Wireless Internet will soon be available at both high schools in the Palo Alto Unified School District, according to the district’s director of technology.
Gunn High School is the first school in Palo Alto to test the wireless Internet system, according to PAUSD’s Director of Technology Ann Dunkin. Gunn students have been able to successfully access wireless Internet in its academic center, and its range will be expanded to Gunn’s entire campus.
On the other hand, Paly will have to wait for its access until the administration approves student access to wireless Internet, according to Dunkin.
“The capability to deliver student wireless at Paly exists now,” Dunkin said. “It will be up to the Paly administration to decide when the student wireless will be made available at Paly.”
As opposed to the wireless Internet system that Paly currently uses, the new infrastructure will be accessible to all students on their private devices, Dunkin said.
“The current system at Paly is for district-owned devices and provides access to district services that are restricted to internal use,” Dunkin said. “This [new] system is for student devices and allows connection only to district resources that are available outside the firewall.”
No login account is required to access the wireless Internet, but students must accept the terms of use before accessing it, Dunkin said. Students with personal laptops or other devices can search for and sync with the “student wireless” service set identifier. Then, students should enter the password “studentwireless2010” to connect to the internet, according to Dunkin.
“This password simply stops devices from accidentally connecting to this network,” Dunkin said.
After school, the wireless Internet at Paly will still be available, although the time of day and the number of people using it may limit its accessibility.
“It [the wireless Internet system] will be implementing technology that will shut down access points in areas of the campus where no one is present,” Dunkin said. “In addition, if it is late enough for a time-based policy to kick in, the wireless will not be available then.”
According to Dunkin, the administration is supplying both high schools with this new wireless internet system to “enhance our students’ educational experience.”
Paly students anticipate the free wireless access to help in educational purposes.
“This [wireless Internet] will allow students to have more access to the Internet resources, which will no doubt benefit the learning environment as a whole,” junior Shaw Hsu said.
Paly clubs, such as the debate team, are also looking forward to the new wireless Internet to assist them with doing research.
“The Paly debate team has begged for this [wireless Internet] for a long time, because we always want to do research during school practice, but have been unable to do so until now,” sophomore Alex Carter, vice president of the debate team, said.
Free wireless Internet around Paly campus may also support private laptop use among students during school hours.
“I actually own a laptop, and in the rare case that I bring it to school, I would definitely appreciate having access to Internet,” junior Scott Zhuge said.
However, some students have reservations about the ease with which students can access the Internet in class because they fear classes will be disrupted.
“I think it may be a hassle for teachers because now students are going to spend a lot of class time on the Internet with iPod touches or something,” sophomore Shruti Srinivasan said. “But other than that, I think its going to be really cool. The Wi-Fi is going to be a real benefit for students that maybe can’t access a computer and need to look something up really quick.”