Learn and live on the move
Enabling mobile education with Windows Vista
Microsoft-supported mobile solutions have always helped schools to realize greater value by providing educators with context, ease-of-use, and a wide choice of mobile experiences. Nonetheless, working away from campus or a school was not always as easy as working directly on your school network. When students, educators, or administrators worked remotely from dorm rooms, coffee shops, or home, they needed constant and immediate access to information, applications, and wireless connectivity—and it wasn't always available.
So to provide the effective technology and productivity tools that mobile and dispersed learners need, institutions are challenged to deploy, maintain, and support mobile and decentralized computers and devices while maintaining a high level of security. By enabling a more secure and seamless way to exchange information, Windows Vista allows mobile members of your learning community to better connect to information, networks, and each other, even when they are transitioning from online to offline.
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Connect, collaborate, and share
The Network and Sharing Center and Network Setup Wizard make it easier to create, configure, and troubleshoot network connections. For example, Windows Vista discovers and sustains connections to wireless networks more easily and securely than ever before.Windows Vista also makes it easier to more securely access documents and programs on a remote computer from across a network or across the Internet from another computer, enabling students and teachers to get their schoolwork done wherever they have an Internet connection.
Windows Vista also makes it easier to more securely access documents and programs on a remote computer from across a network or across the Internet from another computer, enabling students and teachers to get their schoolwork done wherever they have an Internet connection.
Not only does Windows Vista make it easier to get connected, it makes it easier for mobile learners to get work done. To increase your mobile learners' productivity, Windows Meeting Space enables face-to-face, small group collaboration for groups of up to 10 users—on or off the school network. So group projects can move forward even when group members are in different locations! Windows Meeting Space can also be used to project lesson presentations to other Windows Vista PCs. In addition, it allows students and educators to distribute documents and jointly edit them easily and securely.
Experience optimum mobility
Windows Vista is optimized to work especially well on mobile hardware. For example, you can save time configuring your system by using the new Windows Mobility Center to adjust all the most commonly used mobility-oriented controls, such as power plan, brightness, and wireless connection. Improved power management will make your on/off experience more reliable, and PCs will be faster coming in and out of sleep states.
Students and teachers with Tablet PCs running Windows Vista can count on precise and intuitive pen navigation with visual feedback and pen flicks. Also, if touch input is available on their Tablet PC, they can use a finger to do many of the things they now do with a mouse or a tablet pen.
And Windows SideShow in Windows Vista supports a secondary or auxiliary display on the outside of your mobile PC, so you can see your class or meeting schedule, important phone numbers, or recent e-mail messages without opening or turning on your computer.
Manage data synchronization
Windows Vista makes it easier to switch back and forth between being on and off the network. This is particularly true for data synchronization. The more you move around and the more mobile devices you use, the more you rely on synchronization to ensure that your information is current. When you move back and forth between being connected to your school network and working offline, it can be difficult to keep the information on your primary PC, network, and mobile devices synchronized. Sync Center gives users a single place to manage data synchronization between PCs and servers and between PCs and devices. Until now, there has been no easy way to manage these relationships for your learners.
In addition, the Folder Redirection and Offline Files features make keeping files synchronized easier and faster because the service is more reliable and seamless, it offers more granular control, and it is simpler to implement on your school network.
Stay more secure and protected on the go
To help address the security risks of mobile computing, Windows Vista includes the latest wireless security protocols, letting your users more securely connect to WiFi networks. For example, Network Access Protection, when used with the Windows Server "Longhorn" infrastructure, can help ensure that computers—before they can connect to your network—aren't infected with a virus.
Laptop theft is an increasing concern, particularly when your students, administrators, and faculty are handling private information. To help prevent theft of proprietary or sensitive information from lost or stolen mobile PCs, Windows Vista Enterprise delivers Windows BitLocker Drive Encryption, a new hardware-enabled data protection feature.
