Mobile Learning

802.11ac, the emerging standard from the IEEE, is like the movie The Godfather Part II. It takes something great and makes it even better. 802.11ac is a faster and more scalable version of 802.11n. 802.11ac couples the freedom of wireless with the capabilities of Gigabit Ethernet.

Wireless LAN sites will see significant improvements in the number of clients supported by an access point (AP), a better experience for each client, and more available bandwidth for a higher number of parallel video streams. Even when the network is not fully loaded, users see a benefit: their file downloads and email sync happen at low-lag gigabit speeds. Also, device battery life is extended, since the device's Wi-Fi interface can wake up, exchange data with its AP, then revert to dozing that much more quickly.

KF:  Higher education contexts are finding that mobile expectations of network users are outpacing planning strategies at a rate of knots.  If a genuine shift to mobile engagement is going to occur, and if BYOD is going to be the way of the future then universities cannot afford to skimp on the essential infrastructure to accommodate this unfettered access.  Know your standards, know your technology and you'll stand a chance of keeping up with the game, if not actuallly able to stay ahead of it.

Just as remarkable as the power of mobility, over everything from love to learning to global development, is how fast it all happened. It is hard to think of any tool, any instrument, any object in history with which so many developed so close a relationship so quickly as we have with our phones. Not the knife or match, the pen or page. Only money comes close—always at hand, don’t leave home without it. But most of us don’t take a wallet to bed with us, don’t reach for it and check it every few minutes, and however useful money is in pursuit of fame, romance, revolution, it is inert compared with a smart phone—which can replace your wallet now anyway.