Procurement News Notice |
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| PNN | 10142 |
| Work Detail | The stakes for broadband capacity that schools and districts across America have come to rely on for ensuring they can deliver a robust digital education are being raised. Today, the State Educational Technology Directors Association (SETDA) released a report featuring new goals for internet and wide area network (WAN) services. But unlike SETDA's 2012 recommendations, which have been picked up and promulgated by the White House, the United States Department of Education and the Federal Communications Commission, among others, this latest round of goals in "The Broadband Imperative II: Equitable Access for Learning" offers nuances that were missing the first time around. For example, the earlier recommendations offered a single set of goals for all schools. This year's set breaks that up by size of district: small (fewer than 1,000 students); medium (about 3,000 students); and large (more than 10,000 students). The medium-sized district goal in the latest report is the only one whose targets for the 2017-2018 school year mesh with the recommendation offered four years ago. "This is a much needed clarification," said Susie Strangfield, CIO for Oregon's Department of Education. "Establishing a floor for districts allows solutions to be scaled appropriately to meet local needs. One size doesn't necessarily fit all. In Oregon, this will allow districts to appropriately plan for and meet the new SETDA broadband recommendations." The newest set of SETDA recommendations also provides internet capacity targets for 2020-2021, which are approximately three times that of the 2017-2018 aims. All of these targets, the report stated, "are based on research; analysis of data sets from districts across eight states regarding both capacity and usage; and consultation with experts in the field." In point of fact, besides primary authors Christine Fox from SETDA and Rachel Jones, an educational consultant, the report references 33 additional contributors from state departments of education, education organizations and industry. "Today's students need robust bandwidth access to help ensure that their learning experiences are effectively preparing them for college and future careers," said Tracy Weeks, executive director of SETDA, in a prepared statement. "Broadband access supports trends that shift away from traditional learning models towards digital learning opportunities that include dynamic digital instructional materials, online simulations, coding and content creation." On the WAN front, next year's goal matches exactly what was put forth in 2012: at least 10 Gbps per 1,000 users. And that measure stays in place at least through 2020-2021. As the report noted, due to technology advancements, data communications capacity within the district's network will, conceivably, no longer be a limiting factor. "Based on recent trends, research and consultation with experts in the field, SETDA expects that WAN requirements will come closer in line to ISP connections as districts utilize cloud-based services, as well as the advent of virtualization — shifting the capacity requirements from the WAN to the ISP connection," the report stated. "Therefore, the WAN recommendations for 2017-2018 remain the same for 2020-2021." |
| Country | United States , Northern America |
| Industry | Telecommunication |
| Entry Date | 15 Oct 2016 |
| Source | https://thejournal.com/articles/2016/09/08/setda-raises-broadband-targets-for-learning-in-the-digital-age.aspx |
