Innovative Houston Area PreK-12 District Completes Massive Technology Refresh and Prepares for IoT to Deliver Optimal Learning Experiences for 53,000 Students
Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company (NYSE: HPE), today announced
that Klein ISD, a rapidly-growing school district in Klein, Texas, has
completed a three-year, district-wide technology refresh built upon the
Aruba Mobile First Architecture. The new infrastructure will encourage
curriculum innovation and new, technology-enabled learning models that
support the district’s stated mission of “every student enters with a
promise and exits with a purpose”.
With 53,000 students and 6,500 employees in a total of 47 schools, Klein
ISD is one of the fastest growing districts in the Houston metro area
and has been at the forefront of education innovation. The district’s
newest school, Klein Cain High School, encompasses 665,000 square feet
on an 83 acre site, and can accommodate 4,000 students. In the new high
school in particular—but eventually extending to all schools in the
district—Klein will use its new infrastructure, along with digital
signage and a new mobile app, to deliver unique student, teacher and
community experiences.
According to Klein ISD IT Director, Chris Cummings, the network
infrastructure is a key component in Klein ISD’s ability to realize its
vision. “While I speak with many school districts who want to embrace
our same philosophy of empowering students and teachers through
technology innovation, they lack the right infrastructure to support
this vision,” he noted.
Recognizing the importance of the infrastructure, Klein ISD is
refreshing its existing Aruba network, district-wide, with nearly 5,000
Aruba indoor and outdoor Access Points (APs), AirWave network management
and ClearPass for full network access control (NAC) and policy
management capabilities to deliver seamless and secure connectivity
across its campuses.
Innovative Mobile App Brings Wayfinding and More to Klein Cain High
School
In addition, the district is focusing on the student experience by
launching a dedicated mobile app for its new Klein Cain High School. The
app is powered by the Meridian Mobile App Platform, Aruba Beacons, and
Aruba location-ready APs and can deliver a variety of services including
turn-by-turn directions to help students, staff and visiting parents
find their way to classrooms, administrative offices, and even athletic
facilities.
“We think the wayfinding and engagement capabilities can have a huge
impact on both the student body and community, as a whole,” said
Cummings. “We envision a number of useful applications: helping students
navigate campus on their first day of school, directing parents visiting
campus to the right offices or classrooms, helping student and teachers
find the nearest stairway or exit in health and safety situations, or
helping a disabled student find the closest elevator.”
While wayfinding is one important feature of the new Klein Cain mobile
app, the district also sees the potential to add features such as
posting lunch menus and enabling payment for lunches and other school
fees, as well as providing information on school functions.
Accommodating a Growing Number of Students – and Their Devices
A key objective for Klein is to securely and reliably accommodate the
plethora of mobile devices that students and teachers use on a daily
basis. The district has issued 34,000 devices for intermediate and high
school students – a mix of Chromebooks and Windows laptops. Klein’s
guest network is averaging 18,000 devices daily and that number is
expected to grow, which means secure onboarding and visibility are
critical.
“This is our first year with the guest network up and running, and we’re
seeing major growth in the number of devices connecting,” said Brett
Williams, Assistant Manager, Network Infrastructure, for Klein ISD. “All
devices – whether district-issued or BYOD – are granted secure,
role-based access via Aruba ClearPass.”
Williams noted that the deployment of ClearPass is a key reason why the
district IT team is not concerned about adding new IoT devices to the
network. Currently, the district connects IoT devices such as glucose
monitors, wireless temperature monitors, Amazon Alexa and DVR and
vehicle diagnostics on their buses, as well as interactive panels in
classrooms and digital signage in other areas of the schools. Although
Klein’s HVAC and irrigation systems, as well as security cameras are
wired at this time, the district is confident that as it connects more
of these IoT devices to the network, ClearPass will help them meet their
stringent security requirements.
Collaborative Classrooms and Mobile Engagement Provide Improved,
Personalized Learning
By building out a high density infrastructure across the district, Klein
ISD has been able to prepare their school campuses for new,
collaborative classrooms and more personalized learning experiences.
In the new Klein Cain High School, collaborative classrooms include an
interactive panel with a wireless control unit, a document camera, and
two wireless computers per classroom as back-up, in case a student
forgets his or her device at home. The high school also uses 50
large-format TVs for digital signage that are connected to the Wi-Fi
network. Administrators update these daily with various information and
video communications for students.
Enabling IT to Innovate for District-wide Goals
According to Cummings, one of the reasons Klein ISD has been able to
innovate so freely is the structure of its organization, with IT
reporting into the same leadership as the district’s curriculum.
“In the past, IT departments were seen as more of a regulatory body.
Now, as the philosophy has shifted, we’ve given IT more flexibility and
allowed them to take risks. We’re able to reimagine how we teach
educators about the technology and support them, and we can make our
schools compelling places where the students want to learn.”
Added Cummings, “We can’t say enough about our partnership with Aruba
and how it has helped deliver this foundation for our district. With the
foresight of our IT department and this robust infrastructure, we can
ensure that our technology investments directly impact our programs and
help enable our district’s overarching vision.”
About Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company
Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company, is a leading provider of
next-generation networking solutions for enterprises of all sizes
worldwide. The company delivers IT solutions that empower organizations
to serve the latest generation of mobile-savvy users who rely on
cloud-based business apps for every aspect of their work and personal
lives.
To learn more, visit Aruba at
http://www.arubanetworks.com
.
For real-time news updates follow Aruba on Twitter and Facebook,
and for the latest technical discussions on mobility and Aruba products
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http://community.arubanetworks.com
.
Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company
Pavel Radda, +1-408-419-0294
pavel.radda@hpe.com
or
Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company
Lori Hultin, +1-818-879-4651
lori.hultin@hpe.com