Since the start of the Acceptable Use Policy at Stamford High, technology has been more positively effective in classrooms than ever before; but something is missing. In order for students to have the most access, students agree that our own Wi-Fi, designated specifically for us, would be extremely useful. So what’s taking so long?

It has been promised by Principal Manka that Stamford High School will have access to student Wi-Fi sometime this year. On November 23, 2015, Manka had a meeting with Assistant Director of Technology for Stamford Public Schools Jack Chnowski, where he was told that Stamford High has been granted a certain amount of money, 150 Wi-Fi access points and will be going through a complete network change by February 2016. When this network change is made, it is expected that a student Wi-Fi system will also be implemented.

Manka thinks it is important that we realize how far Stamford High has come with respect to technology over the past year. Up until this year, students were not allowed to use their own devices, and now, we have a pilot program for freshmen, where seven teachers use Chromebooks in their classes. In these classes, an experiment was conducted where every student tried accessing a trial Wi-Fi system at the same exact time, to figure out the strength of the connection. The network proved to be strong, as it did not crash.

It is important that when our Wi-Fi system is in place, it is strong, fast and accessible for all.  Manka said, “We are not where we want to be yet, but we weren’t expecting for the Wi-Fi to just….work.”