wireless in the classroom

I am interested in bringing this technology into the classroom at UK A level teaching (16-18yrs).
We already have a college intranet which holds most of our teaching materials and ppts (geography and geology)- accessed by staff and students.
Classrooms have interactive whiteboards with access to intranet and internet.
What I want to develop is the ability for students to have individual wireless laptops in class to enable them to access intranet as it is shown on whiteboard, download maps diags etc and make notes without paper.
Also students to access other internet/web sites in their own investigation and extension work.
meeting a little resistance in college!!
dont know enough about available technologies and how possible this idea is
john
help and advice would be appreciated

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Permalink Reply by john payne on June 5, 2008 at 11:41am

hope this isn't too simplistic a topic for you all
I just need advice
can laptops access wirelessly fast enough? enough memory? power supply? batteries good enough?
I want students to access the intranet at college and to have the benefits of access to web2 but with me in the classroom, not sent off to some suite somewhere else.
I want them to be able to interact with each other and with me as they interact with web2 and the correct classroom technology is obviously vital.
I want them to be able to download and store info / maps / diags etc in their own area to reduce the need for paper note taking
etc etc etc...

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Permalink Reply by Karen Fasimpaur on June 6, 2008 at 1:56pm

This sounds like a good application for a wiki (MediaWiki is a good free one) or even a ning like this.

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Permalink Reply by john payne on June 6, 2008 at 2:20pm

it's really the technology I'm asking about
I want each student to be able to access everything I can with the internet access whiteboard
can wireless do this?
are there any speed implications?
are any memory implications?
are there any power/battery implications?
what is it best to use / invest in, bearing in mind managers fears of rapidly outdated technology?
what may be the most flexible option?
lots of probably simple questions, but the people in 'power' at my institution doubt the ability of present technology to deliver.
please confirm that I am correct to have far fewer doubts!!!
john

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Permalink Reply by Karen Fasimpaur on June 6, 2008 at 2:25pm

If the stuff you're accessing on the whiteboard is all online, then yes the students can access this too.

Speed will depend on your own network speed (wireless is generally slower than wired, but generally acceptable; steaming multimedia can get bogged down though), as well as the speed of the site you're going to. Sometimes when all 30 students hit the same site and they don't have good speeds, things can slow down considerably.

Power/battery -- wireless drains laptop batteries very quickly (2 hours or less in my experience). Most schools I know either have their laptops plugged in all the time or they have extra batteries. Neither is optimal.

Rapidly outdated technology.... this is a real problem. Technology changes quickly, and there is no good answer to this. One way to deal with it is to go with low cost solutions (e.g. the eeePC) so that replacement costs are minimized.

Hope this information is helpful, and hope that others chime in on this discussion. There are many options and opinions. :)