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03/29/2007Wireless in Education: Houston Schools Tap Wi-Fi
The neighborhoods around the North Forest Independent School District in northeast Houston may be among the city’s poorest, but the district sees a significant opportunity for educational, social and economic development through the City of Houston’s broadband-wireless plans. Dr. Don Green, NFISD’s Director of Technology, talked about technology’s role — from wireless infrastructure to Web-based accounts — in giving a boost to the district’s 10,000 students and their families.
 Q: NFISD faces some considerable economic and social challenges.
A: Yes. The Houston area has 11 school districts, and we are the most underfunded. It almost seems as if you looked at the school district, it looks as if they took some scissors and cut away all of the enterprise. Our tax base comes mainly from our residents. We are 95% economically disadvantaged community. 100% of our students are on free or reduced lunch, so we have some challenges.
Q: How do you see wireless playing a role at NFISD?
A: Our school district is very light on the infrastructure side, from cell phone to DSL and cable, so wireless became a target for us. Once we found out the city was going to have a Wi-Fi project, we positioned ourselves with the Greater Houston Partnership, and just by chance, we were the first academic institution to tie the need and actually show what the applications would do as far as changing the community.
Q: And you see this affecting the greater community as a whole?
A: As far as our infrastructure is concerned, it is actually a huge challenge communicating with the parent. Even if we did want to provide them with the grades, attendance, and discipline of their students, it wouldn’t be possible as of right now. So, again, Wi-Fi would be huge — along with getting computers in the homes. We have a program called Links to Learning, which places refurbished computers in the homes of students and opens a line of communication between schools, teachers and parents.
Q: And then they get the applications they need through Web-based accounts?
A: They receive SimHouston accounts so that students can access and submit assignments online anytime, anywhere through shared classroom folders. With Simdesk, we afford ourselves a means of communicating between the teacher and the student, the teacher and the parent, the superintendent and the community, myself and the community, and so on. Every one of our students has a Simdesk account.
One of my favorite parts of that partnership with Simdesk is the S-Drive portion, in which we are able to share files between teachers, parents and students. With those folders, homework is always there, lesson plans are always there, and there are other products out there — more expensive products — that allow parents to go in and check what their students are supposed to do.
Q: So this helps extend the classroom experience into the home?
A: Yes. I always say, my department is going to be one of the most hated among students, because they can’t say, I forgot my homework at school, because it’s there in a shared file for them to pull at any time, and parents will be able to keep track of their students. And we’re moving toward a lot of project-based instruction. We want our students to also share projects among themselves, again, with the S-Drive.
They get along with that an e-mail mailbox, and they have all the other features. They can print to a shared printer from a laptop, PDF, cell phone, so it’s a wonderful tool.
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