San Diego City Schools Reinvents Educational Services using Converged Cisco Network
July 15, 2005
By Stacy Williams, News@Cisco
When students arrive at one of roughly 200 schools in the city of San Diego, cameras acting as remote eyes for the security staff will enhance student safety. In classrooms, teachers and students will have access to a wide array of high-tech resources such as video conferencing for distance learning. Busy staff will have more instructional time to spend with students because administrative processes such as taking attendance will be automated using phones or wireless PDAs. All this is possible over the next few years at San Diego City Schools (SDCS) due to the district's deployment of a converged voice, data, and video information technology architecture from Cisco based on Internet Protocol (IP) standards. The end-to-end IP-based multiservices network provides virtually unlimited application flexibility to improve the learning environment, streamline professional development, enhance student safety and more. It is also enabling the district to consolidate processes and systems to reduce costs by millions of dollars by 2010.
Serving more than 140,000 students, SDCS is the second largest school district in California with more than 200 educational facilities and 15,800 employees. The district's main goal is improving student achievement by supporting teaching and learning in the classroom-a mission that was becoming increasingly difficult with a combination of an aging district-wide technology infrastructure and ongoing budget cuts.
"We had to improve communications and become more accountable and productive," says Alan Bersin, superintendent for SDCS. "Cisco introduced a vision, an infrastructure and IP-based solutions that could help us."
Before moving to a converged IP network from Cisco, the district had separate legacy networks and systems: PBX (private branch exchange) systems for voice communications, a data network, and separate broadcast systems for video delivery. With multiple, disparate systems, communication and information exchange suffered. For instance, compiling and analyzing data to obtain an accurate picture of student achievement was difficult, as was shaping instructional approaches to improve the learning environment. Maintaining multiple infrastructure environments was also costly.
Working with Cisco, SDCS is becoming a model for effective use of technology in education. More than just bringing Internet access into classrooms, SDCS deployed a converged Cisco network for more than 200 of its facilities that serves as a robust, multiservices platform. Over the next few years, it will be used for everything from voice communications and classroom media streaming to video surveillance. The district is also simplifying and integrating diverse district technology systems and consolidating administration services to improve communications and reduce operational costs.
"The converged IP network brings voice, video and data services onto a single infrastructure to dramatically reduce costs," says Bersin. "The intelligence of the Cisco network allows the district to implement functionality traditionally only possible using several separate systems."
The district began taking advantage of its Cisco infrastructure by providing entirely new telephone services. Previously, SDCS relied on a collection of decentralized PBX systems. Each individual district site maintained its own internal telephone system, but had to use costly outside public telephone service to communicate across the district. There was no integrated voicemail system, making it difficult to deliver messages to others in the district. In the event of emergencies such as the massive fires in San Diego in 2003, this could be a dire issue, because it was necessary to place calls and leave thousands of individual messages.
Using IP telephony (IPT), voice calls can be carried over the converged network, allowing the district to avoid costly public telephone service. By moving to a digital infrastructure, the district also can implement XML-based applications that deliver advanced communication functionality and allow automated attendance. System-wide voice messaging enables instantaneous delivery of voice messages to selected groups or to the entire district in the event of an emergency. The IPT solution also offers centralized call accounting to simplify billing, an online directory for simple up to date dialing, and extension mobility enabling any user to log in from any phone on the network to access voicemail and other features.
There is no shortage of additional plans for the Cisco infrastructure. The district will roll out many other IP-based applications, including video surveillance to enhance student safety and protect assets, live video streaming to deliver timely information and training, and video conferencing for remotely managed instruction. Also planned are helpful resources for teachers such as a portal where they can access training and tools and more easily communicate with parents to involve them as active participants in student development.
"Our Cisco multiservices network is helping us solve issues we face every day: accountability, improved communications, safer schools, distance learning, professional development, and increased business productivity," says Bersin.
Even more important to Bersin is a strong commitment from Cisco to the district's success. "Cisco has been an active participant, not only in accelerating the introduction of technology, but also in helping us with the psychological and cultural innovations we've needed to adopt positive change," says Bersin.
Stacy Williams is a freelance journalist located in Phippsburg, CO.
