As Central has shifted towards an academic environment more reliant on technology, some limitations of the internet capabilities have become more apparent. Recently, Central has made a substantial investment to solve this issue.
Billings Central and Billings Catholic Schools have continued to integrate technology into daily work and curriculum over the past decade. This shift has been encouraged by BCS President Andrew McDonald. “I personally believe that we have an obligation to serve and prepare our students to be successful for the next step in their journey. In our world today technology is everywhere – it is how we communicate, work, learn, and spend free time. If we do not prepare our students to be responsible, digitally literate citizens, how can we claim that we are ‘Academically Excellent’ as we do in our mission statement? Therefore, as a system, we have an obligation to help our students understand the benefits – and challenges – associated with a technologically dependent society,” McDonald said.
“Upon assuming the role as the President of BCS, I found a system that had a wealth of devices, had many teachers that were well versed in using technology to enhance the education environment – not simply replace pen and paper – and students that were comfortable using technology to demonstrate their learning. One of the most pressing issues was developing replacement and refresh schedules to ensure that we have current equipment, that we are fiscally responsible and prepared for replacements, and we have the infrastructure that allows the devices to function effectively. Additionally, part of my job is to ensure that our staff are provided with opportunities to learn about how to best integrate technology and how technology can be a benefit to them rather than an afterthought.” he added.
This increased use of technology has revealed underlying limitations in the existing WiFi system at BCCHS. Billings Central IT Specialist Joanna Brailer, who has been spearheading the school system’s effort to improve the network, commented, “Until recently, the Wi-Fi network was unstable. It would frequently fail and would not want to come back up. It was a constant source of frustration for everyone, myself included.”
McDonald also stated, “I think it is apparent that the Wi-Fi infrastructure was not sufficient, particularly at Central, for the past several years. As a 1:1 [student to device] school, we potentially have well over 600 devices accessing network resources at any given time, between iPads, phones, teacher computers, interactive boards, etc. In the event WiFi fails, or the network goes down, there are challenges for everyone from students and teachers to administrators and the tech department and in some cases, this causes significant disruptions to learning. Prioritizing learning time, as we have a limited amount of time in a school year, necessarily means we need to ensure that technology is working properly.”
Although Central’s network capabilities were insufficient at the start of the year, McDonald says new upgrades should lead to improved performance. “While it has taken some time, we recently completed a complete network refresh at Central and are beginning the same process at SFC, allowing our students and staff to utilize the various devices as intended. Our network was last updated over seven years ago, so it is well past time for a complete refresh. We have installed business grade access points, run new cable throughout both buildings, ensured even distribution of signal, and now have access to better monitoring data to understand and address choke points, peak periods, and network downtime,” McDonald explained.
Brailer also mentioned this, saying, “Two weeks ago, we replaced all of the switches and access points in the building. The previous equipment was 7 years old. The average lifespan of networking equipment is 5, so Central was overdue for a refresh of equipment… Now that the system has been updated, Central has not had any significant issues with the Wi-Fi network. We are in the process of outlining a 5-year replacement cycle for all of the networking equipment across all of the locations at Billings Catholic Schools. Maintaining and replacing network equipment on a regular cycle will prevent the issues that we have experienced from happening again.”
The importance of proper internet infrastructure to support this has become an academic necessity. Brailer explained this, saying, “I believe having reliable WiFi is vitally important to the educational program at Central. The pandemic has made technology a permanent fixture in the educational setting. We function with the expectation of having to deliver instruction remotely now and that was never a consideration.”
McDonald shared similar thoughts, saying, “Long term, technology is not going away, so we have a responsibility to ensure that we stay current on best practices, up to date with our devices, and that technology is in service to the mission of the schools – Faith, Family Spirit, Academic Excellence. Ultimately, as an organization, we need to begin filtering everything we do through the lens of our mission and technology has proven to be a great place to start as we seek to improve network reliability and connectivity – particularly at Central.”
