Journal 1: Computing in the Clouds - NETS V

Our country has been going through a tough economic time. The school systems have felt the impact by being hit with different budget cuts. Finding new ways to continue to keep up with the technology changing world within a budget can be found difficult. Computing in the clouds is one way that students and staff can use technology to enhance their teaching or the students learning while still keeping cost down. The goal of cloud computing is to offer staff and students better computer services at a lower cost than the technology deployment models they are currently using. It would allow them to access work, share files, and work with on-line programs that mimic expensive ones; whiling keeping costs low by working on applications and files located on a local area network, district intranet, or the Internet itself.
Files, tools, and personal applications can be accessed with any computer. Your personal work and files are available to you at any given time when you are at a computer. Access to e-mail, web bookmarks, documents, photo storage and editing, and management systems for teachers can all be retrieved since it is stored on large networks of the Internet. An advantage of this is programs can run faster and be used on less-powerful, and more affordable, computers such as Netbooks. Collaborative work may also be easily shared and edited through applications such as wiki or Google Docs. One fear is that the Internet is not always accessible when working on a computer. Some of the program, such as Google Gears, allow you to work offline and will sync the work once you have reconnected.
How long would it take to transition to cloud computing?
The time it would take to transition to cloud computing would depend on how much information you currently store on your hard drive. Once you start reviewing what programs you currently use and how you store your information and resources, you may be surprised at how much of it is already done in the cloud. Most people use Internet based e-mails instead of hard drive based ones such as Microsoft Outlook. Websites that you have labeled under My Favorites can be easily moved to websites that hold them all such as Delicious. There are a number of on-line photo albums to store and even share your photos like Flickr. These websites make it easy for you to download your photos in bulk. There are also free programs, like Picnik, for those who like photo editing. All of these things can be transferred easily and quickly. Transferring old documents to Google Docs may be the most time consuming task.
How would computing in the clouds benefit a classroom setting?
Switching to cloud computing would allow teaching resources to be at your fingertips. Power point presentations, educational videos, helpful websites, and even gradebooks will all be available to access from your home, classroom, office, or any other computer from an outside location. As a teacher you would always know where to find something. There is no saving and transferring project files trough e-mail or onto or removable disks. Your work would be in a central location and easier to find. Students would also be able to do more collaborative work through Google Docs and other applications.

Johnson, D. (2009). Computing in the clouds. Learning and Leading with Technology, 37(4). Retrieved on February 1, from http://www.iste.org/Content/NavigationMenu/Publications/LL/LLIssues/Volume3720092010/DecemberJanuaryNo4/Computing_in_the_Clouds.htm