Excellent teamwork was demonstrated yesterday when groups of Year 10 and 12 students worked brilliantly together to connect a data rack.
CNet Instructor Andy Reeves spent a day working with the students as part of ALET’s Digital Futures Programme.
The students got hands on, working on ‘racking, stacking, powering and patching’ a real data rack as used in real data centres. Data racks are a type of physical steel and electronic framework designed to house servers, networking devices, cables and other data centre computing equipment.
Before they set to work however, Andy set a bit of background – establishing the students knew what a data was (a physical facility that houses IT infrastructure for building, running and delivering applications and services), how and what connects to a data centre (anything from smartphones to vehicles to health wearable devices) and how global connectivity is important.
In a task designed to show how far communications have come, Andy went old school, asking the students to look up a business from an old Yellow Pages, a person from The Phone Book and find a location on map – tasks that literally take seconds these days with a device. The students were perplexed with the pair of working rotary dial phones Andy had a brought with him, not really knowing how to make a call or hang up!
After the theory came the practical – setting about populating and connecting a data rack using cable management.
“We’re just covering the fundamentals of a data centre,” said Andy. “The racking, stacking, powering and patching. It’s fantastic to see they all got stuck in, quickly formed little teams and started getting the kit in and patching it up.”
Andy pointed out how valuable it is to students to have this hands-on experience.
“So often we put people in classrooms, with a PowerPoint on. By getting up off the desks and getting into a rack, I think it reinforces the learning in a different way that sticks.”
Student feedback was positive, with one student saying: “It was enjoyable and put some of my studies into a tangible context.”
Bringing the practical and theory together at the end in a summary, the students could then see how, when they connect, they are interacting with a piece of equipment, in a rack, in a data centre, in a country, from their device every time.
- CNet is a Trust Partner of ALET UTCs, supporting the development and delivery of the Digital Futures Programme, which gives young people the opportunity to gain the skills and knowledge required to pursue a career in the digital infrastructure industry.
Learn more about the Digital Futures Programme.