Workshop: Connecting Schools to NRENs

The goals of the workshop were information exchange on best practice, discussion of open issues and provision of ideas and guidelines for NRENs that are planning to provide connectivity/services to schools.

The workshop was held on Tuesday, 22nd February 2005 in Amsterdam.

Workshop Report (PDF)
List of attendees

Workshop Programme and Presentations

Session A1, 09:30 - 11:00

Chair: Valentino Cavalli, TERENA

- Robert Symberlist, UKERNA, "Connecting UK Schools to JANET"
- Lino Santos, FCCN, "First (ISDN) and second (ADSL) generation of the Portoguese Schools Network"
- Tomi Dolenc, ARNES, "ARNES Experience - Introducing ICT services to Schools"

Session A2, 11:30 - 13:00

Chair: Robert Symberlist, UKERNA

- Petter Kongshaug, UNINETT, "Experiences in using a NREN to guide and support schools and schools owners"
- Dimitrios Kalogeras, GRNET, "The Greek School Network" (file size 12MB)
- Gabriella Paolini, GARR, "GARR plans and open issues about connecting schools"

Session B1, 14:00 - 15:00

Panel session (technical issues) chaired and introduced by a presentation from Andrew Byrne, HEANet, on the Irish Government's Initiative of Broadband for Schools. Panel members discussed technical issues, including options for connectivity, security, provisoning systems, network management etc.

Other participants: Tomi Dolenc - ARNES, Gabriella Paolini - GARR, Michal Krsek - CESNET, Jean-Marc Uzé - Juniper Networks, Mike McKeown - Cisco Systems

Session B2, 15:30 - 16:30

Panel session (organisational issues) chaired and introduced by a presentation from Per Thorbøll, UNI-C, on the Danish Schoolnet experience and focusing on Connecting Schools and Collaboration between Educational and Research Network. Panel members discussed also strategic issues like why should schools be connected to the NREN, the extent of services to be provided, the business model, organisation and management, resources needed.

Other participants: Tomi Dolenc - ARNES, Peter Jones - Welsh Assembly Government, Tom Lonergan - Irish National Centre for Technology in Education