By Sarah Campbell
scampbell@salisburypost.com
Itís been more than a month since North Hills Christian School installed Fibrant, the cityís fiber-to-the-home utility, and school officials say the technology they are using now is just the tip of the iceberg.
The school launched its tablet PC program at the beginning of the year, providing Hewlett-Packard TouchSmart tablets to all high school students, but Head of School Matt Mitchell said the school hasnít been able use the new technology to its full potential.
ěTeachers and students will begin to unlock the power of the tablet PC as an instrument for learning,î he said.
Josh Houghton, the schoolís director of technology, said the increased bandwidth provided by Fibrant has allowed the school to implement DyKnow, interactive classroom management software.
ěWe wouldnít have been capable of doing that at the slower bandwidth speeds,î he said. ěAnd, we still have bandwidth left over to operate our phones without any issues.î
Mitchell said DyKnow is the ěsignature pieceî to the schoolís tablet PC program.
ěIt provides instant feedback from students,î he said. ěKids can indicate how well they understand it in real time, allowing the teacher to adjust or re-explain.î
DyKnow also allows teachers to make notes throughout class, which are then saved and accessible by students.
ěThey can access it and replay back the days notes,î Houghton said.
The software also features classroom polling, blocking of programs that might distract students from assignments and shared workspaces.
Houghton said the increased bandwidth also allows students to use Skype, free video-conferencing software.
Students used Skype to talk with a missionary in Africa earlier this year, but lag affected the conversation.
ěThe performance now has just skyrocketed,î Houghton said. ěThe goal is going to be trying to partnership with other classes in other countries.
Mitchell said in the future he also hopes to use video-conferencing to connect students to noncredit lectures at Harvard, Yale and MIT.
Teachers will also benefit from the connection speed of 4 megabytes per second.
Another application, RenWeb, will allow students to take tests online, scoring the tests and recording the grade in the teacherís gradebook.
ěOur high school is virtually paperless at this point,î Mitchell said.
Eventually, Houghton said, the entire school may use mobile technology, eliminating the need for students to go to labs for instruction.
ěNow, the skyís kind of the limit as to what we can do,î he said.
Mitchell said a mobile system would allow students to use technology in other subjects such as science and math.
ěWe want to make technology relevant and useful,î he said.

North Hills switched from Deltacom, another Internet-service provider, in favor of Fibrant after being voluntarily annexed into the city limits to be eligible for the fiber-to-the-home utility.
ěPerformance-wise the speeds are many, many times faster,î Houghton said. ěIf you compare what Fibrant offers … itís just worlds apart in price.î
Mitchell called the annexation a ěvery beneficial decision.î
ěWe are very glad we made the decision we made,î he said. ěWeíve just been very pleased.î
North Hills is the first business or school to install Fibrant.
Houghton said almost any issue that has popped up has been resolved within 24 hours.
ěThe bugs have been relatively few,î he said. ěWeíve just had excellent customer service.î
The school will host an open house for the public to tout its new technology initiatives this fall.
Contact reporter Sarah Campbell at 704-797-7683.