While most schools have “Internet access,” the reality is that only 20% have enough for digital learning. Most school infrastructures are outdated and as a result, the Internet is too slow for kids to take advantage of 21st Century Learning.
To bring attention to and address this issue, EducationSuperHighway is launching a National School Broadband Test in conjunction with the U.S. Department of Education to take an inventory of the state of Internet access in America's K-12 schools. Their objective is to collect 1 million responses (10 per school) on the ACTUAL performance of the Internet in our classrooms and school libraries.
The information gathered will be used to raise awareness of the need to upgrade the Internet access in our schools as a prerequisite to digital learning. It will also help guide the allocation of $2.5 billion in annual funding for school Internet access upgrades.
EducationSuperHighway will then aggregate the data and make recommendations on how the $2.5 billion of federal funding that’s already allocated to improve schools' Internet connectivity can be deployed more effectively. As a second step, they will also work with school districts to provide technical expertise to upgrade the equipment and organize schools for volume discounts.
Be a part of the solution and help upgrade your school’s Internet access by asking ten of your colleagues or students to take one minute to go to www.SchoolSpeedTest.org from a computer or wireless device connected to your school’s network by SEPTEMBER 30TH. Find others who are doing the same by liking the EducationSuperHighway page on Facebook.
To bring attention to and address this issue, EducationSuperHighway is launching a National School Broadband Test in conjunction with the U.S. Department of Education to take an inventory of the state of Internet access in America's K-12 schools. Their objective is to collect 1 million responses (10 per school) on the ACTUAL performance of the Internet in our classrooms and school libraries.
The information gathered will be used to raise awareness of the need to upgrade the Internet access in our schools as a prerequisite to digital learning. It will also help guide the allocation of $2.5 billion in annual funding for school Internet access upgrades.
EducationSuperHighway will then aggregate the data and make recommendations on how the $2.5 billion of federal funding that’s already allocated to improve schools' Internet connectivity can be deployed more effectively. As a second step, they will also work with school districts to provide technical expertise to upgrade the equipment and organize schools for volume discounts.
Be a part of the solution and help upgrade your school’s Internet access by asking ten of your colleagues or students to take one minute to go to www.SchoolSpeedTest.org from a computer or wireless device connected to your school’s network by SEPTEMBER 30TH. Find others who are doing the same by liking the EducationSuperHighway page on Facebook.
sadly this doesnt take into consideration that most schools with 1:1 do some sort of bandwidth shaping/throttling to gather data...
ReplyDeletesorry... published before reading... should have read bandwidth shaping/throttling so the gathered data will be quite skewed...
DeleteJoshua:
DeleteHi. It's Lisa from EducationSuperHighway here. Good point. If schools are shaping and throttling, it means that there's not enough Internet bandwidth in the first place and schools are not able to do what they need to do for digital learning. As well, if schools are shaping, it will show up in our results. I'd love to hear more of your thoughts and insights. Also, curious to hear what the results were in your own school for the School Speed Test. As well, feel free to email directly at lisa@educationsuperhighway.org.
Thanks
Internet access in schools on the average is always slow. Ample bandwidth for these places of learning are mostly restricted to the library where usage per student is allotted by the hour and administrative offices. Even at supposedly technical schools where internet connection is a must, the result doesn't draw raves.
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