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National education network

The National Education Network (NEN) connects schools and content and service providers to REANNZ's network to enhance the use of technology and ultra-fast broadband to deliver great learning outcomes.

About the National Education Network

A National Education Network (NEN) is a dedicated education network that connects schools directly to a range of service providers in New Zealand and internationally. A NEN would give schools access to a range of education-related content and services via ultra-fast broadband. Improved learning would be the focus of a NEN, based on the underlying principles of participation, engagement, content creation and sharing.

Similar initiatives that leverage the infrastructure, experience and capabilities of the National Research and Education Network (NREN) for the benefit of schools are also taking place through the UK's National Education Network and Internet2's K20 Initiative.

Since 2008, REANNZ has been operating a trial of a National Education Network for schools on behalf of the Ministry of Education.

NEN findings: Schools backbone network

In November 2010, the Ministry of Education released an RFI about the provision of a Managed Ultra-fast Broadband Network and Managed Network Services for schools. REANNZ's network is designed to be neutral, open and collaborative, and is not a managed network as asked for in this RFI.

To support supplier community responses to this RFI, REANNZ produced a school network backbone information pack that contains relevant architecture, operational and commercial standards and information.

Status of the NEN trial

In early 2008, REANNZ began work on Phase 1 of the NEN trial. The purpose of this phase was to understand and quantify the cost and technical issues and options for schools to connect to our network. The NEN Phase 1 page on REANNZ's wiki provides information on the goals and findings of the project.

Phase 2 (begun in mid 2008) expanded the NEN from a concept to a reality. During this phase, REANNZ connected 23 schools and a number of content and service providers to our network, to test the architecture developed in Phase 1 and explore some of the pedagogical benefits of ultra-fast broadband. The NEN Phase 2 page on the REANNZ's wiki provides information on the participating schools and links to the project evalution reports.

Kicked off in 2009, the current phase, Phase 3 - NEN trial extension, expanded the trial to more schools and added further content and service providers.

Services on the NEN

The benefits of being on the trial NEN are to enable schools to access a range of content and services over ultra-fast broadband. Wherever possible, connections to and from trial schools will pass over our network, avoiding public Internet usage charges and eliminating any bandwidth restrictions.

During the original trial, schools discovered they could better manage their Internet bills by accessing learning resources over our network. Interviews with the members of this trial are on the REANNZ's YouTube channel.

All schools that have become our members can access the following content and services over the network that were secured as part of the NEN trial:

Ministry services provided for free

Services offered on a commercial basis

  • eTV - live streaming video and on-demand programmes
  • Moodle - learning management system
  • Knowledge NET - learning management system
  • Ultranet - learning management system

These services are provided by REANNZ's partners. Contact our partners to arrange access to the paid-for services.

Check out the NEN wiki page for links to more content available over our network.

Joining the NEN

All schools that are part of the formal Ministry of Education funded NEN trial have now been selected. However, if your school is outside the scope of the current trial extension, you can still join us by becoming an Associate Member. This means you can benefit from all the content and services available over our network, but you will need to take full responsibility for all costs of the connection as well as the membership fee.

Work though our Membership information to find out how to join.

Schools IPv4 Address Allocation

REANNZ was given control of the Kawahiko block of IPv4 addresses for allocation to New Zealand Schools that are connected to our network. The address space has been allocated in a hierachical fashion, according to the topology of the network, is required to comply with the Internet communities aggregation goal. You can find more information here (PDF).

Design considerations for School clusters

REANNZ has documented learnings from the development of a simple and repeatable School Cluster high-level design, based on the learnings made as a result of the NEN Trial, in support of the fundamental principles of our network and on designs agreed with the Ministry of Education.

The design concept involves considering the School Cluster as the distributed campus of a single logical entity for the purpose of delivering shared IT services from a variety of Suppliers.

Read the full School Cluster high-level design (PDF) report to obtain a detailed understanding on how to connect.

Contact

For any inquiries about REANNZ's role in this project or for school membership, contact Andrea Jones at:
andrea.jones@reannz.co.nz
cell: +64 21 288 0933
ddi: +64 4 913 6362

 



by Dr. Radut.