By the time students enter the voluntary stages of their
education, it is hoped that many of them have some kind of burgeoning career
plan, or at least an emerging idea or two.
Looking back on 'old school' college days the notion of a
hand-held computer with messaging, a camera, GPS, Scrabble and an 'Internet of
Things' was about as absurd as a telephone in a wrist watch, or a whole record
collection in your top pocket.
Now you can read all about the rise and fall of any Empire in
history, dip into cutting edge particle physics, talk to relatives, friends and
strangers half way across the world (or even half way across the room), go
shopping, make movies and publish them instantly for an audience numbering
billions... all from the comfort of wherever you happen to be.
For today's college student, all of the above is part of
everyday life - an ever-growing army of tech-savvy young adults with high
expectations, bringing with them an array of smartphones, laptops and tablets.
BYOD alone opens a whole new can of worms. How do you ensure
both institutional devices and personal devices consistently deliver
curriculum material, communications and scheduling; or grant access to portals
and intranets?
How do you keep social and academic identities separate; while
delivering coursework and services in and out of classes, and inside and
outside of college?
In addition to this 'IoT' swarm, the college will also be
running a host of desktops, workstations, printers, and more sophisticated HPC
devices – in addition to the backline IT for the institution itself - Admin,
HR, Accounts, Facilities, Food Service and more.
With just a small handful of IT support staff providing for
hundreds, sometimes thousands of students; all of the solutions and services at
this level have to 'just work' out of the box, and to continue to do so with
minimum intervention.
Requirements therefore at this level include:
ñ Pervasive
connectivity
ñ Consistent
user experience regardless of device
ñ Extended
and extensible features for utility and relevance over a longer life-span
ñ Sandboxing
allowing firewalled academic and social identities
ñ Security
mechanisms for theft deterrence
Today, proportionally more people than ever before are going to
college, studying courses that are increasingly reliant on technology to
deliver curricula, and being prepared for a world where technology is now a
permanent fixture.
The thought behind the technology we implement in colleges now
needs to accommodate a long term view – enabling students to achieve their
goals and embrace a technology-reliant future, while also ensuring the future
utility of any infrastructure investment.
Providing for the longer view - HP Innovation for Schools.
HP has developed a large range of best-in-class technology -
specifically designed for demanding Educational environments - with price
points, programmes and discounts that can make a real positive difference;
helping to ensure optimal coverage in Further Education.
Recommendations for the near term include tablets, notebooks,
workstations and desktops - such as HP ProSlate, HP ProBook; and the HP ProDesk
Microtower and Desktop Mini.
Westcoast's HP in Education portal is your gateway to accessing
exciting promotions designed to keep costs well within contrained budgets;
cash-back trade-in programmes for redundant ICT; and an integratable, full
product catalogue to help present quotes, configs and options to your
customers.
Are you interested in learning more about HP Innovation for
Schools and how we can help?
