AirSpeed Telecom has been selected by the Department of Education & Skills to deploy a 100Mb/s broadband service to an additional 45 national schools in Mayo, Sligo, Donegal and Leitrim. The telco has been heavily involved in the follout of connectivity services to hundreds of schools around the country.
This latest move is part of a €210 million investment in digital technology as part of a five year Digital Strategy for Schools (2015–2020). This plan is focused on integrating digital skills into the curriculum and ultimately working with schools, teachers and schools to take advantage of the vital role technology will play in the years ahead.
“Our school is currently in the process of doubling the amount of mobile devices available to our students. Limited broadband speeds previously precluded teachers from having all children access the same online educational resource or game during a lesson, thus limiting the effectiveness of our hardware,” said Pat Cunnane, principal of Behy National School, in Ballina, Co Mayo – one of the schools that will benefit from the rollout. “AirSpeed Telecom’s high-speed connection allows our teachers to access fun online educational activities that specifically target student’s learning needs.
“Our school has a strong tradition of film making and we take part in projects like the FíS Film Festival. We love to show our films on the school website but upload speeds have made this difficult in the past and I often had to do the uploading at home.
“The increased speed now available to us will enable our film-makers to use the internet as an outlet for their creativity by quickly uploading their films to appropriate online hosts. Our school has also hosted two summer in-service courses in ICT for teachers over the last few years and our limited broadband impacted on their effectiveness. With the increased speed, teachers attending future courses can experience the use of ICT without issues or problems which I hope will highlight how effective ICT tools are for teaching and learning and encourage teachers to make greater use of these amazing tools in their lessons.”
Brendan Martin, sales director, AirSpeed Telecom, said: “Airspeed Telecom is really excited to be part of an innovative programme by the Department of Education and Skills to enable rural primary schools with high speed access to the internet. It is fantastic that our high speed connectivity will help equip a whole new generation of students with the skills they need for a future technology and information driven Ireland.”
AirSpeed Telecom’s clients include Dairygold, NCSS (BreastCheck), St John of Gods Hospitaller Services, Irish Distillers, United Drug, Eurolink and Vhi Healthcare.
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