K-12 Education Solutions Can Help Deliver High-Performance, Secure Networking for K-12 School Districts

Originally Posted on The Modern Network

An unending tide of technology has recently transformed the world of

K-12 education from textbooks and spiral notebooks to mobile devices, interactive curriculum, and cloud services, which depend on a fast, reliable, and secure network.

Whether school districts provide laptops, netbooks, or tablets for students or have adopted a bring-your-own-device (BYOD) policy, the number of mobile devices in a typical classroom is rising sharply. In addition, most middle and high school students are toting a smartphone or Wi-Fi-enabled devices.

The high-tech tools of the educational revolution bring with them the promise of enhanced student engagement and improved student outcomes, but unless school districts ensure their networks are up to the task, these promises may not become reality. Building the kind of robust educational network needed for digital learning can seem daunting, especially when most schools say the demand outweighs the available funding, despite E-Rate technology funding programs.

As school districts move into the digital learning model of the 21st Century, district networks strengthen the delivery of instruction, online assessments, and collaborative learning. This means networks are now mission-critical to learning and should support school district needs through:

•      Building High-Performance and Secure Internet Connections
•      Converged Campus Networks
•      Unifying User Network Access
•      Maintaining the Health of School District Networks

“We want to move the pillar of learning from the classroom to anywhere in the building and beyond,” said Rich Fiore, director of IT infrastructure for the Naperville, Illinois Community Unit School District 203.  “With Juniper Networks, we have the performance and availability we need to do that.”

What schools need are high IQ networks and carrier-class reliability to power their wired and wireless networks and security.  Without them, a network outage means learning stops.