Hollis Brookline High School, located in New Hampshire, is a silver medal school ranked in the top 1,300 high schools in the United States, as reported by Newsweek Magazine. The high school is dedicated to inspiring lifelong learning and achievement among its students.
Challenge:
Hollis Brookline High wanted to offer students the use of computers in class, but realizing that it would be impractical to wire 30 connections for every classroom, the high school went wireless, setting up one computer jack for each classroom. Teachers would then reserve a given time slot, such as 8 a.m. Tuesday, which would give their classroom access to one of three carts, each containing 30 laptops, for a designated period of time. At that time, the teacher would plug a wireless access point into the computer jack in the classroom, and the students would turn on their computers. That’s when the problems started. Half of the time, the laptops would connect to the wireless network, and half of the time they wouldn’t. The teachers and school were stuck with a difficult situation. They had 30 kids that needed to get to work, but the teacher had to effectively stop the lesson to bring a technician into class to get the laptops up and running. This caused considerable frustration for teachers and wasted valuable learning time for students.
Solution:
Hollis Brookline High School knew wireless was the way to go, but they needed a more reliable wireless solution for classrooms. They decided to try U4EA’s Fusion 300 Wireless LAN Controller and access points, known as a system that is fast and easy to set up and manage.
Results:
Hollis Brookline placed U4EA’s Wireless LAN Controller at the high school, and then mounted access points in the hallway throughout the school, rather than in each classroom as was done previously. Because of the greater range of U4EA’s solution, a single AP covers up to six Hollis Brookline classrooms with cinderblock walls. That’s a significant cost-savings for the school.
