Caching for education

Introduction
Web content filtering for schools
Return on investment
Education case studies
The CACHEBOX range

Introduction
Today, the Internet provides access to a dizzying array of resources to teachers and students.  Schools around the world depend on online libraries, encyclopedias, forums etc. to enhance the quality of classroom education.  However, demands for access to ‘rich media’ content can overwhelm the available internet bandwidth.

Emerging e-learning packages can put an enormous strain on school networks. For e-learning material to be effectively used in schools, it needs to come from a local sourcethat enables speedy retrieval and delivery of the content.

Rather than purchasing more bandwidth, which can be expensive or in limited supply, you need to look at solutions that help you better manage available bandwidth.  CACHEBOX from ApplianSys is one such solution.

With many students accessing the same site or web resource, content cached from the Internet can deliver a number of immediate benefits:

• Reduces internet bandwidth usage by serving content stored on the LAN
• Faster performance on cached content
• Lessens user-perceived delays and increases user-satisfaction for the service you provide
• Lightens the load on origin servers, saving hardware and support costs
• Reduces the need for additional bandwidth spend
• Supports compliance legislation by logging user requests

Furthermore, CACHEBOX allows you to pre-load the appliance with particular web sites or content from a commercial provider before lessons begin.  When teachers and pupils want to use this content they access it from the LAN and avoid experiencing download delays.

For larger or more complex installations at local education authority level it is possible to connect a series of CACHEBOXes together to improve the efficiency of the service and provide multiple layers of caching.

 

Web content filtering for schools
The Internet can offer many positive educational and social benefits to young people, but unfortunately there are risks too.  Whether knowingly or unknowingly, children and young people are vulnerable and may be exposed to danger when using the Internet in the classroom.

Working closely with teachers and schools, ApplianSys and technology partner E2BN, have created ‘Protex’ - a new service to provide safe access to the Internet.  Designed originally for education, it out-performs commercial web filters in educational use, and gives teachers control over what their students can view.

Benefits at a glance:

• Profile-based filtering means websites are restricted based on students’ class group e.g. 'primary', 'middle' or 'secondary' schools.  'Staff' and 'library' profiles give greater access to teachers or public library users.
• The pre-installed profiles have been subjected to stringent testing and are Becta accredited.  The profiles reduce the need to determine acceptable levels of access when installing the appliance for the first time.
• Emergency controls allow staff to block & unblock sites. Teachers have local control to manage access in their classroom.
• The underlying caching appliance can also support content from leading educational content providers.  In smaller schools, web filtering and multimedia content can be delivered using one device.
• Being a plug-and-play device, little or no configuration is needed.  Furthermore, the user friendly, web-based interface simplifies administration.

 

Return on investment
Investment in CACHEBOX offers a compelling return on investment, based on the potential for:

Direct cost savings

• Reduced initial set-up time
• Reduced ongoing administration time

Bandwidth savings
Calculating bandwidth savings is relatively simple.  Multiply the cost of your monthly internet connection with the byte hit rate you expect at peak load. For example, Leeds Learning Network, an education ISP claimed a hit rate of up to 60% as students generally look at the same content in class.

 

Bandwidth cost calculator
Monthly cost of connection	£5,000
Peak hit rate	60%
Savings in bandwidth cost	£3,000
Annual Savings	£36,000

However, there are many intangible benefits which you can’t measure as easily but can be just as important.  With objects cached locally, content download speeds are drastically increased, resulting in enhanced user productivity and satisfaction in the service you provide.