Why Wi-Fi is Essential in Education

Most homes these days are host to excellent connectivity, running multiple streaming services, intelligent home systems, as well as supporting multiple devices per household member, from wearable tech like Apple Watches to smartphones, laptops, tablets and more. This is not an unusual setup, and home users expect their Wi-Fi to support these functions.

The same cannot often be said of educational environments. Many schools, colleges and universities are using legacy wireless technology that limits connectivity, and the student experience. Some are still using wired solutions. The drawback is that these limitations hinder the learning, working and socialising potential of students and staff. Having a wired network, in particular, makes a whole generation of classroom technology simply unusable.

This shift towards digital experiences (both at school and at home) requires more than having a simple Wi-Fi network in place; digitisation has altered education to the extent that student outcomes, and school rankings, depend on connectivity capable of delivering a superior learning experience.
So why is next-gen wireless essential in education environments?

• Remote learning that’s untethered and agile

The necessity of remote learning during the Covid-19 pandemic removed the idea of education being static, offline, and only collaborative within the classroom. It became normal to connect with education from anywhere – via Wi-Fi – leading to a change in expectations; students today want agile learning environments where they can connect to online learning platforms (LMS) from anywhere, anytime.

Educators are rapidly adopting devices to facilitate untethered learning, including laptops, tablets, and cloud-based apps/resources for lesson delivery, but all of these tools rely on wireless connectivity, making your IT network the bedrock of your whole educational strategy. This is often overlooked until after devices have been bought or onboarded, at which point their Wi-Fi network cannot provide the performance needed to support their intended use.

• Supporting 1:1 devices for personalised learning

These agile devices can deliver 1:1 learning; this aids teachers in encouraging independent and self-initiated learning among students, both in and outside the classroom, whilst also developing creative ways of teaching. Software for laptops and tablets can deliver content in a way that is customised. Pace of content delivery can be tailored, as well as adapting teaching methods to suit the pupil best (audio, visual, hands-on). Immediate feedback can be provided to students so they can quickly understand any errors, enhancing lesson retention. Goals can be personalised based on use-cases, and difficulty can be adjusted based on real-time assessment. This represents a huge area of expansion in education, entirely reliant on wireless connectivity without interruption.

• Classroom use of Digital Resources and Multimedia

Wi-Fi facilitates the use of digital resources and multimedia in the classroom. Teachers can integrate interactive educational videos, simulations, virtual reality experiences, and other multimedia elements into their lessons to enhance understanding and engagement. Wi-Fi enables the seamless streaming and downloading of these resources, making them readily accessible to teachers, provided wireless networks are not legacy.

• Improving communication between students

Many students today find it easier to engage through digital devices, so removing this opportunity through a lack of Wi-Fi enabled 1:1 devices is a lost chance to improve student wellbeing and education. Wi-Fi-connected devices enable collaborative learning environments where students can work together on projects, share resources, and engage in online discussions in real-time. It facilitates communication and collaboration among students, both within the classroom and beyond.

• Improving communication between teachers and students

Opening up new ways of communication isn’t just helpful for educational purposes, but can also support the mental health of students. Wi-Fi enabled devices can host programmes that grant students the ability to voice concerns they have about school or home environments in a secure, indirect and comfortable manner.

These devices also enable the use of software that monitors student progress in real-time and allows teachers the chance to intervene to assist students where necessary – before the student shows clear signs of falling behind, such as poor test results. The same early intervention can be taken with issue such as bullying or poor mental health, without the student needing to communicate with teachers or staff. This has saved many lives in recent years across schools in the U.K.

• The gap between schools with and without EdTech

A research study from Oxford University found that many children face academic disadvantage through not having internet access in their homes, despite owning personal devices that are internet-facing. This divide was highlighted during the pandemic, where many students were unable to partake in remote learning, hugely impacting their educational progression. For these children, access to connectivity and the wider world is especially vital at school.

Sadly the 2022 Promethean report exposed a clear mismatch between the recognised value of EdTech for teachers and pupils, and the percentage of school budgets being put towards it. 90% of teachers agree tech is a great way to engage students, but around 50% say not enough is being spent on EdTech. We imagine this figure will rise starkly in 2020 and beyond as the need to keep learning semi-remote, multi-device and agile continues.

• Underpinning learning excellence with future-focused IT

Closing this gap and bringing agile learning to students, however, can only take place if there is a future-ready, reliable, and secure wireless connection. Old networks cannot deliver performance to the hugely rising number of inter-connected devices, as they simply do not have the bandwidth needed. Using legacy networks for increasingly advanced numbers and types of technology will result in slower speeds, connectivity dropouts and security risks.

If you’d like advice on troubleshooting, surveying, designing or installing Wi-Fi in a school, MAT, college or university, you can find free advice, e-books on ‘Wi-Fi in education‘ and contact information on our education sector services page.

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