Cloud-based computing

Monday, March 16th 2009 by Wes Fryer
Posts Wes Fryer

Cloud-based computing is a major educational technology trend to watch in the next two to three years, according to the recently released K-12 Horizon Report by the New Media Consortium (NMC). Representatives from NMC presented the report at the 2009 COSN conference last week in Austin, Texas. According to today’s English Wikipedia:

Cloud computing is Internet (”cloud”) based development and use of computer technology (”computing”). It is a style of computing in which dynamically scalable and often virtualised resources are provided as a service over the Internet. Users need not have knowledge of, expertise in, or control over the technology infrastructure “in the cloud” that supports them.

Google’s web services epitomize cloud-based computing. Rather than saving files on a local hard drive, Google Documents, Google Notebook entries, and Google Videos (including YouTube videos) are saved on vast, distributed “server farms” located around the world. Unlike Zoho’s suite of web-based productivity applications, which can be configured for file storage on your school district or other organization’s server hard drives, Google requires all users to store files on THEIR servers.

One of the vendors at the 2009 COSN conference who entirely embraces the cloud-based computing model is Stoneware Inc. The company’s webpage on cloud computing describes the historical evolution of computing platforms from the mainframe era, to the client/server era ushered in by the personal computer, to our emerging era of cloud-based computing defined by a proliferation of devices (many of them mobile/portable) which are capable of accessing web-hosted resources located “in the cloud.”

Technology trends are notoriously difficult to predict with absolute precision, but it seems highly likely (according to the NMC in their 2009 K12 Horizon Report) that cloud-based computing is here to stay. People want access to their data and their network both on their desktop/laptop computers as well as on their mobile devices. People want access at school or work, and also at home or on the go. How will your school district meet these user demands and needs? If you do not already have a plan in place to embrace cloud-based computing in your long range technology plan, it’s time to dust it off and make some revisions. According to the authors of the 2009 K12 Horizon Report:

Cloud-based applications can provide students and teachers with free or low-cost alternatives to expensive, proprietary productivity tools. Schools are beginning to take advantage of ready-made applications hosted on a dynamic, ever-expanding cloud that enable end users to perform tasks that have traditionally required site licensing, installation, and maintenance of individual software packages. Email, word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, collaboration, media editing, and more can all be done inside a web browser, while the software and files are housed in the cloud.

Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) will continue to be a watch-word as the economic recession continues and school leaders are forced (most likely) to make cuts in programs and staffing. Individual client workstations and desktops ARE costly as well as time-consuming to maintain. By embracing an organizational communication and collaboration strategy focused on cloud computing, the most forward-thinking schools will address TCO concerns more effectively than they did in the past era of client/server computing and simultaneously equip constituents with robust collaboration capabilities accessible from home, work, or anywhere in between on a variety of mobile/portable devices.

The use of Google Documents has revolutionized the way I create and share documents, spreadsheets, as well as web-based forms. Are cloud-based computing applications changing the way you process and communicate information on a daily basis? How is your school organization embracing the robust capabilities of cloud-based computing?

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8 Comments

Sheri Edwards

Monday, 16th March 2009 at 11:53 pm
 

In order to use my old computers efficiently, I need students to be able to work on projects from any computer in the classroom — or in the library or lab. To accomplish this, we use wikis and google docs for our word processing and collaborating. Diigo notes/bookmarks help with research and also feedback. Blogs and Voicethread are our publishing venue. We’ll probably move to online photo-editing also. My students can’t afford computers — we learn together at school. My student reporters will use google forms for surveys, wikis for draft/feedback, and a blog and voicethread for presentation/publication to share the news and views at school. They are mentored by a preservice teacher from U of Regina through her blog and our wiki.. Another preservice teacher from U or R is a photographer and shares on her blog photo strategies and lessons with one of my classes who learn about photo-essays. Another class collaborate through wikis, Mapskip, and Skype with a class across the country. Despite old computers and intermittent Internet service (we’re trying to figure that out), we’re able to apply writing skills, media literacy, and responsible use while working with others across the country. It’s a small start, and all possible through online computing in the cloud.

Cheryl Doig

Tuesday, 17th March 2009 at 12:28 am
 

I agree that cloud computing is the way of the future. I find googledocs really useful, although still not as powerful as they will become. They can be a little clunky and difficult to manipulate but I love using these tools for collaborative projects and seeing things change before my eyes as others contribute to the same material.
What do you think about the trust we have in the web-hosted resources? What safeguards (if any) do we need to protect our information, or to ensure it doesn’t disappear!

Joe Corbett

Tuesday, 17th March 2009 at 2:00 pm
 

Wes I found a pretty serious Blog on Cloud Computing. It’s very technical but it explains many aspects of cloud computing that still need to be worked out, mainly the “Lock-in Hypothesis” Essentially this means that you become dependent/locked-in to a cloud system and making changes to your methods and apps you use becomes difficult.

http://blog.rightscale.com/2009/02/19/the-skinny-on-cloud-lock-in/

Miguel Mendoza

Tuesday, 17th March 2009 at 4:35 pm
 

Well, it’s the first time I read about Cloud Computing. However, I have been using cloud-based computing tools (without me knowing) like Google documents to store; to edit documents collaboratively and soon to design class exercises and surveys.

Wes Fryer

Tuesday, 17th March 2009 at 5:31 pm
 

@Sheri Thanks so much for the link to Mapskip! Awesome! I love the connection of digital storytelling to geography and specific places.

@Cheryl That is a good question. I am pretty confident Google is not going away anytime soon, but it’s true that any web 2.0 site/service that’s here today could be gone tomorrow. It makes sense to have offline backups of critical documents. I haven’t seen it yet but I wouldn’t be surprised if at some point Google or a 3rd party introduces a way to archive/download your Google docs to web-based backup services like Amazon S3. Companies like Stoneware are working with Zoho to enable organizations (including schools) to actually house web documents on their own servers, so they can be archived/backed up for legal purposes as well as to meet control desires/needs. I definitely encourage everyone to keep backups of critical documents, even if they ARE on Google Documents which doesn’t seem likely to evaporate anytime soon.

@Joe Thanks for that article link, and for raising another very important issue. Vendors have been attempting to lock users into proprietary systems and formats for years, and that is not likely to change. I think SIF (Schools Interoperability Framework) and web standards are very important in this regard. Schools should strive to adopt technologies which support portability and open standards, to avoid the “lock in” problem that article highlights.

@Miguel: I’m glad to introduce you to the term, but I’m even happier to hear you’ve been using cloud computing tools already!

Joe Corbett

Wednesday, 18th March 2009 at 1:06 pm
 

Wes here is another cool article I found about cloud-based computing. When I read it I made the conclusion that very soon I’d be carrying a net ready device that was essentially a dummy terminal that allowed me to log into my account. That account of course being a cloud based operating system that functions exactly the way my laptop does now. Sounds cool right? How will we protect against viruses in this brave new world of cloud computing?

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