To SNUP or not to SNUP?
Had an interesting discussion with our BOT chair and IT techie (also BOT member) around the SNUP deal. We are now eligible for it. HOWEVER - part of our e-learning vision is to incorporate more mobile-learning, laptops etc so want strong wireless capability. We have a good server and sound cabling already, also wireless that's ok but not overly reliable and probably won't handle a lot more mobile devices when we get them.
My question is - do we spend the money (20% contribution) on the SNUP, or do we invest in a top quality wireless set-up?
We are due for the UFB roll out mid year sometime too. I would really appreciate anyone's thoughts and input on this one.
Mantar Cluster
Mantar ICT PD Cluster
Comments
You've got to have a good wired network in place to get the best out of a wireless network.
Upgrading your existing network (via SNUP) and deploying a high quality wireless network would be the ideal but of course financial restraints mean resourcing decisions need to be made.
It would make sense to upgrade (SNUP) first and then look at wireless. Having a high quality internal wireless network is of little use if the external network/ school server connection and internal cabling is substandard. This is where bottlenecks will occur. Having a SNUP upgrade would ensure maximum benefits when UFB is available to your school which could be leveraged with the deployment of wireless at a later stage.
Before passing up on SNUP you would want to get some good advice on just how good your schools wired network backbone really is. If it turns out that the wired backbone can't handle the wireless traffic 2 - 5 years down the track you will probably not be able to go back to the ministry for funding and the school would probably be up for 100% of the upgrade.
More info on SNUP can be found at
http://www.minedu.govt.nz/NZEducation/EducationPolicies/Schools/Initiatives/ICTInSchools/ICTInitiativesAndProgrammes/SNUP/InvitedSchools/GuideForStateSchools.aspx
Hi Tony - you might want to join the free webinar : When ultra-fast broadband comes to you, where to start? - with Douglas Harré on 22 Mar 2012 3:30-4:30pm.
Also there is information on SNUP and UFB on the Enabling e-Learning site
For interest:
There is a thread running in the MLE Reference group on SNUP in response to the question: "Just doing a quick audit of our 80+ ethernet ports dotted around the school, we only have 16 used, (3 of them to connect to Wireless AP's) this means 64 are just covering rectangluar holes made in the gib. Are schools still getting snuped, and is it really worth the thousands of dollars outlay?"
Useful discussion running in the MLE forum on SNUP: a href="%20https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/mle-reference-group/PzNbg-aG75g