Schools around the world are introducing computers in their curriculum as soon as their budgets allows them to do so. Even though computers and the Internet have been proven to improve student engagement across the board, not all schools are able to supply their students with these valuable tools. However, tablets and other smart mobile devices with low prices points are making it possible to provide computers in classrooms. Pleckgate High School, located in the northern outskirts of Blackburn, Lancashire with Darwen in Great Britain, has distributed 1,200 iPad minis with the Meru Education-grade (MEG) Wireless solution and Meru Bonjour Gateway (News - Alert).

The school is a multicultural facility with the goal of instilling success to all of its students no matter what their background. With the addition of the iPad minis, the school will be able to give its students access to the latest technology and the opportunities it provides.

The company providing the wireless network for the school is Meru Networks (News - Alert), a developer of mobile access and virtualized Wi-Fi solutions. Along with Pleckgate, more than 3,000 schools in the UK and Ireland currently use Meru and its Meru Education-grade (MEG) solution.

The MEG Wi-Fi for educational application is designed to work with schools that have 1:1 learning or choose to implement bring-your-own-device (BYOD) policies. It can deliver uninterrupted network for an entire school district with seamless integration.

The platform quickly and securely provisions any device by mapping user or guest access to the IT policies of the district or each individual school automatically. With the company's identity manager software, it is able to map network access in guest management according to those policies.

Besides educational institutions, the MEG platform has been successfully deployed in thousands of environments. The high-density handling capability of the wireless network was deployed in a single day at Pleckgate High School without any glitches.

The company provides software tools for administering the network wireless access across the entire campus including classrooms, libraries, cafeterias, and even sports fields. Once the system is in place, interactive curricula, classroom management, and other online resources can be deployed with blended learning and flipped classrooms, online tests, and engagement of students with interactive learning.

The staff of the school also received iPad minis or iPad2 and a MacBook Air along with a classroom and learning space with Apple (News - Alert) TVs that is managed with Meru Bonjour Gateway.

The goal of this initiative is to convert all of the technology in the school to a mobile platform by eliminating laptops and desktops. With this move the school hopes to increase student-teacher interaction and encourage independent learning.