More than 225,000 students from 700 schools have connected to Network for Learning’s (N4L’s) Managed Network and  the company has announced that it hopes to connect another 300 schools by the end of the year.

N4L CEO John Hanna credits the steady pace of the rollout to the big demand schools have for a service that has been designed exclusively to meet their needs.

“We are tracking ahead of schedule and this means thousands more students and teachers will be able to connect to the Managed Network this year, allowing schools to fast-track their plans to use more digital devices and online learning programmes with their students,” he said. “While we are proud of our achievement to date, it’s the teachers who are the real champions here. They want the best for their students and their support and enthusiasm have been instrumental in driving the use of the Managed Network for student learning.”

A mix of urban and rural schools spanning all areas of the country make up the 700 schools currently using N4L’s Managed Network.The schools are given on-site support during the transition and have access to N4L’s customer services team whenever they need an extra hand.

Heretaunga College principal Bruce Hart, who leads a school with a roll of 748 students in the Hutt Valley which has been using the Managed Network since last December, says the support his school received transitioning to N4L’s managed network was seamless: “We were very impressed with the level of communication and support provided by N4L throughout the transition. We were also very happy with the difference the Managed Network has made to our school. We’ve been able to make significant progress using software and devices that support our learning plans.”

Franz Josef School Principal Janet Ristow, says N4L’s Managed Network is helping her school’s 37 students forge better connections to events and people outside of their small rural community: “It is so incredible to have an internet connection that works when we want and need to use it. We’ve been streaming some of the highlights of the Commonwealth Games, which would have been impossible with our previous internet connection. We are also now sharing more with our friends in other schools because we can collaborate online so much easier.”

An interactive map of all participating N4L schools can be viewed at: http://www.n4l.co.nz/rollout/

Crown company N4L is tasked with building a managed network, connecting all schools to fast and predictable internet with uncapped data by the end of 2016, and 700 schools by the end of this year. In addition to building the Managed Network, N4L has developed a central digital learning hub called Pond, which more than 1000 teachers are now using to find learning resources for their classroom and share best practices with their peers. Pond can be accessed with any internet connection and is being introduced to teachers progressively, with all teachers getting access by the end of the year.

Source: Network for Learning