Education

RealTek is helping education clients to improve communications with staff, parents, and students. We are experienced in understanding and addressing the challenges that K-12, colleges and universities face. We work diligently on providing cost effective solutions that streamline IT operations, infrastructure, and support the organization campus-wide.

By providing flexible, secure technology solutions and best management practices, our company has been successful in helping our customers with improving their communication processes, achieving their educational goals, and reducing administrative costs.

Are you concerned with how your Schools are going to attract and communicate with the tech savvy generation?

Let RealTek help you in providing a better understanding on why a strong technology infrastructure improves student performance and increases student enroll rates.

Buildings, classrooms, laboratories, and equipment education infrastructure are crucial elements of learning environments in schools and universities. There is strong evidence that high-quality infrastructure facilitates better instruction, improves student outcomes, and reduces dropout rates, among other benefits. Although education policymakers are increasingly focusing on the quality of education and school learning environments, it is the technology infrastructure that aids in the development of education more.

An ad hoc approach to infrastructure investment is problematic

Schools that focus only on fixing what is broke or simply replacing antiquated technologies are missing the big picture. Technology is changing at record rates and it is paramount to be focused on analytics and intelligent learning for education. If not, teachers are not going to be properly equipped with what they need to provide proper curriculums for students. This methodology is suboptimal for teaching and learning.

A different approach: What we are doing

RealTek LLC can deliver flexible and customized technical advice, analytical services, and implementation support to its clients regardless of funding and budget restraints.

RealTek can provide a holistic and evidence-based model to inform decisions about investments in education infrastructure. Some key areas we are implementing to enable better technology medians in education.

Connect Schools to Research & Education Networks

Research and education networks, called R&E networks or RENs, are high-speed wired networks independent of the commercial Internet. They are run by state or regional consortia and were originally developed to meet the needs of academic and research communities.
RENs vary in their funding and operating models but generally offer the same benefit to their members: low-cost connectivity achieved by aggregating demand. RENs are typically funded by a combination of government and member fees.Thirty-one states offer their RENs to K–12 districts and schools.These are usually fiber connections, although schools in rural areas may also connect wirelessly.

Pros

Can be cost-effective because RENs can negotiate lower costs by purchasing Internet access on behalf of all institutions in the REN.
If your REN has the ability, additional capacity can be added for short periods of time when usage is expected to spike (such as during assessments).
With fiber RENs, increasing bandwidth can be accomplished at a fraction of the cost of the initial setup.
Hardware and services such as firewalls, security, and content filtering can be centralized at the district level, which simplifies management and avoids increased costs from multiple purchases.
Greater reliability exists on RENs because they use multiple Internet service providers at the same time to manage information loads.
Content providers may house content within the network so the need to pay for bandwidth to access content outside the network is reduced.

Cons

Up-front costs for building a connection from a district to the REN can be high.
A high-speed WAN connecting the district and schools must already exist (or be constructed) for this approach to work.
A high-speed LAN must exist for distributing the Internet access from the WAN throughout the school.
Because of funding models for consortia, costs may vary with usage rates, which can make projecting long-term cost difficult.
Accessing content outside the REN (on the Internet) can have restrictions in addition to a metered cost beyond recurring membership fees.

Mobile Hotspots

Some school districts now in the United States are moving to entirely digital textbooks.To provide access, school buses, school zones, and other areas are equipped with mobile wireless hotspots, enabling students to access the Internet and do homework on the way to and from school.RealTek has partnered with numerous organizations that together can provide school districts with mobile learning opportunities.

VOIP Services

RealTek can provide an array of voice communications services. VoIP technology enables schools to use the same network that provides Internet access to provide phone service. This approach eliminates the cost of maintaining a separate phone system and can reduce the amount of cabling needed throughout the building. This also enables features such as E911. This enhancement of 911 allows emergency responders to pinpoint precisely where in the building an emergency is occurring based off of the device used.

RealTek provides an in depth view of different analytics, operational, logistical, and technological options when planning your network. However, you should always ask a few questions and we can help answer them in detail.

IMPORTANT QUESTIONS TO ASK

Intrusion detection – Are automated alerts in place if software is acting malicious or someone isunlawfully accessing the school network?
Security – Is network equipment safe from theft, vandalism, and physical hacking?
Firewalls – Are you able to restrict what data enter and exit the school network?
Load balancing – Can you ensure that school/district network resources scale to meet student andstaff needs?
Content filtering – Are tools in place to restrict access to inappropriate content while stillpermitting access to all learning tools?
Network management – Will the network be required to initiate wireless software updates toconnected devices?
Mobility – Is the network configured so that students can remain connected even if they move todifferent physical locations in the building?
User logins – Will users need to log in to access the network? Does the network hardware support the kinds of log-in services you want to offer?

Devices for Teachers and Students

RealTek LLC has partners with all forms of device manufactures. We have been working with them to provide affordable and cutting edge devices for education systems across the United States. Similar to mobility in that we want our students and teacher faculty to be able to get answers and gather information when needed regardless of the location, you need to have the right products to connect to that infrastructure. Device selection has many areas to explore. Everything from laptops to BYOD should be considered in making decisions. RealTek has years of experience in providing those solutions that best fit the current need but also can provide a barrier against being antiquated quickly. Our engineers and developers can develop test scripts that will fulfil a certain criteria when selecting which devices work best for given situations and applications. When device selection is paramount it is always about the experience and not about the hardware. We have listed out a few ideas just to remember when going through the process.

Ask these questions when deciding which devices are right for your schools:

What are your expectations for mobility?
How reliable is the device’s operating system relative to privacy and data storage concerns, and does this align with your district’s privacy policy?
What level of durability are you looking for in the device(s)?
To what extent are considerations of screen size, keyboard/mouse, and peripherals such as scientific probes important for device selection?
Given the ages of the students who will be using these devices, what choices are most developmentally appropriate?
What is the refresh cycle?

No matter what the area of technology the education system requires RealTek is always ready and willing to discuss what is required to providing the best possible solutions for children and our future.