HP's mobile technology cuts loose at Alberta: Edmonton's NAIT forestry students use HP's mobile technology for field work and real-time mapping.As one of Canada's largest technical institutes, the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology The Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT) is located in Edmonton, Alberta. NAIT (as it is more commonly called) provides technical training and applied education designed to meet the demands of Alberta's industries. (NAIT NAIT Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (Edmonton, Alberta, Canada) NAIT National Association of Industrial Technology NAIT Neonatal Alloimmune Thrombocytopenia (platelet equivalent of HDN blood bank) ) in Edmonton, Alberta, is all about using the latest technology to support the education of a highly mobile student body and the administrative tasks of a large, growing institute. "The typical approach in education is to go to the marketplace with a tender and look for the lowest price you can find," says Sandi Barber, Mobile Learning Project Manager within NAIT's Technology and Curriculum Innovation area. "The problem is that you end up with a fractured approach to your IT [system] and the purchase price is small compared to what it costs to maintain your system." Costs aside, the commitment to increased mobility is providing access to the information and applications students need and save physical space for more value-added activities such as seminars and interactive labs. An early example of that mobility is NAIT'S two-year forest technology program with HP's wireless-enabled PCs. "We went wireless because our students do a lot of fieldwork," says NAIT's Sherril Cossey. "We thought the wireless and peer-to-peer network (1) A network of computers configured to allow certain files and folders to be shared with everyone or with selected users. Peer-to-peer networks are quite common in small offices that do not use a dedicated file server. would be terrific for us." She's right. Students use HP iPAQ Pocket PCs to download data from their instructor, record data in the field, produce maps and find their way in the forest using global positioning system Global Positioning System: see navigation satellite. Global Positioning System (GPS) Precise satellite-based navigation and location system originally developed for U.S. military use. and geographic information system geographic information system (GIS) Computerized system that relates and displays data collected from a geographic entity in the form of a map. The ability of GIS to overlay existing data with new information and display it in colour on a computer screen is used primarily to software and for real-time mapping. That benefit is a result of the solution to one of the key challenges NAIT administrators faced: A cohesive IT plan and a partner like HP that could provide all of NAIT's IT needs. They also wanted a technology partner that could match NAIT's vision for mobile computing Using a computing device while in transit. Mobile computing implies wireless transmission, but wireless transmission does not necessarily imply mobile computing. Fixed wireless applications use satellites, radio systems and lasers to transmit between permanent objects such as buildings . "We have a plan and vision for all of our students to be connected [to NAIT] by 2005 with their own computing device. We need them to be able to access their grades, their digital curriculum and a whole range of services," she says. |
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