Wireless Internet in Minnesota high schools: How much?

The cafe that fails to provide wireless Internet access risks the anger of customers who buy coffee just to work online. College campuses are strewn with undergraduates tapping away at keyboards in student centers and, increasingly, lecture halls.

That's not the norm at Minnesota high schools -- at least not yet. Despite the rise of the college laptop and the typical teenager's comfort with computers, some schools are just beginning to make short-range wireless Internet readily available to students with personal laptops.

At some high schools, such as Eastview and Eagan in the Rosemount-Apple Valley-Eagan district, administrators are exploring ways to open up school networks at a time when laptops and other Web gadgets are getting smaller, cheaper and more powerful. But many metro-area school leaders say students either can't afford laptops or aren't demanding access, and some say the obstacles to letting outside computers on school wireless networks are too great.

"It isn't something that we don't want to allow. It's something that, right now, we don't feel we can allow," said Greg Utecht, the Lakeville school district's technology coordinator.

Lakeville schools don't let outside computers connect to district equipment or networks, a rule made a few years ago because administrators didn't have the system configured so they could be sure they were blocking viruses, Utecht said. Plus, even internal wireless access is very limited in most of the district's schools, he said.

Still, some principals report that more kids are showing up with laptops -- not to mention netbooks, iPod Touches and ever-fancier cell phones.

At Eastview High School in Apple Valley, a growing number of students already use laptops at school, said Rob Franchino, an assistant principal. Like cell phones and other gadgets, they're allowed in class, but only for approved educational purposes. "If you have [a laptop] in class and you're typing notes, fine," he said. "If you have it in class and you're playing a game, not fine."

Students at Eastview don't have wireless Internet access with their own computers, but the school might change that this fall with a pilot program for about 150 students, Franchino said. Teachers in the program would invite -- but not require -- their students to bring laptops to class to take notes, do research and complete some assignments online.

Students who don't own laptops could use school computers, and Eastview is talking to businesses about setting up discounts for students who want to buy their own, Franchino said.

Testing it out in Eagan

Because many parents and districts struggle with the expense of buying computers for their students, several administrators said it's more difficult for K-12 schools to weave personal laptops into student life the way that many colleges have.

Still, many schools already use wireless Internet for a variety of classroom activities. At Eagan High School, world language teachers can even ask students to record their own voices or listen to foreign-language concerts online using a set of classroom iPods.

Prior Lake High School has an open wireless network that runs through school filters, but principal Dave Lund said he still discourages students from bringing laptops from home. That's partly because kids tend to leave them unsecured, "and then we have thefts."

Students already have plenty of access to computer labs, he said. "In the two years I've been here, I have not had a student complain to me that they needed to get to a computer and they haven't been able to."

When Edina High School began allowing students to register for wireless Internet last year, about 50 students signed up, said principal Bruce Locklear. "The interest was not as high as I had hoped or expected," he said, adding that he believes more students have signed up this fall for the short training that the school requires before they can get access.

Stillwater Area High School, by contrast, has had a student wireless network for about four years. The school has more than 400 family-owned devices registered on the system, said district technology coordinator Mike Dronen.

School officials in several districts said it's difficult to isolate the cost of creating guest or student networks, and some add the feature only when they're making broader wireless upgrades. But for many districts, "It comes down to cost," said Edward Heier, technology coordinator for the Rosemount-Apple Valley-Eagan school district. "With a coffee shop, it's a pretty small group. ... At a high school, you've got 2,000 students with potentially 2,000 devices."

Still, some point out that a growing number of students own phones and other gadgets that can get online at school via external 3G cell phone networks, whether the adults like it or not.

As Eastview's Franchino said, "Students are walking into our schools with the Internet in their pockets."