By Dr. Judy Lombardi, Associate Professor of Secondary Education, California State University Northridge
Picture a day when teachers and students no longer have to ask, “Mac or PC?” Envision all learners using any software application via the Internet, with no worries about platforms or compatibility. Imagine storing desktop files in a secure, online location, accessing them anywhere. All of this will happen because the revolution in cloud computing has begun, and the implications for education are huge.
“Cloud Computing is a paradigm in which information is permanently stored in servers on the Internet and cached temporarily on clients that include desktops, entertainment centers, table computers, notebooks, wall computers, handhelds, sensors, monitors, etc.” (Hewitt, 2008). Cloud computing’s inclusive nature promises to benefit all learners, especially those who struggle, by eliminating barriers related to platform, compatibility, and accessibility. Learners will usually just need an email/user name and password for free access.
For example, Inspiration mindmapping software now has a Web-based version and mindomo also offers users an opportunity to create mindmaps online. Mindmapping software allows users to create visual representations, graphic organizers, charts, diagrams, and outlines of information and ideas. Zoho.com allows users to design, revise, store, and share Power Point-like presentations, documents, spreadsheets, databases and other applications online. Visual representations can support neurodevelopmental functions such as previewing and expressive language by providing learners with another way to express thoughts that is fun, creative, and non-threatening.
Google apps provides a wide range of online create-store-and-share Web applications, such as online documents, presentations, chat, calendars, personalized Web sites, and spreadsheets, for communication and collaboration. Virtualization widens the community of learners who can participate and engage, freed from external restraints such as cross-platform issues.
Cloud computing has positive implications for learners at all ages and stages. IBM and North Carolina State University announced the opening of the Cloud Computing Center of Excellence, with free applications for grade-school students (Weier, 2008). Students across the state in K-12 schools, community colleges, and universities, will be provided access to advanced educational computational materials, software applications, and resources for computing and storage.
Young (2008) described three major effects of cloud computing on higher learning: 1) sharing from everywhere; 2) supercharging research; and 2) reshaping IT departments. Young also provided examples of students who “all contributed to a shared document using Google Docs, which anyone in the group could edit online from anywhere… Such virtual collaboration is a key benefit of running something like a word processor on the Internet instead of on an isolated PC…to edit their term papers remotely without having to send clunky attachments” (Young, 2008, p. 1).
While studies of the effects of cloud computing on higher education are emerging, studies on younger learners are needed. Research questions relate to how younger learners may use cloud computing’s various features to learn, grow, and respond neurodevelopmentally.
Cloud computing’s flexible nature facilitates the development of technology skills for diverse learners. As described by The Partnership for 21st Century Skills, “People in the 21st century live in a technology and media-suffused environment, marked by access to an abundance of information, rapid changes in technology tools, and the ability to collaborate and make individual contributions on an unprecedented scale. To be effective in the 21st century, citizens and workers must be able to exhibit a range of functional and critical thinking skills related to information, media and technology.”
Cloud computing breaks down barriers to learning, including platform and compatibility issues, and allows users to share information everywhere. To paraphrase John Dewey, “We are not teaching students about life; this is life” (Hickman & Alexander, 1998). Nicholas Negroponte, the founder of the One Laptop Per Child Project applies this idea to today’s technology-based education when he states that, “Computing is not about computers any more. It is about living” (2007, in Stahl).
References
Hewitt, C. (2008). ORGs for scalable, robust, privacy-friendly client cloud computing. IEEE Internet Computing, vol. 12, no. 5, pp. 96-99, Sep/Oct, 2008.
Hickman, L. and T. Alexander, eds. (1998). The essential Dewey: Volumes 1 and 2. Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press.
Stahl, L. (2007). What if every child had a laptop? Interview with Nicholas Negroponte 60 Minutes. Retrieved from. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/05/20/60minutes/main2830058.shtml, Nov. 15, 2008.
Weier, M.H. (2008). IBM offers free cloud computing to North Carolina students. Information Week. Retrieved from http://www.informationweek.com/news/services/hosted_apps/showArticle.jhtml?articleI D=211600297, Nov. 15, 2008.
Young, J. (2008). 3 ways web-based computing will change colleges. Chronicle of Higher Education, Oct. 24, 2008. Retrieved Nov. 10, 2008, from http://chronicle.com/free/2008/10/5611n.htm.
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