Learning in the Clouds

Unfortunately, the field of education can often be one of the last to keep up with trends, especially as far as the fast paced world of technology is concerned.  America’s education system is historically underfunded which makes large resource investments close to impossible.  In addition to this, any sort of policy change or new idea adoption can have many bureaucratic hurdles to overcome to see the light of day.  Teachers unions and teachers themselves can also be resistant to new innovations that technology brings about. These obstacles contribute to what seems like the snails pace of education technology, or edtech as it is commonly called.  Can cloud computing solve this problem? Probably not.  Is it a step in the right direction? Absolutely!

If you are an educator or work in the field of education and you stumbled across this article, we would like to direct you to a great explanation of cloud computing, The Cloud Simplified.  This article explains cloud computing in a simple and easy to understand manner, if you are not familiar with the concept already.  In a nutshell this excerpt explains cloud computing nicely:

The easiest way to understand the cloud is to think of it as a utility, like electricity. When you plug a device into a wall outlet, electricity flows. You didn't generate the electricity yourself. In fact, you probably have no idea where the electricity was generated. It's just there when you want it. All you care about is that your device works.

Cloud computing works on the same principle. Through an Internet connection (the equivalent of an electrical outlet), you can access whatever applications, files, or data you have opted to store in the cloud--anytime, anywhere, from any device. How it gets to you and where it's stored are not your concern.

As far as education is concerned, there are some specific benefits cloud technology can offer. Schools that use the cloud as a platform for their systems enjoy the benefit of browser-based access.  This simply means that students, faculty, and staff can access educational and administrative tools from any place they have access to the Internet.  Cloud technology can also decrease the amount of financial resources educational entities spend on Information and Communication Technology (ICT).  Programs and hardware are no longer maintained by a school’s ICT staff with the cloud; the cloud service provider takes care of this type of maintenance.  In addition, several cloud service providers offer subscription based pricing, so schools are only paying for what they need and use.

Given what several recent studies have found, it looks like educational institutions are seeing the benefits of the cloud and adopting cloud technology.  As of 2011, 27% of primary and secondary school level ICT professionals are working with cloud technology and an even higher 34% are working with cloud solutions at the college or university level.  With the average ICT savings in educational institutions using cloud solutions being reported as 21%, we predict that cloud technology will continue to grow and become a lot more popular in education in the near future.