Challenge / Goal
In their drive for 1:1 education (one device per student), Duval County Public Schools (DCPS), the 20th largest school district in the United States, upgraded their wireless capabilities over two years, bringing 10G bandwidth to 196 schools.
With the required wireless bandwidth in place, DCPS implemented a 1:1 rollout to one of their schools as part of a pilot program. The district needed an advanced solution for remote management, security and storage to address the IT team’s concerns, while also simplifying the process for students and teachers so their time could be focused in the classroom on instruction.
Recognizing gaps that needed to be addressed to effectively manage 68,000 district-owned laptops, DCPS engaged Bridgenext (formerly Emtec) for help. They needed to address three key challenges:
- Capacity to handle the power requirements for all devices
- Secure storage of devices when not in use, while also preserving ease of access for students and teachers
- Ability to quickly and easily manage and upgrade devices when required
“We started with storage carts, which addressed the charging and security needs,” said Jim Culbert, Executive Director of Information Technology for DCPS. “But as we moved closer to 1:1 in our schools, we needed more advanced capabilities.”
Solution
Bridgenext, together with Bretford, a mobile charging solutions partner, designed and implemented an advanced device management solution for Duval County Public Schools. The solution includes cutting-edge RFID lockers that replace traditional storage carts located in school halls to provide secure storage and charging for students’ devices when they’re not in use. The solution also includes Bredford Connect, a cloud-based web portal, that enables the district’s IT administrators to manage all devices virtually. With this solution, administrators can access locker statistics in real time, remotely unlock bays, monitor device check-in and check-out and implement device upgrades.
Because students only need to stop at the smart lockers twice each day, we’ve been able to shorten our bell schedules and give students more time in the classroom. And that has a positive impact on both learning and funding.
Results
The DCPS IT team can now manage thousands of devices virtually, upgrading and updating software as needed. The simplified storage allows students easy access during peak times of the day, and teachers can now use time previously spent managing laptops on additional lesson planning or instruction instead. As the number of laptops and lockers in the district increases, so do student grades and test scores.
Jim Culbert, Executive Director of Information Technology for DCPS, says the partnership with Bridgenext has created more time for the things that matter most. “A software upgrade used to take a significant amount of time because we had to go through each laptop separately,” he said. “Now we just log on to our portal and with a few clicks all of the laptops in our lockers update. That means our IT team can focus on bigger tasks; the portal handles the little things for us.” Efficiency goes beyond IT to teachers and students as well, with positive impacts to learning and funding.
