How CDW Helped Archbishop Mitty High School Build the

CASE STUDY: WIRELESS INFRASTRUCTURE
NO
MORE
EXCUSES
Eric Anderson,
Archbishop Mitty’s
director of information
technology, says
school officials knew
they wanted a tabletbased one-to-one
program but “weren’t
sure how it would
come to fruition.”
Archbishop Mitty High School’s
network overhaul facilitated
a one-to-one tablet program
rollout that lets students,
faculty and staff do everything
electronically. The days of lost
paper assignments, forms and
test materials are history.
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At a Glance
ORGANIZATION: Archbishop Mitty
High School
HEADQUARTERS: San Jose, Calif.
STUDENTS: 1,720
DESCRIPTION: Archbishop Mitty High
School is the Catholic, coeducational,
college preparatory school managed
by the Diocese of San Jose. The
school develops young adults through
the synthesis of faith and reason, the
formation of Catholic values and
preparation for life in a global society.
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CASE STUDY: WIRELESS INFRASTRUCTURE
Making Archbishop Mitty High
School a digital learning environment
didn’t happen overnight. It required
a back-end wired and wireless
infrastructure, web-based learning
management software and access
to the latest tablets.
But the Catholic school’s oneto-one tablet p
­ rogram — which
took paper out of the equation
so effectively that it reduced the
school’s copier output by 4.5 million
pages during the 2012–2013 school
year — also required judicious
planning.
Director of Information
“I felt that we made
the right decision
going with Cisco
equipment.
I knew that having
a robust network
infrastructure would
be critical to the
success of any
technology plan.”
Technology Eric Anderson traces
the San Jose, Calif., school’s digital
— Director of Information Technology
Eric Anderson
Bringing It Home
The transition to tablets was
intentionally methodical, Anderson
recalls, noting that he waited until
all of the school’s courses were
integrated into myMitty before
beginning the r­ ollout. “I knew the
success of this program depended
on us being ready with the learning
management s­ ystem right out of
the gate,” he says.
In 2010, the school required each
teacher to develop one course
for myMitty. As faculty worked to
familiarize themselves with the LMS,
Anderson introduced the tablets to
students in phases.
Archbishop Mitty’s first pilot of
learning journey to 2007. “At that
32 tablets launched in April 2010. A
point, school officials knew they
second pilot during the 2011–2012
wanted a one-to-one program” that used tablets,
school year put two sets of 30 tablets in classrooms and
he explains. “But we weren’t sure how it would come
another 30 tablets into students’ hands so they could
to fruition.”
experiment with the devices at home.
So Archbishop Mitty’s four-person IT staff devised
By spring 2012, teachers were comfortable with myMitty
a three-year technology plan that would set the school
and ready to begin using it with students. But making the
on a path toward one-to-one. Their first move was to
one-to-one program work would require a high-quality
increase Internet bandwidth from 3 megabits per second
network, so Anderson turned to CDW•G, a subsidiary
to 20Mbps by purchasing a larger bandwidth pipe through
of CDW, for assistance with the configuration. (One of
the school’s Internet service provider, Anderson says.
CDW•G’s specialties is helping school districts with their
In 2008, they began working to upgrade Archbishop
technology projects.) The goal: to have the upgraded
Mitty’s wireless capabilities. A Cisco Systems infra­structure
network ready in time for the start of the 2012–2013
that once supported just 100 devices had to be fortified
school year.
to handle a tablet for each of the school’s 1,700 students,
“I felt that we made the right decision going with Cisco
as well as the expanding requirements of the faculty,
equipment, but we weren’t making the progress we had
Anderson continues.
hoped for” with its deployment, Anderson says. “CDW•G is
Around the same time, they formed the Spectrum
very knowledgeable about the entire Cisco ecosystem, and
Committee, which included one teacher from each of the
I knew that having a robust network infrastructure would
school’s nine academic departments. Members were
be critical to the success of any technology plan.” For that,
selected based on their interest in technology and their
he adds, the school’s IT team needed some help.
reputation in the classroom. From their initial meetings
According to Ignacio “Nacho” Vega, a network s­ olution
emerged a learning management system (LMS) based
architect for CDW, the school was running a flat network,
on Moodle source code that was adapted specifically
in which all traffic traveled on a single virtual LAN.
for Archbishop Mitty.
Dubbed myMitty, the LMS is meant to function as “a
Following a tour of the high school and a spectrum
analysis, the CDW team determined that segmenting the
one-stop shop where all learning happens,” Anderson
network into 30 VLANs would be more efficient, Vega
explains. “Students can download their learning materials
explains. There are now separate subnets for students
from myMitty and submit homework online.”
and teachers, for example, as well as one to support the
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digital tele­visions that were installed in classrooms to
supplement learning with the tablets.
Meanwhile, another CDW team, led by Wireless Solution
Architect David Flinn, beefed up the school’s wireless
capabilities. “We needed to deliver the density so that 40
students in a classroom could use the tablets at any one
time,” Flinn explains.
To that end, the wireless network was built to support
802.11n (and previous standards) and to enable Wi-Fi
operation on both 2.4- and 5-gigahertz bands, thus limiting
device contention. The installation included a Cisco 5508
wireless controller and 14 new access points to increase
density, 12 Cisco Aironet 1142 APs and two Cisco Aironet
3602i APs.
Tablets in Action
This beefed-up infrastructure finally made it possible for
Archbishop Mitty to roll out a full one-to-one ­program last
fall, with each student receiving a tablet that was included
in the cost of tuition.
Rose Lopez, a French teacher at the school, says the
impact on the classroom has been dramatic. “I don’t copy
anything,” she says. “Everything is online and accessible
from the tablets. Students can read, write, draw, listen —
all from their tablets.”
In the past, Lopez continues, students were issued paper
workbooks. They hand-wrote assignments and submitted
their work for grading. But with the tablets, they can revisit
past lessons and continue working until they earn perfect
scores. Because all the assignments are time-stamped,
Tablet-Infused Learning
Members of the Spectrum Committee who worked to
set up myMitty, Archbishop Mitty High School’s learning
management system, have established a blog that offers
a variety of ideas on how to use tablets and digital content
in the classroom.
In a spring 2013 Technology @ Mitty post, French teacher
Rose Lopez posted a video on how to use InfuseLearning,
a student response system that lets teachers quickly
assess student progress as they would with traditional
handheld clicker devices — but virtually.
Students can easily access InfuseLearning from their
­tablets by signing on with their classroom number and first
names, Lopez explains. Once students answer a question,
the teacher can see how much time each student took
to offer a response and follow up, if needed.
Teachers also can use the tool to import images, which
can then be used to facilitate discussion or complete an
exercise. Lopez can post a map of Europe, for example,
and ask students to identify France. She sees students’
responses immediately and can readily determine whether
everyone knows the c­ ountry’s location.
“I also do this with verb conjugations,” Lopez continues. “I
post common mistakes so students can learn from them.”
Other recent blog posts cover video editing techniques,
setting up timer applications and using a tablet as a
whiteboard or document camera.
$15
The average price
of an e-textbook;
paper textbooks
average $75
apiece
SOURCE: Archbishop Mitty High School
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CASE STUDY: WIRELESS INFRASTRUCTURE
“As a school, we are still
in a period of transition
as we get these devices into
the hands of more students.
Some of the seniors are
a bit hesitant, but the
freshmen are very excited.
I can’t wait to see where
we’ll be when more of
the classes start their
high school careers
with the tablets.”
— Director of Information Technology
Eric Anderson
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Technology You Can Depend On
For Eric Anderson, director of information technology for
Archbishop Mitty High School, choosing networking and
wireless equipment from Cisco Systems was simply the
sensible choice.
“Cisco is legendary for its robust infrastructure,” he
says. “The challenge for us was to set it up properly. We
recognized that we needed help, which is why we turned
to CDW·G to optimize our network.”
Here’s a rundown of the products that make up Archbishop
Mitty’s back-end infrastructure:
Cisco 5508 Wireless Controller: This appliance manages the
entire wireless network from a central location in the high
school’s data center. The controller also routes video traffic
across virtual LANs.
Cisco 3750 Catalyst Switch: This switch provides a 1 gigabit
fiber-optic connection to the school’s 10 network closets.
Cisco 3560 Catalyst Switch: This switch delivers traffic
from the network switch to client machines and other
network devices.
she can see when students did the work and how long it
took them to complete it.
“One of my students came to me and asked how she
could improve her grade,” Lopez explains. “When I looked
at her history in myMitty, I found that she was completing
assignments in half the time, compared with the other
students. I just recommended that she slow down.”
Before the LMS, she adds, such feedback wouldn’t have
been possible.
The campus also has 95 Cisco wireless access points,
including:
• Cisco Aironet 1142 APs, which deliver network access
to tablets, cellphones, computers and all other devices
with wireless radios.
• Cisco Aironet 3602i APs, which are used for highcapacity areas (such as the cafeteria and library) where
hundreds of users potentially can require simultaneous
access.
The tablets also made it possible for Archbishop Mitty
to transition to electronic textbooks. Lopez says the
PHOTOGRAPHY BY GARY PARKER
e-books — especially those dedicated to science —
­feature a number of interactive exercises that help keep
wants to phase them in gradually, to ensure that, as
students engaged.
learning tools, the digital editions are equivalent to
“Many of the interactive features we see in the science
or better than their paper counterparts.
textbooks aren’t available for the languages yet, which
“As a school, we are still in a period of transition as
is why I supplement a lot with my own video and audio
we get these devices into the hands of more students,”
exercises,” she says. “The tablets make it easy for me to
Anderson says. “Some of the seniors are a bit hesitant,
do that.”
but the freshmen are very excited. I can’t wait to see
Currently, about 60 percent of the textbooks in use at
Archbishop Mitty are digitized. Anderson says the school
where we’ll be when more of the classes start their
high school careers with the tablets.”
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