Named for a late-19th century Texas pioneer, the Wylie Independent School District (ISD) covers 41 square miles and includes five campuses.

More than a century after its founding, the pioneering spirit is still strong as Wylie ISD uses fiber-rich Internet connectivity to bring new teaching tools into every classroom and to support a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policy that’s helping Wylie ISD’s more than 13,000 students engage in all new learning experiences.

Using fiber to upgrade learning and expand resourcesBefore choosing a BYOD program, Wylie ISD’s CIO Chris Lamb explored having the school district provide one computer for each student. However, Lamb notes, “sustaining it would have been very difficult. So, the decision was made to create a BYOD program and let students bring devices they already had and utilize them in the classroom.”

While the norm for most public schools is to implement BYOD for higher grades, Lamb opened the program to every student, starting in Kindergarten. “Wylie’s mission is to serve all students,” he explains. “All means all. So when we rolled out the program, we did it for K-12.”

Offering BYOD to over 13,000 students meant Lamb needed more bandwidth than the existing 50 Mbps fiber circuit from his previous provider. In 2011, Lamb decided to upgrade and switched to 100 Mbps Dedicated Internet Access (DIA) service from Time Warner Cable Business Class (TWCBC).

Turning BYOD access into a vibrant new collaborationThe switch to TWCBC’s DIA was supported by the fact that TWCBC is an E-rate eligible Telecommunications Provider (ETP). Hence, a portion of the DIA connectivity was supported by funding from the E-Rate program that reimburses school districts and libraries for Internet,

Company: Wylie Independent School District, a Texas school system serving more than 13,000 students

Industry: Education

Services: Dedicated Internet Access (DIA)

• High capacity bandwidth to extend Wylie’s BYOD policy campus-wide

• Access to Internet-based tools to help enrich teaching and collaboration

• Supporting BYOD working to enable Wylie ISD use its budget to equip more students with computers

• A reliable network that enables resources such as Google Apps™ to enhance the learning environment

Chris Lamb, Chief Information Officer, Wylie Independent School District

Measures of Success: Customer Profile:

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Dedicated Fiber for Wylie ISD Enables Collaborative Teaching Apps and BYOD for K-12 Students

“I’ve been in the technology field for almost 30 years... I rarely saw Internet circuits that were as stable as this…”

—Chris Lamb

INTERNET | VOICE | TELEVISION | ETHERNET | CLOUD

telecommunications services and equipment based upon percent of the student population receiving free and reduced lunches. Budget constraints make it imperative for school districts to choose an ETP such as TWCBC who understands the E-rate funding process with a commitment to reliability and ongoing support.

The DIA service delivers symmetrical connectivity via TWCBC’s fiber network, providing private, redundant connectivity for school districts that require fast speeds to maximize performance of applications. Lamb found the upgrade path for its DIA service easy. With a simple phone call to TWCBC, he was able to boost performance from 100 Mbps to TWCBC’s 1 Gbps DIA circuit. The upgrade answered the school district’s need for growing bandwidth to support the BYOD program as more students continue to come on board.

With E-rate funding enabling Wylie schools to make the BYOD program available to students who have their own devices, Lamb is able to focus his limited procurement budget on purchasing laptops and tablets for students who don’t already have them. This creates a more inclusive and enriched learning experience for all.

DIA: from a seamless installation to a seamless connection with new cloud-based toolsLooking back, Lamb remembers initial installation was “very seamless. Time Warner Cable Business Class technicians configured the router; all we did was configure our side. In the world of technology it was about as turnkey as you can get.”

The DIA service is also as reliable as any network Lamb has experienced during his 30 years in the technology field. “Now a lot of it has to do with the fact that it’s fiber-based versus old T1 or T3 service.”

Lamb says that between the bandwidth and the stability of the DIA circuit, “we don’t hesitate to say every student can use Internet-based apps. When faculty looks at programs or new learning initiatives to add to the classroom, we look for cloud-based options now rather than creating material in house.”

As another example of what’s possible with their fiber-based DIA connectivity, Wylie ISD’s teachers and students rely on Google Apps for Education,™ which securely integrates word processing, spreadsheets, presentation and graphic tools.

In explaining how Google Apps takes collab-oration—and learning—to an all-new level, Lamb says “a lot of Wylie ISD teachers create assignments in Google… the students then create a document and share it with the teacher. The teacher opens it up and makes comments or notes. It’s very powerful.”

“Technology helps us increase the speed of what we do,” Lamb adds. With its DIA circuit from Time Warner Cable Business Class, Wylie ISD is moving forward faster than ever to pioneer rich classroom engagement and teacher-student collaboration.

About Time Warner Cable Business ServicesTime Warner Cable Business Services, a division of Time Warner Cable, offers a full complement of business communications tools to small, medium and enterprise-sized companies under its Time Warner Cable Business Class brand. Its Internet, voice, television, network and cloud services are enhanced by award-winning customer service and local support teams. Through its NaviSite subsidiary, Time Warner Cable Business Services also offers scalable managed services, including application services, enterprise hosting, and managed cloud services primarily in the U.S. and U.K. Time Warner Cable Business Services, founded in 1998, serves approximately 625,000 business customers through- out Time Warner Cable’s service areas. For more information, visit http://business.twc.com.

TWCBC fiber solutions enable Wylie students to explore the learning potential of BYOD.

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“Upgrades were even smoother. We requested more speed, and it was automatically set. On the day it was set to take effect, it took effect. It was all handled by Time Warner Cable Business Class and we didn’t have to change a thing on our side”

—Chris Lamb