The Foothills School Division has approved just under $930,000 to upgrade their wireless internet and smartboards this year. Assistant Superintendent of Corporate Services Drew Chipman says their wireless capabilities will be greatly improved.

"We are excited about improving switches and improving our wireless access. Speed will be vastly improved. Students will notice an improvement in our schools when they're signing on with their individual either smartphones or their chrome books or their laptops. They'll have better access, quicker access."

He says the board is excited to start making these changes.

"Really, the new switches are 1GB switches versus 100MB, so that's ten times the speed. So that'll be certainly an improvement. The wireless access point enable more individuals to get on, so you won't have that piece where it's already fully booked. So that's a big part of it."

Chipman says a number of smartboards and projectors are at the end of their life cycle, and the money will allow the division to replace obsolete pieces and give them a leg up to improve their technology in time. The school board has authorized just over $2,000,000 for improvements over the next five years. Chipman says the upgrades will improve the student learning experience throughout the school day.

"We see it as a seamless thing, that students can get improved work during the class-time and when they're on lunch or on spare or doing that other work, they'll be able to have that improved access. We see this as very beneficial from the wireless standpoint. Obviously the projectors and the smartboards, that's in-class instruction that's really going to be affected by that."

Chipman says many of the changes should happen before the end of the school year.