Wifi Planning Mode

*Note: All blogs will be wrote from the perspective that there is no wireless infrastructure in place.  I am not saying that my way is 100% correct or other peoples are wrong, this is the way that I did it and why.

Planning
When we decided to participate in the grant, it was small, only about 50-100 ipods.  Radford City currently already had a wireless infrastructure that was put in place for SOL testing. So adding a couple more devices is nothing to what was already there.
No one told me the amount of devices that we would one day receive (400+ ipods, 150 Macbooks).

So in the planning stage, you need to try to take the following in consideration:
1. Total number devices (future growth)
2. Location(s) that the devices will be used
3. Primary application/use of the wireless device
4. Who manages the devices
5. Classroom supervision
-- I am sure there are more, just can't think of any at the moment. I will add as I think of it.

Total number of devices
This is a major factor.  Will the network infrastructure support an increased number of devices?  A wireless access point can carry approx 40 devices without being loaded down and experiencing a delay. If you have large numbers of device extra APs are needed. Are the handheld devices going to connect to the internet? If so, then the bandwidth needed to supply adequate downloads many need to be increased. For example, if the teacher wants the students to watch a youtube video, a dozen devices each pulling video can put a hurt on network usage and slow everyone down.
So you may need to purchase extra access points(AP), and/or increase bandwidth to the internet.

Location(s) that the devices will be used 
Will the handhelds be used all within one classroom, multiple classrooms, or throughout the whole school/division?  If a low number of handhelds (<40) are going to be used in a single classroom and no where else, then a single access point should be sufficient. If the handhelds are going to be used in the whole school then multiple APs will need to be placed in the school to provide coverage. If the handheld are going to be implemented district wide, adjustments to the network will be needed (network segmentation, vlans, dhcp).

Primary application/use of the wireless device
Will the user will be using pre-downloaded applications or surfing the internet?  Being in a K-12 school the students need to be protected from harsh content on the internet, unlike college students.  Increasing the content filter licenses may be required to protect the students properly.  Applications used in class need to be download before issuing to the class.  Application download or ipod syncing is a different (HUGE) topic not discussed in these blogs.

Who manages the devices
This is a easy one, in our case who is in charge of the money and the accounts that purchase itunes applications. You would be surprised, especially with the new ambiguous Volume Purchasing Program, which is another (HUGE) topic not discussed in these blogs.

Supervision
With small kids they often do as they are told, but when you deal with teens they have a mind of their own. When students break the rules of the technology user policy,  who is going to enforce it?