What’s a “Fizzbook Spin”?
The Intel Fizzbook Spin is a purpose-built netbook based on 1:1 Computing initiatives, which envisions every student having a laptop. The Fizzbook Spin was designed with the primary/ secondary education environment in mind, and is a simple, robust solution with built-in 802.11 b/g/n wireless connectivity.
The Fizzbook Spin enables young students to do research on the Internet, share their work with other students, upload their homework to their teacher, or even record a movie. Its screen can also be rotated and flipped over to become a touch-screen tablet.
How The Fizzbook Spin Transforms Education
Before netbooks, ensuring student access to online resources meant a significant infrastructure investment, either fixed desktops wired into a computer lab or a mobile cart loaded with laptops that moved from classroom to classroom, but could only support a limited number of students at one time. The Intel Fizzbook Spin changes the paradigm completely by allowing every student to leverage a suite of online education resources from their own laptop.
The factors that make the Intel Fizzbook Spin a compelling solution for primary/secondary education include:
- Tough and Cost-Effective: An ultra-compact, affordable, easy-to-carry laptop with durable, drop-proof construction, water-resistant keyboard, and a carrying handle, the Fizzbook Spin is well adapted to the rigors of institutional use. Specialized anti-theft software can be used to ensure that the Fizzbook Spin doesn’t wander off campus or get into the wrong hands.
- Flexibility: Allows classroom teachers to make presentations, guide student’s access to the Internet, deliver specific controlled content and interact individually with students and parents in giving tests or providing feedback.
- Teamwork: Facilitates collaboration with fellow students/teachers on campus, and throughout the community, facilitating the creation of group activities.
- Streamlined Administration: Enables classroom teachers to monitor attendance, prepare lessons, administer tests, control computer-induced distraction and provide feedback on students to management and parents.
The Fizzbook Spin in the Wireless Classroom
The Fizzbook Spin lacks many of the features of a sophisticated office professional’s notebook. There is limited local storage, no high performance, or multi-tasking capabilities. The Fizzbook Spin is primarily intended as a cloud device that accesses resources over a wireless network. It is not a standalone device.
The quality of the wireless network deployed to support the Fizzbook Spin is therefore crucial to its success. Not all wireless LAN (WLAN) systems are equal, and choosing the right network is essential. The whole idea of 1:1 Computing is effectively negated if every student has a laptop, but only a few are able to log in simultaneously; or once logged, on experience slow network speeds or frequent lost connections.
More and more, educational institutions are looking to an Extricom WLAN solution to make their wireless networking goals achievable.
Helping the Learning Solution Work: The Extricom Difference
It seems obvious that for wireless access to be effective in a classroom, 30 or 40 users should be able to log on at the same time and access the same online resources with reasonable performance. Traditional WLANs handle this scenario poorly, however, and can even become unstable when there are high levels of wireless traffic. This is because the system’s uncoordinated APs generate co-channel interference for each other, resulting in collisions and retransmissions, creating even more wireless traffic, leading to frustrating delays, and sometimes total system failure.
Extricom’s patented Channel Blanket architecture avoids these problems, delivering both coverage and capacity at full performance. The Wireless LAN is accessible anywhere on campus, remains stable under heavy load, and is available to every user who needs to access the system. Inside the Channel Blanket, all access points transmit on the same channel, and transmissions are centrally coordinated by the switch, rather than each individual AP. The resulting blankets of wireless coverage provide robust, resilient wireless connectivity.
An Extricom system allows APs to be placed without worrying about overlapping coverage from adjacent APs, and in densities that traditional wireless systems would not tolerate. Retransmissions are minimized, allowing the WLAN to function as efficiently as possible. This ultimately translates to the best possible throughput and performance for large numbers of users.
Extricom is the perfect choice for WLAN infrastructure that supports the Fizzbook Spin and other 1:1 Computing environments.
Features and Benefits
- Simpler Design and Maintenance: Extricom WLAN reduces the complexity of RF surveys and cell planning. All APs use the same channel in the Channel Blanket architecture, can be placed where needed for best coverage, and do not require configuration. The Extricom Wireless LAN Switch coordinates the connected APs to eliminate co-channel interference.
- Robust Connectivity: With every AP on the same channel, the Extricom switch receives multiple copies of each client transmission and uses only the best AP to transmit the reply, making the system highly resilient to RF interference.
- Multiplied Capacity: Extricom WLAN greatly enhances capacity by permitting frequency reuse at high AP densities and avoiding co-channel interference.
- Designed for 802.11n: Extricom switches and APs are 802.11n Draft 2 compliant, and the Extricom Channel Blanket Architecture is a perfect match for the unpredictable coverage patterns of 802.11n APs. This means the full power of
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