrooms and how students view its use is Brain Gain: Technology and the Quest for Digital Wisdom.  Check it out!



~~~~
Bruce has worked in educational technology for over 17 years and has implemented several 1:1/BYOD programs.  He also has been a classroom teacher for various subjects.  Bruce is the author of five books: Sands of TimeTowering Pines Volume One:Room 509The Star of ChristmasPhiladelphia Story: A Lance Carter Detective Novel and The Insider's Story: A Lance Carter Detective Novel.  He also has a new novel coming out in June 2014, The Kill Commission.  Follow Bruce's Novel releases by subscribing to his FREE newsletter!

Thursday, May 15, 2014

Find My MAC Address - Keys to Running Your Wireless Network

Running a wireless network can be a challenging endeavor in the educational technology space.  I've written a couple of BLOG posts on evaluation and maintenance issues that the normal wireless network might have in education, but there is (obviously) more to it than simply selecting and implementing the correct system.

One of the biggest questions I answer in my day-to-day is in regards to security.  And, as with anything else, there is more than one way to skin a cat.  One of the more popular methods is using MAC Address based authentication.  The MAC (Media Access Control) Address is an alphanumeric value that is unique to your network adapter.  It looks something like this: 00:23:1h:1q:rj:56.  That means that no other computer, anywhere in the world, has the same address.  This address is burned into a chip on the network adapter itself, so you cannot change it.  This makes it a great way of securing and identifying computers on your network.

However, the administrative overhead to this method can be quite cumbersome -- especially when your technology support person wears many hats.  And when you may have more than one device and/or operating system in your environment.  So, in an effort to help you save some time -- here is a quick list on how to find the MAC address on just about any device.

Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8 (there may be slight variances)

  • Click the Start icon
  • Click Control Panel
  • Select Classic View
  • Click Network and Sharing Center
  • Select Manage Network Connections from the list on the left hand side
  • Right click on the connection you are trying to find the MAC address for and select Properties – you will have a separate MAC address for your wireless card and your Ethernet (LAN) card. Make sure you use the correct one.
Apple OS X
  • Click the Apple in the Upper Left Corner
  • Click System Preferences
  • Double Click on the Network Icon
  • Select the Wi-Fi Adapter
  • Click Advanced, the MAC Address will be at the bottom of the dialog box.
Apple iOS
  • Open Settings
  • Open General
  • Open About
  • The Wi-Fi Address is towards the bottom, that is the MAC Address
Android (generally)
  • Go to Settings
  • Select About Phone
  • Select Status
  • On the list that appears look for Wi-Fi MAC Address towards the bottom.


~~~~
Bruce has worked in educational technology for over 17 years and has implemented several 1:1/BYOD programs.  He also has been a classroom teacher for various subjects.  Bruce is the author of five books: Sands of TimeTowering Pines Volume One:Room 509The Star of ChristmasPhiladelphia Story: A Lance Carter Detective Novel and The Insider's Story: A Lance Carter Detective Novel.  He also has a new novel coming out in June 2014, The Kill Commission.  Follow Bruce's Novel releases by subscribing to his FREE newsletter!

Wednesday, May 14, 2014

Great Storytelling with Animoto

Recently, my daughter has simply fallen in love with Animoto.  If you aren't in-the-know with Animoto (say it fast) -- it is a wonderful little online and mobile digital storytelling vehicle that is easy enough for anyone to use, and powerful enough to make some really impactful videos.  The platform makes it easy and fun for for anyone to create online stories using audio, video and pictures -- and then easily share them with anyone they wish.



Here's how it works...  after you select your theme (think how it looks and feels), you use Animoto's simply upload tool to add your own video clips and pictures to your story.  Next, you can then select from Animoto's preloaded library of audio or upload your own music or voice to the mix.  Then you move things around, mix and match all in Animoto's easy to use interface and then -- voila -- your masterpiece is done!

The wonderful thing about Animoto is that you can jump right in and play with it -- quickly producing great looking videos.  This allows you to use this tool in a million different ways in your classroom with your students, right away!

Want more specific examples, check out Teach 2.0 for great samples!

~~~~
Bruce has worked in educational technology for over 17 years and has implemented several 1:1/BYOD programs.  He also has been a classroom teacher for various subjects.  Bruce is the author of five books: Sands of TimeTowering Pines Volume One:Room 509The Star of ChristmasPhiladelphia Story: A Lance Carter Detective Novel and The Insider's Story: A Lance Carter Detective Novel.  He also has a new novel coming out in June 2014, The Kill Commission.  Follow Bruce's Novel releases by subscribing to his FREE newsletter!

Sunday, May 11, 2014

Sample Sunday: Towering Pines Volume One: Room 509 - Super Scary Ghost Story!

This Sample Sunday is from my paranormal novel, Towering Pines Volume One: Room 509. 



Towering Pines Volume One is available at:
Paperback
Amazon Kindle
B&N Nook
Apple iPad/iBookstore

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“BOY! Who the hell are you and why the hell are you in my god damned boat?”
That was the sound of the alarm that woke Liam from his otherwise peaceful nights sleep. His eyes fluttered open and he stared up and a rather large man who looked to be in his early fifties and none-to-happy that Liam was there. He almost lost his tattered and stained green hat as he reached down and yanked Liam from the boat and onto the dock in one quick and powerful motion. Liam noticed his big black watch.
“What? What time is it?” The memory that Liam had to be at Mathias’ office at seven thirty returned.
“What time… what the hell you mean?” A bewildered and confused look took over the scruffy features of his weathered face.
Liam looked him straight in the eyes, “I mean what time is it? You have a watch on, don’t you?” The stranger eyed Liam suspiciously before taking a quick, guarded glance at his watch.
“It’s seven thirty, what’s it to you?” The man paused, as if reflecting on something he’d forgotten. Then he remembered, “and who the hell are you sleeping in my boat on my dock?” He practically shouted.
“Your dock? What, seven…” Liam blew past him and ran full speed up the dock. He didn’t give the road a second thought as he sprinted across Riverside without looking. He could hear the sounds of people on the other side of the building as he ran up the steps and saw the sign that read, Farragut Hall, hanging above the door. He burst in and and stopped breathlessly in the middle of the lobby. He saw a young boy, couldn’t have been more than twelve, in full dress blues sitting at a desk to his left. As soon as the boy saw him he shot out of his seat and yelled at the time of his voice:
“Sir, Cadet Wiley, Sir. How can I help you, sir?” Liam just stared at the boy who was standing as stiff as a yardstick with a shaved head and white gloves.
“Wiley, what is going on out there? Why are you yelling like a fool again?” came a voice from an office around the corner from the boy. A moment later a tall man in his forties emerged from the office dressed in navy dress blue uniform but without the jacket. Liam could see he had three gold bars on his shoulders as the man stood in the doorway.
“And you are?” the man queried Liam. A bit overwhelmed, Liam stared back at him frozen in place. The man took three steps out of the doorway closer to him.
“Maybe you didn’t hear me son, I asked you who you are.”
“Llll… Liam Rider.” A smile began to creep across the man’s face once he heard the name.
“Ah, yes our juvie case. Well Lllliam, why don’t you come into my office and have a seat? Let’s get acquainted a little bit.”
“Are you Captain Mathias?” The man didn’t answer he just walked into his office. Liam didn’t move right away, but when the man’s voice boomed, “And Wiley, sit the hell down,” Liam moved quickly towards his office before Wiley responded.

Liam walked into the office and was immediately struck by how much wood there was. He felt like he was lost in the middle of the Pine Barrens. The desk looked like it was cut right out of the bottom of a tree. The chairs were a dark wood with no cushions and short backs on them. The walls of the office were lined with light wood pillars every few feet. Liam stood still about five steps from the door with his mouth slightly open.
“Mr. Rider, please come and sit,” the uniformed man motioned to the very uncomfortable looking chair in front of his desk. “Now would be good,” he added forcefully when Liam didn’t move. When Liam looked up and saw the stormy expression on the man’s face, he moved. Liam found the chair was not as uncomfortable as it looked; it was about ten times as uncomfortable.
“Mr. Rider,” began the man, “I am Commander Dileta. I am the Admissions Officer here at Admiral Farragut Military Academy. I can tell you that normally we don’t take cadets in this late in the semester but you seem to be a special case. Captain Mathias has ordered your immediate admission to our program so we can dispense with the usual formalities. Usually, I would sit here and tell you how we have over a thousand applicants every year and that the competition for our few open slots is fierce. That AFMA doesn’t take just anyone. The cadets we accept are the best of the best academically and athletically.” He stood from behind his desk and walked toward the window that held a fantastic view of the river. He stood there for a moment quietly with his back to Liam before continuing, “I don’t really need to tell you that our college acceptance rate is one hundred percent. Period. We do not tolerate any cadet not going to college. And community college simply does not count.” Dileta spun on his heels and walked toward where Liam sat, “it just wouldn’t make any sense to try and make you feel the pressure that goes along with being at a distinguished institution with a long and storied history that includes historic figures such as Admirals, Generals, Hollywood actors and even an astronaut. Does it, son?”
Liam sat in the hard chair staring up at Dileta in awe. If the man didn’t mean to intimidate him, he did a crappy job. Liam was more nervous now then when he was while sitting in his jail cell. Dileta looked down at Liam with a small self-satisfied smirk knowing full well he was in control of the situation.
“For a celebrated athlete such as yourself, I don’t need to tell you how physically challenging our military program here at AFMA. How three out of every five cadets that we accept wash out every year or that our cadet officers are trained and empowered to make boys into young men.” The glare coming from Dileta’s face made Liam feel about two feet tall.
“Now, since I don’t have to tell you any of that, it seems to me that all I have to do is tell you that the only thing between you and five years in a state penitentiary is Admiral Farragut Military Academy. If you fail here, you will end up in jail. That’s not a euphemism; it’s actually what the court order says.” He held up an official looking piece of paper to emphasize his point.
“Here are your orders from Captain Mathias’ office, take them to the Central Watch Office in Reingold Hall immediately and the Cadet Officer of the Watch will make sure you get your uniforms and to your company’s deck. You’d better hurry, it’s 0800 now and classes have already begun for the day. Which makes you late.”
Liam took the paper from Dileta and stood slowly, trying to read the paper.
“Boy, I didn’t tell you to read it. I told you to take it to Reingold Hall, now move it!”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Towering Pines Volume One is available at:
Paperback
Amazon Kindle
B&N Nook
Apple iPad/iBookstore

~~~~~~~~
Bruce has worked in educational technology for over 17 years and has implemented several 1:1/BYOD programs.  He also has been a classroom teacher for various subjects.  Bruce is the author of five books: Sands of TimeTowering Pines Volume One:Room 509The Star of ChristmasPhiladelphia Story: A Lance Carter Detective Novel and 
The Insider's Story: A Lance Carter Detective Novel.  He also has a new novel coming out in June 2014, The Kill Commission.  Follow Bruce's Novel releases by subscribing to his FREE newsletter!

Thursday, May 8, 2014

Google Does It Again -- Google Classroom!

ANNOUNCING GOOGLE CLASSROOM!



Google has released its newest set of Google Apps tools -- Google Classroom!  This is a free set of tools that integrates hand-in-hand with Google Apps.  This tool will allow teachers to monitor, assess, give feedback and keep track of what students are doing in class.  The tools are well done, and easy to use!

With Classroom, you'll be able to:
Create and collect assignments:

Classroom weaves together Google Docs, Drive and Gmail to help teachers create and collect assignments paperlessly. They can quickly see who has or hasn't completed the work, and provide direct, real-time feedback to individual students.

Improve class communications: 
Teachers can make announcements, ask questions and comment with students in real time—improving communication inside and outside of class.

Stay organized: 
Classroom automatically creates Drive folders for each assignment and for each student. Students can easily see what’s due on their Assignments page.

Starting today, teachers and professors can apply for a preview of Classroom. Based on the requests Google will be inviting a limited number of educators to try Classroom in about a month. By September, Classroom will be available to any school using Google Apps for Education.

~~~~~~~~
Bruce has worked in educational technology for over 17 years and has implemented several 1:1/BYOD programs.  He also has been a classroom teacher for various subjects.  Bruce is the author of five books: Sands of TimeTowering Pines Volume One:Room 509The Star of ChristmasPhiladelphia Story: A Lance Carter Detective Novel and 
The Insider's Story: A Lance Carter Detective Novel.  He also has a new novel coming out in June 2014, The Kill Commission.  Follow Bruce's Novel releases by subscribing to his FREE newsletter!

Monday, May 5, 2014

Google Apps - Docs and Sheets - for iOS and Android



Everyone in education knows how useful Google Apps for Education can be, but now it just got a whole lot more useful.  Google just released Google Docs and Google Sheets for iOS and Android, and said they will have a Google Slides app soon!  This means that you can now use your Google Apps just like any other app on your tablet... fire up Google Docs and get right to your work on your Google Drive... it is that easy.

Once you download and fire up the app, you will see a list of your most recent edited documents -- just as if you were in the web version.  Worried about using them when you don't have an Internet connection?  Don't -- these apps work offline with cached versions of your recently edited documents.

Does this spell the end of the Web Versions of Google Apps?  Probably not -- but it definitely puts Google Apps right back in the conversation with Microsoft and Apple's newest offerings.



~~~~~~~~
Bruce has worked in educational technology for over 17 years and has implemented several 1:1/BYOD programs.  He also has been a classroom teacher for various subjects.  Bruce is the author of five books: Sands of TimeTowering Pines Volume One:Room 509The Star of ChristmasPhiladelphia Story: A Lance Carter Detective Novel and 
The Insider's Story: A Lance Carter Detective Novel.  He also has a new novel coming out in June 2014, The Kill Commission.  Follow Bruce's Novel releases by subscribing to his FREE newsletter!

Thursday, May 1, 2014

2 Things A School Wireless Network *Must* Have

The tide is shifting, and it isn't shifting slowly.  As the old axiom goes, the cost of technology goes down over time.  While that is not exactly true, the cost for effective wireless networking has indeed gone down.  It has come down enough that schools all over the country are not only investigating things like 1:1 and BYOD, but they are planning for them -- and moving forward on these initiatives.  There are many things to consider when moving into a 1:1 or BYOD scenario in your school, and over the next few weeks I will attempt to address the high points to help enable you to plan for and implement the best program possible for your constituents.

In this article, I am going to cover the top two things that are often overlooked when planning what is considered the most essential part of any BYOD or 1:1 initiative: The Wireless Network.  Everyone would agree that the wireless network is the most visible portion of any type of classroom networking technology initiative.  Most teachers, students and parents have a Netgear or Apple AirPort in their home that works quite nicely for them, and think that wireless in a school is exactly the same thing.  If you have not heard it before now, I'm here to tell you it is not -- not even close.  There are a vast number of things to consider when deploying a wireless network in a school environment that do not apply to your home.  And today's article will tackle the two biggest items that most school's overlook or do not plan for appropriately.  They are the wired network and capacity planning.


The Wired Network

If you walk into any school you will get a myriad of responses about how good (or bad) the network is.  Some people will tell you it is fine, others will complain that it is slow and still others might have periodic complaints.  If you think that is bad -- try throwing a wireless network on top of that, and see what you get from your constituents.  They complaints will simply magnify if you haven't done your homework.  So what constitutes a "good" network?  I'm not sure there is any one answer that is more detailed than one that allows for the users to do what they need to do, in a reasonable amount of time, with limited to no downtime due to network failures.  What does that mean?  That is different for every institution.  However, the one constant is that it should always be online and available for use.  And there are some minimum considerations when thinking about a wired network that is built to support wireless and BYOD or 1:1.
On your wired network, each user (generally) has one device per network port.  Yes, sometimes phones or other
devices will share a port, but if you averaged it out you would likely happily round it down to one device per port.  If that is not true, IE: you have one port per room with ten port hubs in each classroom, then stop what you are doing and address that now.  The answer may be, "When we install wireless they all go away," and that is fine.  But you must have a plan for fixing those glaring issues.  One wired device per port, period.
Your wired network should have the capability of delivering 1GB of bandwidth to your wireless access points.  Why?  Because unlike your wired network which only has one device per port, the one port that you plug in your wireless access point to will be serving anywhere from 1 to 30 devices at the same time.  Like it or not, 100MB simply is not going to do the trick.  That does not mean you have to necessarily upgrade your entire network, but you will need to ensure that the wireless access points are plugging into the GB ports.
Your wired uplinks between closets and buildings must be bigger than 1GB.  Yes, you read that right.  Ideally, you'd have fiber between all buildings and closets.  That is not always possible.  If it is not, you'll switching equipment capable of multiple GB connections aggregated together to allow for more than 1GB of bandwidth to leave the location and travel towards its destination.  With some fiber connectivity ramping up to 10GB, it is certainly something to look into.  And small enterprise class GB switches can be had for as little as $400 each for 48 ports.  It does not have to cost you a fortune, but it will cost something.
Your Internet connection must be beefy enough to support your users needs.  I can't stress this enough.  The bulk of your classroom traffic in the future is going to be going out to the Internet.  Users will be storing things in the Cloud, they will be accessing databases in hosted environments and watching YouTube videos.  The model of User to Server to User is dead.  If you aren't already planning for this -- you need to now before you spend money on a robust wireless system that gets bottled up at your Internet connection.  What is adequate?  Well the answer depends on your use, but there is no school that can survive on less than 20MB download and 10MB upload anymore.  And that is certain not ideal.  Most Internet providers are capable of offering 50MB of guaranteed bandwidth to you at a reasonable price.  And when I say reasonable, I mean at a fraction of what that T1 or T3 is costing you now.  Get ride of the T1/T3, save your school some money and be an Internet hero immediately.  Do your best to stay about from the $50 or $70 a month "business class" connections.  Most providers do not guarantee any bandwidth with those connections, so your performance will vary.  But -- hooking up to a 20MB guaranteed fiber Internet connection with a "business class" cable modem as a backup is a great plan.  It offers a lot of bandwidth with a backup in case of an outage.  In this area, this combination can cost as little as $500 per month.  Compare that with the $1200 your paying for one T3 at a fraction of the bandwidth.
Putting all of these things together will enable you to support just about anything your teachers, students or administrators can throw at your network.


Capacity Planning
OK, here is another GOTCHA in the wireless network planning world.  You've walked around... done a wireless survey and figured out how many access points you need to cover your classrooms.  BUT, have you thought about how many devices are going to be in each classroom?  Or auditorium?  Or even the gym?  In 2009, The Gartner Group reported that the average person has 1.6 wireless devices on them at any time.  In 2012, they upped that to 3.  That's 3 devices per user, per location.  That means that if you have an average class size of 20 students, plus your teacher -- you could have as many as 63 devices in that one classroom hitting at your wireless access points.  One of the biggest pitfalls that I've seen is when a tech coordinator says, "This access point is covering these 4 classrooms."  And when I ask what the average class size is and then do the math for them, it quickly explains why their wireless network access is spotty and sluggish. 
So when you are talking to wireless integrators it is important to note the coverage, but also how many devices that the access point can handle at one time.  The things to consider with that are the frequencies -- is this wireless access point 5GHZ capable?  This is important because every access point on the market today will support 2.4GHZ, which is that most common frequency.  And there are up to 13 usable channels in the 2.4GHZ frequency range, while the 5GHZ frequency has up to 50 usable channels.  Now, these numbers are different based on the hardware and software being used to run the access point.  For instance, some vendors use one of those channels in order to broadcast between each other to check for usage.  So, it is important to ask your wireless vendor about this.  This is important because no two wireless devices can use the same channel at the same time.  A good enterprise level wireless network will move things around, and only use the channel for the actual amount of time that the device needs it -- but you can still see that the 5GHZ frequency allows for a lot more flexibility than the 2.4GHZ.  It is also important to note that you can't necessarily tell if an access point supports 5GHZ simply by the protocols used.  802.11b and 802.11g use the 2.4GHZ range exclusively, while the 802.11a protocol uses the 5GHZ band exclusively.  But, the 802.11n can use both.  That means that if you are buying 802.11 b/g/n access points, you are likely only getting the 2.4GHZ range, while the 802.11 a/b/g/n will include the 5GHZ frequency.  It is worth noting that the 802.11ac protocol only functions in the 5GHZ range.
The other big thing to consider when sizing the wireless network is the number of radios in the access point.  For instance, if you have 2 radios that are 802.11 b/g/n access points you can probably comfortably support 15-20 devices at any one time.  If you have 3 radios, you kick it up to 25-35 at one time.  If you have 802.11 a/b/g/n radios you can probably move those numbers up into the 50s comfortably - as long as your wired network can support that kind of throughput.  It is worth noting that the better 802.11 a/b/g/n access points have more than one network port on them.  If you get those, you can push 2GB per access point.  So, you can see how this bandwidth quickly adds up?
I hope this has proven to be helpful and educational while you are thinking about your BYOD, 1:1 and wireless network.  Please feel free to post any questions or follow up to this below.  I'm happy to answer!
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Bruce has worked in educational technology for over 17 years and has implemented several 1:1/BYOD programs.  He also has been a classroom teacher for various subjects.  Bruce is the author of five books: Sands of TimeTowering Pines Volume One:Room 509The Star of ChristmasPhiladelphia Story: A Lance Carter Detective Novel and The Insider's Story: A Lance Carter Detective Novel.  He also has a new novel coming out in June 2014, The Kill Commission.  Follow Bruce's Novel releases by subscribing to his FREE newsletter!