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Adam Maguire looks into the knowledge economy and the high-speed internet that is vital for it to thrive in education

If the so-called knowledge economy is to thrive then high-speed broadband in the country's education facilities is vital, especially for those that are in remote locations. The Letterfrack campus of the Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology (GMIT) is one college that is now benefiting from this kind of super-fast connectivity.

Letterfrack is one of five campuses that make up GMIT and, located near the West coast, it is probably its most remote. Despite this potential impairment the college has developed a strong reputation over the years in high-quality furniture design and training; an expertise that stems from a programme established in the 80's to give potential emigrants other options.

As with all design subjects, however, technology has become a lot more important in recent years with the process becoming increasingly digitised. While it is still vital that students have the traditional skills, being extremely computer literate is now equally important.

"An awful lot of what we do throughout the programmes are IT-based so we're trying to give the students skills that will equip them for our industry and other industries," says Diarmuid O'Donovan, head of department at the Letterfrack campus. "A lot of the tools used now use [Computer Aided Design] which also feeds into computer aided manufacturing so an awful lot of what we do from second year onwards involves sitting in front of computers and designing."

This move to digital, along with the generally evolving needs of the college and its students, means an old-fashioned communications infrastructure is no longer fit for purpose. Large files need to be transferred and instant access to multi-media facilities and online resources are key in keeping courses at the cutting edge of their field.

With just a 1Mbps connection coming into the college until recently, Mr O'Donovan said students found it increasingly hard to do even the simplest of things online. Staff were equally limited in what they could do, with back-office programmes taking up most of the bandwidth that could otherwise been used for more innovative teaching methods.

That changed in October 2008 when Airspeed Telecom installed a 100Mbps line in Letterfrack, significantly boosting the bandwidth available to the campus. The high-speed line is one of many Airspeed Telecom have deployed in recent times as part of a number of deals with HEAnet, the cross-college organisation that looks after the networks of third level institutes.

For Letterfrack the first and most obvious benefit was in terms of cost, "From a departmental level there's certainly a saving on our annual budget," said Mr O'Donovan. "We've also set up VoIP in the college to replace the phones and there's an additional saving in the cost that would have been incurred by staff having to travel out where they can now do the work online."

Not only did the college save when it came to its calls, however, the high speed link also allowed them to cut general staffing costs.

Due to the specialised nature of its courses it would be a regular occurrence for guest experts to be invited to deliver lectures at Letterfrack, which would involve the college paying for their week-long stay and treating them as part-time staff for the duration.

Now the college can instead have these lectures held live through video conferencing, and the same technology has also made cross-college communication simpler for staff.

"Because we're obviously attached to GMIT a lot of the policies are driven through the main institutions and fed out to us," said Mr O'Donovan. "I as a manager would take an active role in policy decisions but I would normally be required to go in once every two weeks to meetings [on other campuses].

"The hope is that more and more they will take place in locations where video conferencing would be possible and three times already this year we have used this facility."

While these kinds of savings are obviously welcome Mr O'Donovan feels the real benefit that comes from their high-speed link is the opportunities it creates for the college itself as well as staff and students.

"We're doing a lot of work at the moment collaborating with Virginia Tech University in the States and we're trying to negotiate on a number of collaborations with them," he said. "One of the key things is that the Americans would be big into video-conferencing, far more than us, and to have these facilities available to us now makes us a viable partner for any other college too."

On a more local level the college has also deployed a WiFi network across the campus, something which Mr Donovan said was vital to an increasingly laptop-dependent student population. This network has also given new life to the campus's library, with students using it as a place to work and research once again. Students are also able to do things like liaise with their teachers remotely, where in the past they were forced to return to the college to give presentations on their work placements which took place all across the country.

For staff the facilities they have at their disposal have also improved dramatically. The college is now deploying interactive whiteboards and in-class cameras to improve the teacher-training course. A study is also being conducted into distance learning which will open up the subjects there to a wide range of people who might be unable to re-locate for the standard courses.

"This would never have been possible up until last year." said Mr O'Donovan "The tools are all there, it's just a matter of us getting used to them and using them to their full potential."

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