WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.940 OK, think about your school days for a sec. Maybe 00:00:02.940 --> 00:00:04.900 you remember that sound, you know, the dial -up 00:00:04.900 --> 00:00:07.540 modem screeching. Oh, yeah. Or just the clatter 00:00:07.540 --> 00:00:10.859 of keyboards in the computer lab. Exactly. Things 00:00:10.859 --> 00:00:13.019 are, well, pretty different now, aren't they? 00:00:13.160 --> 00:00:15.560 Definitely. Today, we're going to look closely 00:00:15.560 --> 00:00:17.679 at something that was kind of working behind 00:00:17.679 --> 00:00:20.839 the scenes back then, but is still super important. 00:00:21.420 --> 00:00:25.230 Local area networks. Lands. That's right. We're 00:00:25.230 --> 00:00:28.489 digging into an article by Gary Ackerman called 00:00:28.489 --> 00:00:31.730 Ed Tech for Ed Leaders, Local Area Networks over 00:00:31.730 --> 00:00:34.789 on hackscience .education. OK. And the goal here 00:00:34.789 --> 00:00:37.130 for this deep dive is really to get a handle 00:00:37.130 --> 00:00:40.289 on what lands actually are, why schools first 00:00:40.289 --> 00:00:43.350 started using them, how they've changed over 00:00:43.350 --> 00:00:44.770 time. And how they fit in with the internet, 00:00:45.049 --> 00:00:47.270 which is everywhere now. Exactly. That relationship 00:00:47.270 --> 00:00:49.310 is key and maybe a bit surprising sometimes. 00:00:49.729 --> 00:00:51.960 All right. Let's get into it. The article points 00:00:51.960 --> 00:00:55.079 to the mid -1990s as when lands really started 00:00:55.079 --> 00:00:57.600 popping up in schools. What did that look like, 00:00:58.079 --> 00:01:00.299 practically speaking? Well, you got to think 00:01:00.299 --> 00:01:03.219 about what problem they solved first. Ackerman 00:01:03.219 --> 00:01:05.980 talks about servers being introduced, right? 00:01:06.340 --> 00:01:09.540 Servers that teachers and students could actually 00:01:09.540 --> 00:01:13.980 use regularly. And the first big uses were, well, 00:01:14.299 --> 00:01:17.780 pretty straightforward. Sharing printers, a big 00:01:17.780 --> 00:01:21.650 one. Ah, yes. The printer bottleneck, I remember 00:01:21.650 --> 00:01:24.030 that. Definitely. And also sharing files, you 00:01:24.030 --> 00:01:26.250 know, setting up shared folders on that server 00:01:26.250 --> 00:01:28.590 so people could access documents. You just picture 00:01:28.590 --> 00:01:30.370 the relief, right? No more lining up for the 00:01:30.370 --> 00:01:32.969 one printer or running around with floppy disks. 00:01:33.250 --> 00:01:35.390 Exactly. That must have been kind of an aha moment 00:01:35.390 --> 00:01:37.950 for educators, seeing how connecting things could 00:01:37.950 --> 00:01:39.750 actually help. Absolutely. And once they saw 00:01:39.750 --> 00:01:41.750 those benefits, things started evolving pretty 00:01:41.750 --> 00:01:44.209 quickly. Yeah. Ackerman notes how the connections 00:01:44.209 --> 00:01:48.780 got more sophisticated. Sophisticated how? Well, 00:01:49.000 --> 00:01:50.939 not just connecting computers within one school 00:01:50.939 --> 00:01:52.799 building, but actually linking different school 00:01:52.799 --> 00:01:54.980 buildings together. So, wait, connecting whole 00:01:54.980 --> 00:01:57.739 campuses? Wow. Like, across a district? Yeah. 00:01:58.079 --> 00:02:00.180 Entire districts started linking their separate 00:02:00.180 --> 00:02:03.159 school networks into one bigger land, essentially. 00:02:03.560 --> 00:02:05.799 Wow. Okay, what did that actually let them do? 00:02:06.239 --> 00:02:09.060 Well, think about it. Resources, like teaching 00:02:09.060 --> 00:02:11.379 materials made at school A, could suddenly be 00:02:11.379 --> 00:02:13.840 used by teachers at school B, instantly. OK, 00:02:13.860 --> 00:02:16.740 that's useful. And IT support could manage computers 00:02:16.740 --> 00:02:20.219 across different sites from one place. Big efficiency 00:02:20.219 --> 00:02:23.560 game there. Plus, it helps streamline all the 00:02:23.560 --> 00:02:25.800 district -level admin stuff, the business side 00:02:25.800 --> 00:02:29.840 of things. The article brings up this term, MENs, 00:02:30.080 --> 00:02:32.860 Metropolitan Area Networks, that you see in textbooks 00:02:32.860 --> 00:02:35.259 sometimes. Right. But it sounds like... For the 00:02:35.259 --> 00:02:37.400 IT folks actually doing the work in schools, 00:02:37.979 --> 00:02:39.879 they often just kept calling the whole interconnected 00:02:39.879 --> 00:02:42.699 district thing a LAN, even if it stretched pretty 00:02:42.699 --> 00:02:44.599 far, like in rural areas. Yeah, that's a really 00:02:44.599 --> 00:02:46.860 good point. Academics might have neat definitions, 00:02:47.060 --> 00:02:50.120 but in practice, as Ackerman points out, IT pros 00:02:50.120 --> 00:02:52.780 often use LAN more broadly to cover the whole 00:02:52.780 --> 00:02:55.319 network connecting their district sites. OK, 00:02:55.340 --> 00:02:57.620 so we've got these networks growing inside schools 00:02:57.620 --> 00:02:59.900 and then connecting schools together. What's 00:02:59.900 --> 00:03:02.219 the fundamental difference between that network, 00:03:02.419 --> 00:03:04.460 the LAN, and the internet, the big one that's 00:03:04.460 --> 00:03:07.139 sort of out there? The key thing, according to 00:03:07.139 --> 00:03:09.639 Ackerman, really comes down to physical access, 00:03:10.360 --> 00:03:13.530 physical control. devices on the school's land. 00:03:13.810 --> 00:03:16.530 They're physically there, in the building. You 00:03:16.530 --> 00:03:18.849 could, theoretically, walk over and touch the 00:03:18.849 --> 00:03:21.289 server, the cables, the switches. Right, whereas 00:03:21.289 --> 00:03:24.370 internet stuff is... somewhere else entirely, 00:03:24.710 --> 00:03:26.870 not in the school building. Exactly. Internet 00:03:26.870 --> 00:03:30.009 resources are external, outside that immediate 00:03:30.009 --> 00:03:32.650 physical space you control. Makes sense. And 00:03:32.650 --> 00:03:34.789 yeah, the article mentions the server rooms, 00:03:35.030 --> 00:03:38.229 usually locked up tight. Only IT and maybe the 00:03:38.229 --> 00:03:40.969 principal get keys. Precisely. And that physical 00:03:40.969 --> 00:03:44.189 control piece, it affects how you handle security, 00:03:44.389 --> 00:03:47.080 how you manage the network. day to day. Okay, 00:03:47.479 --> 00:03:50.139 but as tech moved on, Ackerman says the lines 00:03:50.139 --> 00:03:52.379 between what the land did and what the internet 00:03:52.379 --> 00:03:55.080 did started getting fuzzy. Yeah, increasingly 00:03:55.080 --> 00:03:57.360 blurry. It became harder to tell where a service 00:03:57.360 --> 00:03:59.599 was actually coming from. He uses the library 00:03:59.599 --> 00:04:02.360 card catalog as an example, which I mean, I remember 00:04:02.360 --> 00:04:04.280 those wooden drawers filled with index cards. 00:04:04.319 --> 00:04:07.139 My undergrad finished around 88 just before everything 00:04:07.139 --> 00:04:09.259 went digital. Right before the big shift. Yeah, 00:04:09.259 --> 00:04:12.599 but when I went back to campus, maybe 1990, they 00:04:12.599 --> 00:04:15.050 were gone. replaced by computer terminals. And 00:04:15.050 --> 00:04:17.189 what's interesting is why they went digital that 00:04:17.189 --> 00:04:20.069 way first. Those library databases were huge, 00:04:20.110 --> 00:04:22.790 right? And tons of people needed to search them 00:04:22.790 --> 00:04:26.149 all the time. So initially it made sense to host 00:04:26.149 --> 00:04:29.350 them locally on a server within the university's 00:04:29.350 --> 00:04:33.230 own LAN. When you searched, your computer sent 00:04:33.230 --> 00:04:36.329 the request across the campus network to a server 00:04:36.329 --> 00:04:38.750 nearby. And there would have been someone, like 00:04:38.750 --> 00:04:41.550 the LAN admin, Physically, they're managing the 00:04:41.550 --> 00:04:44.069 actual machine, the software, keeping that digital 00:04:44.069 --> 00:04:46.050 catalog running. Exactly. Maybe they had to go 00:04:46.050 --> 00:04:48.490 into the library basement, into some server room 00:04:48.490 --> 00:04:51.170 to fix things. OK, contrast that with now. How 00:04:51.170 --> 00:04:53.089 does Ackerman describe the current situation? 00:04:53.490 --> 00:04:56.050 Well, now most of those library catalogs are 00:04:56.050 --> 00:04:58.649 web -based services. schools or universities 00:04:58.649 --> 00:05:01.689 usually pay a company, a vendor, a subscription 00:05:01.689 --> 00:05:04.750 fee. Right. And that vendor hosts the catalog 00:05:04.750 --> 00:05:07.350 software and the data on their servers connected 00:05:07.350 --> 00:05:09.730 to the Internet. The librarians still manage 00:05:09.730 --> 00:05:12.009 the content, what books are listed, the descriptions, 00:05:12.149 --> 00:05:14.730 but the actual hardware that's managed remotely, 00:05:14.889 --> 00:05:17.310 maybe hundreds of miles away. And the article 00:05:17.310 --> 00:05:20.629 says this big change was possible because Internet 00:05:20.629 --> 00:05:22.810 connections got so much better, right? Faster. 00:05:23.149 --> 00:05:25.949 more reliable. Exactly. You could suddenly access 00:05:25.949 --> 00:05:28.470 that data over the internet just as fast, maybe 00:05:28.470 --> 00:05:30.910 faster, than you could over the old local network. 00:05:31.410 --> 00:05:33.310 It's a huge shift when you think about it. Yeah, 00:05:33.550 --> 00:05:35.769 it really is. Were there other reasons for that 00:05:35.769 --> 00:05:38.389 shift? Like, was it cheaper or easier to scale 00:05:38.389 --> 00:05:41.089 up? Oh, absolutely. That's a key part of it. 00:05:41.490 --> 00:05:43.509 Running your own servers for everything, like 00:05:43.509 --> 00:05:47.050 the library catalog, means hardware costs, software 00:05:47.050 --> 00:05:51.000 licenses, stack time. It adds up, outsourcing 00:05:51.000 --> 00:05:53.360 it to a vendor who specializes in that one thing, 00:05:53.779 --> 00:05:56.180 often much more cost -effective. And they handle 00:05:56.180 --> 00:05:58.500 the upgrades, the maintenance. It frees up the 00:05:58.500 --> 00:06:01.740 school's IT team. Plus, it's usually easier to 00:06:01.740 --> 00:06:03.920 scale. If the library adds thousands of books, 00:06:04.259 --> 00:06:06.379 the vendor system can handle it. OK, that makes 00:06:06.379 --> 00:06:08.680 a lot of sense. So better internet made it possible, 00:06:09.120 --> 00:06:10.939 and cost and scalability made it attractive. 00:06:10.959 --> 00:06:14.129 Pretty much. But even... With all these services 00:06:14.129 --> 00:06:17.029 moving to the internet, to the cloud, the article 00:06:17.029 --> 00:06:19.509 stresses that lands are still really fundamental 00:06:19.509 --> 00:06:23.350 in schools. Why is that? If so much is web -based, 00:06:23.769 --> 00:06:26.069 why do we still need the local network? That's 00:06:26.069 --> 00:06:28.490 crucial. Think about everything inside the school 00:06:28.490 --> 00:06:30.410 building that still needs to talk to each other 00:06:30.410 --> 00:06:33.750 quickly and reliably. Like what? Well, printers, 00:06:34.029 --> 00:06:36.699 for one. Interactive whiteboards in classrooms 00:06:36.699 --> 00:06:39.420 often connect locally, maybe internal phone systems, 00:06:39.779 --> 00:06:43.439 security cameras, even things controlling heating 00:06:43.439 --> 00:06:45.500 or lighting sometimes. Right, stuff that needs 00:06:45.500 --> 00:06:48.720 instant response, low latency. Exactly. That 00:06:48.720 --> 00:06:51.439 stuff often still depends heavily on the internal 00:06:51.439 --> 00:06:54.160 school network, the LAN, to work properly. The 00:06:54.160 --> 00:06:56.620 internet's the gateway out. But the land is the 00:06:56.620 --> 00:06:59.120 backbone inside. OK, so pulling this together. 00:06:59.399 --> 00:07:01.379 Land started pretty simple, sharing printers, 00:07:01.560 --> 00:07:03.800 sharing files. Then they grew, connecting whole 00:07:03.800 --> 00:07:06.220 districts, making resource sharing and management 00:07:06.220 --> 00:07:08.639 way more efficient. Right. And even though the 00:07:08.639 --> 00:07:10.560 internet took over hosting a lot of services, 00:07:10.600 --> 00:07:13.740 like that library catalog example. Yeah, a big 00:07:13.740 --> 00:07:16.399 shift. The land itself didn't disappear. It's 00:07:16.399 --> 00:07:18.899 still essential for all that internal communication 00:07:18.899 --> 00:07:21.600 and control within the school. That physical, 00:07:21.819 --> 00:07:25.009 local aspect is still key. Precisely. That local 00:07:25.009 --> 00:07:28.649 control and the need for fast, reliable communication 00:07:28.649 --> 00:07:31.290 within the building or campus, that's still the 00:07:31.290 --> 00:07:34.089 land's domain. This whole deep dive into Ackerman's 00:07:34.089 --> 00:07:36.410 article really shines a light on that hidden 00:07:36.410 --> 00:07:38.529 infrastructure, doesn't it? The stuff that just 00:07:38.529 --> 00:07:40.370 has to work for everything else to happen. It 00:07:40.370 --> 00:07:43.250 really does. And it makes you wonder, OK, as 00:07:43.250 --> 00:07:45.870 even more tools move to the cloud, what happens 00:07:45.870 --> 00:07:48.889 next for the school land and for the IT folks 00:07:48.889 --> 00:07:50.829 managing it? That's the big question, isn't it? 00:07:50.829 --> 00:07:54.579 Yeah. Will their job become even more about managing 00:07:54.579 --> 00:07:57.259 that connection point, that bridge between the 00:07:57.259 --> 00:07:59.600 local network and the wider internet, ensuring 00:07:59.600 --> 00:08:01.759 everything flows smoothly and securely between 00:08:01.759 --> 00:08:04.420 the two? It's definitely something for you, the 00:08:04.420 --> 00:08:07.040 listener, to think about. How does this constant 00:08:07.040 --> 00:08:09.279 evolution change things in your world, whether 00:08:09.279 --> 00:08:11.680 it's education or another field? And if you want 00:08:11.680 --> 00:08:13.360 to explore more, Gary Atterman's written other 00:08:13.360 --> 00:08:16.360 books too. Right, things like technology in schools 00:08:16.360 --> 00:08:20.100 isn't like this in business. Efficacious technology 00:08:20.100 --> 00:08:23.319 management. a guide for school leaders. And technology 00:08:23.319 --> 00:08:26.019 rich teaching. They all offer, you know, deeper 00:08:26.019 --> 00:08:28.379 perspectives on ed tech leadership and how it 00:08:28.379 --> 00:08:29.279 all works in practice.