Education network to connect NZ schools

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Education IT

By Serene Leow | 18 August 2010

More New Zealand schools will have the opportunity to participate in a trial investigating the viability of a National Education Network (NEN). A NEN offers online access to a range of education-related content and services to schools via ultra-fast broadband.

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Since 2008, the Ministry of Education has been running a NEN trial involving 23 schools in New Zealand. The trial version of NEN runs on the Kiwi Advanced Research and Education Network (KAREN), an ultra-fast broadband pipe managed by the Research and Education Advanced Network New Zealand (REANNZ), a not-for-profit Crown-owned company.

An extension of the NEN trial is now being offered to schools that have open-access fibre connectivity as of June 2010. REANNZ has been contracted by the Ministry to connect up to 200 schools to the trial, which will run until June 2011.

According to Laurence Zwimpfer, REANNZ’s NEN Implementation Manager, a NEN could potentially help to eradicate one of the biggest barriers to learning in the digital age – that of inadequate and expensive bandwidth. NEN has been implemented in places like the UK, and experience indicates that it could contribute to improved learning as educators and students will be able to access a cloud of content, services and applications online.

“My personal vision for a NEN is a seamless 21st Century learning environment that encourages creativity, participation, engagement and collaboration by all students and schools wherever they happen to be located,” Zwimpfer said. The symmetrical bandwidth of the NEN makes it possible for interconnectivity among schools, as well as every connected school to create as much information as it receives.

A NEN could potentially offer “simpler, lower-cost opportunities for schools to manage their ICT needs,” Zwimpfer added. The initial 2008 NEN trial provided schools with online access to high definition videoconferencing, e-asTTIe (a Ministry of Education supported assessment tool) and e-cast, a network which video streams television programmes relevant to schools.

The Ministry has been considering other online services that could be offered as part of the NEN trial, said Zwimpfer. “Some suggestions have included Learning Management Systems (LMS), Student Management Systems (SMS) and e-portfolios,” he said.

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On 14 September 2010 D.Hunter wrote:

In a digital environment where LMS and SMS systems are effectively deployed by educational institutions, a greater effect can be had by decreasing drift to urban areas allowing smaller rural communities to better survive and thrive.

The adult population can also take advantage of this environment, turning schools into e-learning hubs both onsite and online.

Embracing the Network described and utilising the benefits of the cloud does mean that students have more opportunities to peer into the window of the future in a secure setting and have the ability to choose careers that have national and global potential.

The call for fast broadband is heard loud and clear by the New Zealand business sector who will need both the infrastructure and the new generation of digital natives to run it in order for us to compete in the global setting.