Edinburgh's Telford College

Technology

A technology-rich space was envisaged from the start. The college has been built with wireless throughout and suspended floors everywhere, not just in currently designated IT areas, so that flexibility and adaptability is built in. This also makes economic sense as it costs 4-5 times more to retro-fit cabling once a building is complete.

The approach was not to take on anything that wasn't being used elsewhere. This did not mean they restricted themselves to technologies in use in education so long as they could visit and see the technology in use. They chose suppliers for whom this was a small or medium project.

Some of the technology was introduced while they were in the old buildings so that staff could get used to it.

The college has opted for wireless for voice and data and also has a guest network (run over the voice network). Roaming is seamless and there is no 'stutter' etc with voice. Fibre channels are used for fast systems e.g. Finance, HR, Student System, etc while other systems use serial.

'Resilience not redundancy' is the policy with regard to hardware. Everything works in parallel to cover any failures. They use split multi-layered trunking with 2 different IP addresses that look the same throughout the network. Security is paramount at both network and user levels. Every classroom is equipped with the same technology so staff do not have to grapple with a range of different end user tools. All classrooms have Interactive Whiteboards.

Apple and Microsoft technologies are working together and both are available to students in the Learning Streets.

Laptops are widely used as flexible working is encouraged. There are designated secure lockers for staff to store and charge laptops and touchdown desks for short term use.

Convergence of staff areas has enabled the college to make savings by introducing a managed 'just-in-time' print service that has increased throughput by 50%. HR and Finance still have their own printers for reasons of confidentiality.

There is access control in staff areas and in beauty therapy areas (for privacy) and cooking and other hazardous areas (for health and safety). The cost benefit of having access control throughout the whole college was deemed to be not worth the investment.

The whole building is controlled by a Building Management System including light switches and light sensing shutters on external windows.

Adding Value

Technology is now pervasive in all curriculum areas. Every learning area is equipped in the same way with identical IT equipment, AV equipment, Interactive Whiteboard etc so that staff are familiar with the kit. The equipment is all controlled via a panel on the desk (remote controls tend to go missing). Less time is wasted in setting things up and having to adapt to quirks in particular pieces of equipment.

The technology has introduced uniformity and flexibility.

Less paper is used in business processes and in teaching. Tutors are using more digital resources and re-using resources cutting down on duplication of similar materials e.g. basic maths across different areas of the curriculum. The College is at full capacity as regards students on site but it now has the capacity to expand via more flexible forms of delivery including evenings and weekends and via distance learning. 'Technology doesn't stop at the walls'.