Ed Week: Bandwidth Demands Rise as Schools Move to Common Core

Posted Wed, 10/17/2012 - 4:22pm by eileen

This Education Week article of October 15, 2012 (online) reports on the increasing demand for increasing Internet connectivity. Highlights:

  • State Educational Technology Directors Association (SETDA) recommendations: school connectivity needs will see exponential, not linear, increase

  • Software and Information Industry Association (SIIA) survey: educators are requesting more robustness for school on-site capability

  • Implementation of Common Core State Standards that encourages use of online assessments and digital resources is adding to demand

  • Estimates of bandwidth need are difficult to arrive at 

  • Existing bandwidth infrastructure is not currently adequate

  • Competition for federal E-rate funding that assists schools and libraries in Internet-related needs, is accelerating
Teaser Text: 
"SETDA recommends that by the 2014-15 school year, schools have at least 100 megabits per second of connectivity to the external Internet for every 1,000 students and/or staff members, and 1 gigabit per second of connectivity for data transactions within a schoolwide or districtwide network."