By Angela Jones
Two activity buses in Patrick County are now equipped with Wi-Fi to give students who stay after school for extracurricular activities a jump completing their assignments.
“Currently children are participating in sports, going to away games and traveling back home, only to get home at such a late hour, and having to stay up to complete homework assignments,” said Darren Biggs, director of technology for Patrick County Schools.
“The Wi-Fi capable activity buses enable children to connect to the Internet during travel, complete assignments and allow for them to return home and not have to stay up until early morning to complete their assignments,” he said.
There currently are two activity buses with Wi-Fi installed; one is the Cougar bus and the other is Bus 55, Biggs said. Two additional activity buses soon will have the Wi-Fi connection, for a total of four.
“This is just a pilot” program, Biggs said, “and so far, the children have given really good feedback.”
Biggs said the school board’s technology budget is funding the current upgrades. The board allowed a limited data plan to be used during the launch of the pilot program, and per daily allotment of data is provided. The total cost averages $840 per bus, totaling $3360, which includes the router and limited data plan.
“A few days ago, we actually reached our daily data limit, which hasn’t been done before, ” Biggs said. “A reevaluation of our data plan, may have to be looked into in the future.”
Concerned parents who closely monitor their youngster’s Internet usage may wonder how the new bus access will impact their child, but YouTube, Facebook and other social media sites cannot be accessed, Biggs said, adding that the “Wi-Fi can only be connected to the Chromebooks provided to the student.
As always, safety is our number one concern.”
The buses that are Wi-Fi enabled have a built-in Global Positioning System (GPS), Biggs said, adding that the transportation director can log into the system at any time to view where the buses are and in situations where cell phone coverage is unavailable, the bus driver can log in, connect to Wi-Fi and place a call. This can be done because of the type of antenna used for the Wi-Fi, Biggs said.
The Wi-Fi access currently offered on activity buses is provided by Verizon. The coverage is sufficient for travel to away games. However, within the Blue Ridge one issue has been reported with the internet connectivity dropping.
The idea of implementing Wi-Fi on all buses may be considered in the future, but it will require more technological advancements and economical options for providing the coverage, he said.
For the Wi-Fi to be placed on all buses, it must be economically available to everyone, and there are parts of Meadows of Dan, Woolwine, and Spoon Creek that do not have coverage, he added.
