“In the Air” - Barrington 220 Wireless

It doesn’t seem all that long ago (OK, it was truly a decade back) when some of the first wireless laptops were deployed in Barrington 220. Wireless connectivity to the Barrington 220 network was provided to these laptops via wireless access points that were mounted directly to laptop carts. Back then we had a whopping 7.7 Mbps (Megabits per second) connection to the Internet that seemed to meet the needs of all Barrington 220 users. 

Much has changed since then, and the changes in our wireless systems are coming at an exponential rate. With the deployment of our One to World program this school year, we have added over 100 additional wireless access points to our district network this past summer. We now manage a total of 388 access points district-wide, with 162 of these “APs” located at Barrington High School. That 7.7 Mbps access to the Internet ten years ago has now increased to 1,000 Mbps, doubling the bandwidth we had available last year.

I took a brief look at our wireless systems this morning and found 4,360 devices connected to our system at that moment in time (2,570 of these devices were located within the walls of Barrington High School).

Staff and students can now connect to our wireless systems using a myriad of computing devices, from any classroom throughout the district and expect robust connections to Internet-based, on-line learning tools and educational content.

All of us in the technology department are already looking forward to and planning for the rollout of our One to World program at the elementary schools in coming years.