Why Internet Service Isn't Like Utilities - Especially in schools... Yet

I sometimes hear comments about Internet service being like a utility - especially electrical service. Comparisons are made to how electric service was extended to rural areas through cooperatives and subsidies. While I agree that Internet service is fast approaching that "basic need" category like electricity, water, etc., we are some ways off from it having the same ubiquity, level of service and reliability that other utilities have. It is still important to make sure that all students in all areas (urban, exurban, suburban, rural, etc.) have the same fast, reliable Internet services and this continues to require collaborative efforts and, to some extent, subsidies to keep a level playing field.

Electricity is delivered to most every home (save for those who are choosing to be off the grid) through distribution facilities in virtually the same form and with nearly the same reliability in an extremely high percentage of locations. No matter where I am, when I flick the light switch, I get around 120 volts at 60 Hz and the light comes on. Except for extreme situations, I don't worry about whether everyone on my block or connected to the same service provider is using electricity at the same time. If they are, my lights still come on with the same amount of power available to them as if I were the only one using it. Additionally, while costs for electricity do vary by geographic location, it is generally not a large discrepancy.

Internet service, on the other hand still does vary greatly. In some locations, fiber service is available with dedicated bandwidth. In others, providers overprovsion and sell 10Mbps service with actual speeds much less. Speeds in many types of service still vary according to how many people in the same area are using the service. It is still not possible to start up your computer or launch an app on your mobile device and expect a constant, predictable speed or level of reliability from Internet service.

So... Internet service is not ready to be called a basic utility yet. In schools, when community members wonder why you don't just buy the 50mbps service for $59.95 from one of the local service providers - or politicians wonder why they should fund something like telecommunications and Internet service separately (when they don't do that for electricity) from other things, we can explain that to have the reliability and level of service we need still requires a different kind of service level than is available to residents and small businesses.

We're Back!!

After a significant hiatus, I'm back at this blog. Inspired to participate in this global community by Adam Bellow during his keynote presentation at ISTE 2013. See the video below to be inspired yourself - it is great! I'll also make a concerted effort to tweet more often when interesting things (and sometimes squirrels!) come to my attention as they often do. Follow my tweets @marccjohnson. So, here we go - not sure how often I will post and not sure what I will say - we can all be surprised! Talk to you soon.

MIT Students Create Video Content for K-12

This was brought to my attention by a tech coordinator in one of my districts - thanks Jim! The project, called MIT+K12 has MIT students creating videos that answer questions students might have in the areas of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). There are currently over 30 videos available answering such questions as, "How do airplanes fly?" "How can photography be utilized for scientific experiments?" and more. This is a pilot project, so there are no guarantees that it will go on in perpetuity, and some of the videos hit the mark better than others, but it is a nice project if it can grow some legs. The videos are hosted on YouTube so if your school blocks YouTube content, you may be out of luck :-(

TIES 2011

Hanging out at the 2011 TIES conference. Record crowds again, congratulations to TIES for that! Keynote speaker, Joel Rose, from the School of One initiative in New York gave a fine presentation. He discussed the large number of teachers who feel frustrated in their work. It helped explain why many teachers have a hard time adopting new technology. If they are already frustrated, adding something new (and often without any real training) just doesn't work. Tech Coordinators and others working in school technology get frustrated too. The many hats they wear on a regular basis can be daunting. I'll talk about that at a presentation this afternoon. We'll see how that goes. I think the important thing is to remember that everyone who works in educstion is part of a team and everything we do needs to be about the kids.