The advantages of WiFi: How WiFi fits into the broadband access options

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The advantages of Wi-FiHow Wi-Fi fits into the
broadband access options

• Professor Stephen Brown
• Wireless Broadband in Libraries
• QEII Conference Centre London
• 26 January 2005

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To boldly go.
..exploring the wireless universe
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Access options
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Access options
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Access options
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universe
Monitor
Collaborate
Earth
Text
Nomad
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Its education Jim. but not as we know it.
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What you can do with bandwidth
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What bandwidth means

• Download times for MSIE 5.01
• 54Mb/s (802.11g) 14.4 secs
• 11Mb/s (802.11.b) 1 min 11 secs
• 2Mb/s (Digital TV) 7.5 minutes
• 512kbits/s (Cable modem) 25 minutes
• 256kbits/s (OECD minimum) 51 minutes
• 56kbits/s modem 3hr 50 min

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Bandwidth vs mobility
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Some real world examples
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Wake Forest University

• Identity Checking at Parties
• Medical Students Access Patient Records while on
  Hospital Rounds
• Physics Students Work in Teams During Lab Session
• Language Students Work in Teams During Class
• Email classmates during class
• In-class quizzes

• React/feedback during class
• Access relevant websites/databases during class
• Create team presentations

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SUNY Morrisville

• Rewiring too costly/dangerous (asbestos)
• Rewiring visually unacceptable

• Wireless laptop included in course fees
• Wider range of study times locations
• Roaming
• Spontaneous groups

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Northumbria University library

• Group work
• Student culture
• Student expectations
• Study patterns

• Increased capacity
• Variety of learning spaces
• Wireless laptop loan service (30)

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Ealing, Hammersmith West London College

• Monitor student attendance
• Immediate and regular feedback on attendance and
  progress
• Student nurse portfolio building
• Remote access to resources on placement

• Wireless tablet PCs given to teaching staff
• Wireless laptops given to students

Bangor University
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Dewsbury, Bishop Burton Thomas Danby Colleges

• Outreach centres
• Workplace learning
• Field data collection
• Equality of access
• Remote community access

• Wireless PDAs
• PC equipped van
• Satellite link via GPS

GLOSCAT SATVAN
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Birmingham University

• Collaborative working
• Whole campus wireless
• Mobile units
• Eliminate computer suites
• Flexible seating
• Community access

• Wireless tablet PCs for students
• Collaborative working between learners and their
  tutors/facilitators
• Notebooks passed between participants in a more
  informal atmosphere

Newarke Sherwood College
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3 phases of the broadband journey

• 1) Adoption - taking the immediate benefit of
  always on and faster access.
• 2) Adaptation - taking advantage of new on line
  services, improving basic efficiencies without
  fundamentally changing life styles or the way a
  business operates.
• 3) Absorption - the transformation phase, when
  individuals fundamentally change life styles and
  businesses redesign themselves around the
  availability of broadband.
• Most users are still at the first or second
  stages.

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Key differences

• Volume and availability of information resources
• New tools for management of information
• New media for dialogue and sharing ideas
• The different nature of interaction between
  student and tutor
• Changes in understanding of learning processes

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Implications

• Teaching spaces
• Real campus
• On campus
• Cohort learning spaces
• (lecture theatres/class rooms)
• Accessibility limited
• Access recruitment limited

• Learning spaces
• Virtual campus
• Off campus
• Individualised/
• collaborative learning spaces
• Accessibility widened
• Access recruitment widened

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Issues

• Institutional strategies
• Physical space vs virtual space technologies
• interactive whiteboards
• tablet PCs
• IP videoconferencing
• wireless
• streaming
• Single location vs roaming/mobile
• Institutional vs student ownership
• a la cart solutions?

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Acknowledgements

• Tom Franklin Franklin Consulting
• Agnes Kukulska-Hume, Alison Nicholson, Anne
  Jeffs Open University
• David Brown Wake Forest University
• Jean Bowland SUNY Morrisville
• Gilly Salmon Leicester University
• JISC TechLearn

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sbrown_at_dmu.ac.uk http//kmd.dmu.ac.uk
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Collaborate

• Group based
• Spontaneous
• Learners are free to study with whomsoever they
  wish
• Peer to peer
• Virtual shared spaces
• Flexible room arrangement
• Presentation/collaboration devices

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Monitor

• Individual tracking
• Attendance monitoring
• Context sensitive support
• Instant testing
• Instant feedback

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Text

• Instant messaging
• Peer to peer
• File sharing
• Presence

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Nomad

• Cheap access devices, (wearable, disposable)
• Roaming buildings, organisations
• Study whenever, wherever
• Non traditional spaces
• Resources on demand
• Information on the move
• Field data capture
• Portfolio development

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Broadband

• BSG Broadband Definition (2004)
• Always on access, at work, at home or on the
  move provided by a range of fixed line, wireless
  and satellite technologies to progressively
  higher bandwidths capable of supporting genuinely
  new and innovative interactive content,
  applications and services and the delivery of
  enhanced public services.
• As a starting point this would include higher
  bandwidth services (defined as gt256 Kbit/s by the
  OECD).

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Technology Impact Chart
Key Time to production
Public Wireless LANs802.11b
High
Networked video streaming
Source
Broadband to home (ADSL Cable networks)
From survey
Other
Moderate
IP Videoconferencing
Eventual Impact on L T
Fixed Wireless LANs (802.11a and 16)
2-way satellite
Low
Digital TV
Research
Emerging / New
Mature
Current State of the technology
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Networks compared