Meraki enables the school to better leverage technology to enhance learning and teaching
Management of different levels of network access for students and teachers in different grade levels
Simultaneous management of both a public network and a private network
Faster and easier identification of cable damage
The installation of Meraki has enabled the school to use technology to improve teaching and learning. With wireless now covering the entire school campus, students have the flexibility of learning from anywhere. “Many of the elementary students use iPads outside to look and research in the garden areas, specifically to take pictures for a science unit of insects, plants, or flowers. With the school wireless, this learning process is seamless and easy for them,” added Mr. Perkin.
Students now have the flexibility of learning from anywhere
The team can manage different levels of network access for students and teachers in different grade levels. “We wanted to use Active Directory to define different groups and set up policies based on whether they were students in high school or middle school, or whether they were teachers or employees, and this was something that Meraki allowed us to do,” said Mr. Perkin.
Meraki has also allowed Mr. Perkin and his team to manage both a public network and a private network simultaneously. Mr. Perkin and his team manage a student network, a staff network, and a guest network (mostly for parents) on separate SSIDs. However, for specific events, Mr. Perkin uses the Meraki dashboard to spin up new SSIDs. “If we have a group of teachers coming from other schools to have a professional development day, we can easily set up an SSID to allow them onto the network - without them logging on to the school’s private network.”
The team used to experience cable damage often, with no way to quickly determine which cables needed to be replaced. "Sometimes a cable may not work properly from water damage or damage from animals. With Meraki, we have the ability to run a cable test to see if the cable is damaged.” In some instances, a damaged cable would only allow one-tenth of the throughput, which slowed down the connection. With Meraki, the team is able to identify the damaged cable with the dashboard. “In the past we had to spend a lot of time and energy troubleshooting why students in a section of the campus were complaining about an Internet issue. Now we can go, look at the dashboard, test the connection, and we can tell that there's an issue with a cable, saving us a lot of time,” explained Mr. Perkin
Watch: Meraki for K-12: Save the Day with Simple IT
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