A quick search of the archives of this blog will reveal that I am a big proponent of cloud computing. There are two primary reasons why I like cloud computing so much. First, many cloud computing tools are completely free and can do the same tasks as more expensive proprietary software programs. Second, cloud computing is extremely portable. If you work in a school that has computer labs where students have to save work to the local network or to a storage device before they log-off you’ve undoubtedly had a student say “I forgot to save” or “my computer at home won’t open this format.” Cloud computing solves both of these problems. Two popular cloud computing word processors, Zoho Writer and Google Docs, automatically save students’ work at regular intervals. Cloud computing programs operate inside of web browsers eliminating the need to have the right type of proprietary software installed on a computer in order to read a document. If a student has a Mac at home and uses a PC at school they can work on any document created online.
Deciding Whether or Not to Use Cloud Computing.
The most common arguments against cloud computing that I hear from teachers and administrators are “those Internet programs fail all the time” and “but can’t people find students’ work online?”
Regarding concern about Internet programs failing, how many times has your Hotmail or Gmail account not been available in the last year or three? That’s about how often your Google or Zoho account will be unavailable. Now compare that to the number of times your school’s local network has been down in the last year or three for one reason or another. You should find that both systems are equally reliable.
Students’ work being created and stored in the cloud doesn’t mean that anyone can find it online so long as you teach your students safe computing practices like not sharing passwords.
Does your school have a mix of computing environments available to students? If so, cloud computing is a great option for your students. Rather than having students fight about who gets to use which computer they can sit down at any computer connected to the Internet and get to work. Likewise if your students have a Mac at home, but use a PC at school cloud computing alleviates the problem of having students bring in work that cannot be accessed.
In the end all storage systems and productivity tools will eventually experience some type of failure. Always encourage students to save work in multiple places for the times when it is inaccessible in one format or the other.
Coming up in the next post, A Cartoon Explanation of Cloud Computing Benefits.
