After a successful trial in Prosser, Pasco School District officials recently took a tour on a school bus outfitted to be a WiFi hotspot!

In 2008, Educational Service Disctrict 123, which serves 23 school districts in southeast Washington, converted to entirely wireless school board meetings. Now, after an idea from Superintendent Bruce Hawkins last year, school officials took a trip on April 25 on a WiFi school bus.

Prosser School District, which first tried the pilot program with help from Cradlepoint, Verizon Wireless, Premiere Wireless and DeplyNet, loaned one of their buses to Pasco for the test. Prosser plans to outfit the rest of their fleet at the end of the pilot program;  Pasco appears to be poised to join the field.

According to information released by ESD 123, it will serve various purposes:

Athletic trips, long daily commutes for rural students, and other activities now provide the possibility of extended instructional time for students.

Students will be able to work on projects utilizing the technology. ESD 123 did not go into significant detail about what filters, restrictions or firewalls will be built into the system, but we are sure a number of students will immediately attempt to fire up a session of Modern Warfare on their next road trip once the system is up and running.

Nonetheless, a remarkable step forward for educational technology! WiFi school buses! Who knew?

Prosser WiFi bus
(Courtesy Educational Service District 123)
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