Recently, a friend of mine who is a teacher came to me and said that a few  educators in her building were buzzing about The National Education Technology Plan 2010, which recommends the usage of open source technology and cloud computing being utilized by school districts.

“So, what exactly IS cloud computing? The plan had mentioned something about it and I don’t have a clue what it is” asked my friend, a junior high history teacher, who knows that I work for a major technology company.

‘In short, cloud computing is a way for an institution to host tons of information on a virtual server that is built to size in order to accommodate storage and usage needs, while being flexible enough to change the size of storage according to usage patterns, trends and influxes. It also provides access to frequently used applications through the web in a secured environment.

This technology, tied with students having access to computers in the class or their own laptop, would be really help to make your life simple. You could have your own “classroom” space on the cloud and build it out to host your own site and portal, where the kids could send you homework via email instead of handing in papers. They could work on group projects online, contribute on the forum, share information when studying for tests and so on. The cloud would give your class unlimited storage capabilities in a secured environment. Just think – laptops, e-books…you know, the education field has come a long way since chalkboards and textbooks.’

“If you ask me, it just seems like away to encourage children to hide behind an online environment even more and not really interact with each other. What’s next? No classrooms? No schools in favor of absolute virtualized online classrooms? Most children I encounter have poor reading and language skills thanks to technology. Anne, they CAN’T EVEN READ and yet we are supposed to trust that this technology will be a cure for all of our education woes? But hey, at least they’ll have a cloud to store stuff on, like poorly written papers.” She was clearly passionate about her argument, and I saw her point.

‘Don’t get me wrong – technology is not to be a replacement. It is a tool. Students still need to have human social interaction and the adjustment from that. The migration to cloud usage would be a way for districts to house data securely and relatively cost effective, while providing students access to a myriad of information as it pertains to your school or classroom’s cloud, right over the web from wherever they are. I will always be a huge advocate for books too, but not having to lug around 20lbs worth of books on your back might be nice. And, guess what? Those books could be ordered and stored online on the cloud making the excuse of “I forgot my book” a thing of the past. And just think of how many books – even an entire reference library could be stored on your cloud. The possibilities are limitless. We just have to make sure it all is in a careful balance. Technology isn’t going anywhere and in today’s job market, you must have these hard skills.’

My friend was still very uncertain of the future of teaching and technology usage in the classroom, especially the notion of “the cloud”. Change for most people is always hard because it is a learning curve. Adapting to ever-changing technology is no different.

I would love to hear your thoughts on the possibilities of cloud and open-source technology usage for schools and teachers. What do you see as being the biggest challenge? What is the greatest benefit? Who are the clear losers in this change, and the winners?

Best,

Anne E.

Contegian-at-Large