CONNECT A SCHOOL, CONNECT A COMMUNITY

Several options exist to delive connectivity to and within schools.  Given the limited bandwidth of dial-up access, a single school may deploy several different connections in order to provide connectivity to multiple classrooms.  Broadband is a better solution for supporting multiple access points over a single connection.  It can reduce costs, since multiple dial-up telephone lines are no longer needed. 

Instead of supplying each school with its own direct Internet access service, some countries have found it beneficial to create school intranets that connect educational institutions to an academic network.  This allows online educational materials to be exchanged and facilitates administrative processes between schools and the Ministry of Education.  An academic network can reduce Internet access charges by keeping academic traffic local rather than having it routed overseas.

Apart from the connection to the Internet, there are other networking aspects to consider -- particularly, how the Internet access will be distributed within a school.  This generally depends on computer allocation strategies (see Figure below).  One approach is to establish computer labs, reducing the need for multiple in-school connections.  In other countries, computers are distributed more widely within classrooms, or teachers use their own computers to present online content.  In the latter case, a school-wide Local Area Network (LAN) may be necessary, which could increase costs and support requirements.

Figure ‎3‑5: School Network Topologies