IE 11 Not Supported

For optimal browsing, we recommend Chrome, Firefox or Safari browsers.

Mobile technology enables high-tech learning.

Mobile technology enables high-tech learning.

When Dr. Jon Grant, principal of Delaware's St. Thomas More Academy, attends the high school's baseball games this spring, he plans to do some of his "homework" on a wireless laptop while sitting in the stands. Similarly, the school's webmaster now updates the academy's Internet homepage www.saintmore.org on the fly, from anyplace on campus.

Both Grant and the webmaster are using 3Com technology to tap into a new campus-wide wireless LAN The wireless network is in the pilot stage -- with just a handful of users -- but Grant soon expects the project greatly to expand students' access to computer technology.

The principal has plans to use carts stocked with wireless laptops that can be rolled from classroom to classroom, essentially creating mobile computer labs. Students will receive their own network accounts, providing them access to software applications, stored information and the Internet. They also will be able to check out laptops for projects that extend beyond the classroom walls.

"In our upper-level P.E. classes, for example, students track their pulse rates, respiration, height, weight and percentage of body fat on computers," Grant said. "Once we start letting them check out laptops, they can enter that information when they need to -- if they're in the weight room, on the track running, wherever. They can log into the network and enter the data."

Using 3Com wireless access points and wireless LAN PC cards, St. Thomas More created a wireless network that encompasses the main school building, the gym and temporary classrooms. In addition, network access extends hundreds of feet beyond the buildings, allowing students to tap in from athletic fields and other areas.

Besides Grant and the webmaster, several other staff members have been issued laptops. In addition, the school provided 3Com wireless LAN PC cards to six students who own their own laptop computers, giving them network access as well.

"I know they are using them. I go around the campus, and I see their laptops open and they're taking notes or pulling information off of the Internet," Grant said. "They're very comfortable walking around with their laptop satchels. For them, the computer is replacing a paper notebook."

Thanks to 3Com wireless technology, Grant eventually foresees all of his students toting laptop PCs instead of textbooks and binder paper. "I would certainly say that within two years we could easily be paperless," he said. "The way textbooks are coming out on CD-ROM, we could put the CD on our server and the kids could just log in from the classrooms."

He also anticipates that mobile technology will make the school's administrative staff more efficient. Indeed, it's already done so for Grant.

"I take my laptop into board meetings," he said. "I type my notes as we go through the meeting, spend 10 or 15 minutes afterward cleaning them up, and then I can print out the minutes or I can e-mail them to wherever they need to go."