Cloud Computing as an Educational Resource
Cloud computing, virtualization, and ‘green’ data centers have been on the lips of the information technology media for quite some time. Some of the most notable areas taking advantage of cloud systems include Amazon, Google, AT&T, Oracle, Booz Allen, Novell, and Cisco to name a few. As other corporate sectors utilize virtualization technology, one area perfectly suited for the beneficial rewards of clouds and virtualization is education.
Many students, working professionals already multitasking beyond the normal workday structure, and departments not willing to disrupt the workday moving large groups of staff to a distant location are some of the possibilities who would discover and welcome the assistance of cloud education. Everyone connecting to the course material of their choice, from any location with any Internet ready device, any hour of the day or night. A busy professional with a small available slice of time could study during the day at one location, and resume their courses from home later that night. Mobile, traveling or remote users could spend times of convenience catching up on their lesson plans. Group collaboration, online teaching resources, brainstorming, article writing, and personal uses, such as keeping in touch with family and friends through photo sharing, the possibilities are endless.
Teachers would have an entire repository of materials to utilize and support their curriculums, and students would have the advantage of course abundance, diversity, and student collaboration. Schools benefit greatly by introducing innovation and the use of a technology with a small investment, without the need of a large enterprise infrastructure. One good example would be a school using the Gmail service of Google. All of the students receive email, the process is easy to implement, and cost is minimal. Whenever peak times occur, the cloud service increases the power or storage, and cloud supplies can be reduced when usage drops to lower levels. The school provinces are free of the purchasing, management and support of the cloud, only using the service as needed.
This does not mean the cloud has reached perfection. There are issues that should be understood before venturing forth. With a clear cut awareness of how the cloud will be used, procedures of usage, and risk management policies in place, the cloud can become a viable entity to provide fascinating educational experiences.
Some of the issues to keep in mind include the availability of service. Cloud services are not a guaranteed ‘always available, always on’ provision. Sometimes they are operated by start-up firms, other times the service may stop altogether because the provided decided it was not a practical, profitable venture. One important topic to think about is the conditions and term of agreement. Intellectual property rights may belong to the cloud service. Course materials legally owned by schools may have difficulty in giving up their content rights, or may come in conflict with the provider.
Two vital areas educational facilities should be aware of are privacy configurations and security. Student information is very private and should remain contained. With default configuration settings, cloud content containing information of a sensitive nature can easily become public.
Every computing system should keep a good, reliable set of backup files, and clouds are no different. A school system would have to create their own set in case of cloud downtime, and to retrieve and restore lost data in case of unfortunate circumstances. Any service infringement on the part of the school could cause the cloud provider to adjourn or deny services. Getting in touch with provider administrators and clearing any issues could be a lengthy amount of time without the service until the issues are cleared to satisfaction.
Another issue to think about is the actual content to be used within the cloud, from the provider in the form of advertising, and the school system’s content. It should be understood all policies of content type is cleared and granted permission. Do understand that many heavy hitters in the IT sector are using cloud computing, such as Microsoft, Google, Amazon Web Services and others. As the technology and utilization becomes more prevalent and popular, information management will dictate a change in how the cloud technology is put into play. Since a cloud can be accessed with any stable browser, educational systems will not have to install any software or handle revisions and upkeep. With data and related non-private software applications online, the school will only need to provide the always-connected experience, a factor already in force. Private information including administrative school departments, human resources, the financial department to name a few, will retain their services within the school itself.
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