New Technology In Hanover School Division Hanover School Division network Thanks to the installation of fibre optics in the Hanover School Division, students and staff wont come to work or school worry about it, saying, “I wonder if it (Internet) is going to work today?” Technology Services Manager Chris MacKinnon explains fibre optics are glass strands which sit in a conduit underground and its the fastest way of communicating on a network. MacKinnon says its also the most consistent and will provide the division with a stable network. There are 288 strands throught the division. MacKinnon notes it wasnt a small investment at 2-million dollars, however they were able to come in under-budget and on-schedule which is exciting. Connected fibre optic cables“It wasnt a small investment, however there was work that had to happen and the fibre run was certainly part of it. But we also needed to update switch gears in the school to accept that new fibre and actually have those end points to be able to communicate back and forth. At the end of the day it did come in under-budget and I know everybody was very happy which was fantastic.” He notes the division had to weight the benefits against the cost. The division used to communicate on wireless radio throughout the division where towers were set up in Steinbach, Niverville and Grunthal. MacKinnon says it was challenging because on a bad weather day the performance slowed down and on a windy day the tour could get knocked over and total access would be lost to that school. He explains fibre will allow the division to provide more services to the schools such as voice over IP (how they communicate on phones from one end to another) and allowing more collaboration tools for students within the classroom (including web conferencing, video conferencing or classroom interaction from one school to another, one school to another division or province or country throughout the world). “We can provide faster access to file shares that we store locally within the division. And we can actually save money long-term by consolidating everything in one place. We dont have to have things scattered throughout the division anymore. So its certainly more than just internet access, its kinda that whole network access experience.” MacKinnon says fibre optics will allow the division endless opportunities and the next step theyre looking at is Wi-Fi in all of the schools starting with the high schools, then middle schools and lastly early years. He adds the division is going to be in a better position today to be more dynamic, more proactive and bring those new technologies in for the students faster with the fibre optics. The Steinbach Regional Secondary School has been set-up for a wireless network although it hasnt been deployed yet. MacKinnon notes they dont want to flip the switch and flood everybody with everything all at once. “We need to do it in a staggered and controlled manner. Its not, hey heres Wi-Fi, have access to whatever you want. We have to be very conscious of whats available through Wi-Fi and through the internet. So we want to make sure were protecting students from information they shouldnt be seeing, we want to give them a secure environment to learn in.” MacKinnon says hes told staff they may not necessarily notice a difference in terms of how fast a webpage loads with the new fibre optics. However, they will notice over the long-term when previous challenges of the network goingEach wire is one individual fibre optic strand up and down arent an issue. Because the cables had to be run underground, the installation process included digging and running cable throughout the division. “The town of Steinbach, the Rural Municipalities we had to run through were fantastic. WE did have to dig on RM land to run conduit and so on. The general public was fantastic in supporting the work that we were trying to do. They certainly understood that this was an investment in providing students more access to the technology and information on a more stable and consistent manner. So they were fantastic when we were digging on their lawn.” MacKinnon notes its kind of techie, but its cool and is going to be fantastic for the students and staff with in the division going forward.
Posted on: Fri, 19 Sep 2014 10:37:17 +0000
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