[K12OSN] Help design a new elementary school!

[Joseph Morelock]

Joseph,

You have to look at building design for sustainability in the long run. 
Being that this building will last 80 years or so into the future, 
there is no way to know what kind of connectivity will be in use 10, 
20, or 50 years in the future. You have to think of terms of building 
usage. How will people live and work in this building? Will walls be 
open and movable, or will you create 900 sq. ft. classrooms?

We are currently in the design phase for a new middle school, and some 
of the considerations being made include:

1.	How do we support the use of thin-client systems in every room?

We want to make connectivity pervasive in all spaces, so we are 
planning for a minimum of 4 LTSP terminals connected in every classroom 
at all times. That is beyond the wiring (Cat-6a) that we will include 
for other uses (see below). Also, our IDF closets need to have enough 
capacity for both wires and servers, with proper cooling systems that 
are separate from the main HVAC systems. Since we are going with a 
2-story building design, we have "stacked" the IDF's above each other, 
in order to conserve pathway and make it easier to do 
who-knows-what-in-30-years in those closets later. We also installed 
windows (no, not M$ windoze) in order for the students to be able to 
see the systems that they use each day when they connect. We did that 
in the high school recently, and the kids really dig it. Also, make 
sure that your MDF has proper cooling and enough EMPTY conduit from 
both the outside world, as well as, an empty one to each IDF for future 
wire pulls.

2.	How do we support wireless connectivity in every place on campus?

All of our school buildings are wireless now (and have been for several 
years), and we see no reason not to continue that paradigm. We are 
moving in the direction of Apple iBooks for laptops, and K12LTSP for 
our wired workstations. For our wireless infrastructure, we are going 
to place network jacks and electrical outlets next to each other, above 
the ceiling tile (yes, I know about PoE) in several locations in the 
building. In fact, we are overlapping in our design, as we do not know 
what building aspects will create interference with the stations. Also, 
those stations will run on their "own" network, so as to isolate 
problems more quickly (think: rogue laptops).

3.	How do we mix local and centrally-managed video distribution in 
every teachable space (classrooms, cafeteria, media center)?

In every classroom and other teachable space, we are including: voice 
amplification systems (Lightspeed), video projectors (instead of 
televisions), Cat-6a connections for the projectors, to use in a future 
capacity, and video/audio "mixers" for each space We will use those to 
connect the sound from the voice systems, the VCR/DVD, and the 
teacher's terminal...and the video from those sources, as well as what 
might come across the Cat-6a in the future. We believe that the 
convergence of video and data will happen (voice & data already have), 
and that we will be able to deliver video across the data connections 
we already installed.


I hope that helps start you on the path...sorry for being so wordy...


Joe


On Mar 9, 2005, at 9:14 PM, The Prof wrote:

> Hello,
>
> I'm on the design committee for a new elementary school.  We're in the
> planning stages with the schematics, etc. I'm looking for advice,
> suggestions, ideas, experiences and so on, from those in the know
> about how to make this new school technologically the best.  We plan
> on using the k12ltsp system in the new school, so what things should
> we do?  The school currently has only 50 students, but the projected
> capacity is up to 400 students.
>
> So let me know!
>
> Joseph
>
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>
>
Joseph Morelock
Director of Network & Information Services
Canby School District
morelocj at canby.k12.or.us
503.266.7861

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