Cloud+Technologies

= Cloud Technologies = Paula Schoeff ==**Description and Uses of Technology**== Foster and his colleagues (2009) define cloud computing as a large scale computing paradigm in which a pool of virtual information and tools become dynamically accessible across a number of arenas. Cloud computing shifts the emphasis from locally managed server-client installations and IT-related services to externally located Web-accessible computing centers consisting of thousands of servers called clouds (Holzberg, 2009). The computing power, storage, platforms, and services are delivered on demand to customers over the Internet (Foster, 2009). Cloud technologies began with considerable skepticism, but its value to small businesses, non-profits, and school districts has become too great to ignore.

There are three broad categories of cloud technologies: 1) cloud software as a service or application computing, 2) cloud platforms as a service or storage, and 3) cloud infrastructure or networks as a service.
 * **Software as a Service** (SaaS) includes on-line programs that can be used to create or modify products. Examples of popular virtual software include Google Aps and Adobe Connect.
 * **Platform as a Service** (PaaS) includes spaces where documents can be stored to be accessed (and later edited) at will. Examples of popular storage sites include Huddle, Wikispaces, and Dropbox.
 * **Infrastructure as a Service** (IaaS) has been extremely valuable for businesses and non-profits (such as schools) that operate with limited resources. Cloud infrastructure as a service makes it possible for university professors to have access to a supercomputer that can crunch megafiles worth of data without bogging down their own system. It also allows multiple stations to be connected to expensive email, software, collaboration and share tools at a reduced rate. Another benefit to a cloud-based infrastructure is that schools only pay to support the computer stations that are being used.

Johnson (2009) affirms that the real power and value of cloud computing is due to the fact that all the files and programs are being stored elsewhere, so the local computer can run faster and contain less storage. Moreover, people can work on a project that is being stored on the cloud, from anywhere as long as there is internet access. No more worrying about losing the flashdrive or keeping track of the most current version of a document! Since the documents in a project are accessible, it becomes much easier to collaborate with peers on projects.

Cloud computing is not the answer for every district application or mission critical database. School and district personnel are concerned about security, loss of privacy, possible downtime, and data loss. These same issues must also be addressed when computing needs are provided by a local technology team. As school funding continues to shrink, along with dollars available for technology, IT staff, and increasing demands being placed on school computers, computing in the clouds offers districts a timely parachute for technology resources.

A few of the most popular free education SaaS and PaaS tools using this technology include:
 * Document Collaboration Tools:**
 * Zoho Writer is an online word processor that can create, edit and allow students to share documents. This would be an alternative to Google docs. An advantage to Zoho is that you do not have to convert your file to a google doc format before editing.
 * Google docs A free alternative to word processing software (Microsoft Word) that is perfect for short writing assignments or collaboration projects. An added bonus is that it is compatible with Microsoft Office if you want your students to print the document when they are done.
 * Graphics Creativity Tools**
 * Picasa is a free online application for amateur graphics editing, including photographs.
 * Aviary allows students to perform image editing (including vectors), audio editing, music file creation, and more. When students utilize the tutorials that are provided, many often find that this tool is much easier to use the the high priced Adobe InDesign Suite.
 * TechSmith Jing captures anything on the computer screen as an image. If there is a microphone, students can also do a short pod cast that is attached to the file or create a short video. This can also be used as a collaboration tool with Jing's capacity for sharing.
 * Adobe PhotoShop Express Adobe has thrown its hat into the cloud with this free package. It is not as robust as the paid for version, but it is an alternative to Google’s Picasa
 * Delicious helps you find and collect materials for easy sharing. You can build your own stack or explore those made by others
 * Document Management**
 * Huddle is a collaboration tool that is quite rich. It stores files in a wide range of formats, creating a version history to give students confidence that they are using the correct file, it also provides a calendar for task management.
 * Wikispaces is a space to collaborate with peers. It can be used as a space for professional development, student portfolios, or project based learning data collection.
 * Basic Programming**
 * Scratch is a user-friendly programming language that children can use. They can create interactive stories, games, music, and art and share it with their peers.
 * Presentation/Communication Tools**
 * Prezi is a creative alternative to PowerPoints. It has the distinction of being able to be shown on or offline.
 * Glogster is a virtual poster. Students can upload pictures, create tables or graphs, add music or videos, and then publish their work for others to see.
 * A Collection of Images that have been stored on line and made accessible to students for presentations and projects**
 * Flickr is a virtual photo storage and sharing platform. Students can find photographs for almost anything, and as long as they cite the source, they are free to use what they wish.
 * A wide array of teaching tools are also being developed:**
 * WISE is a science simulation that offers science teachers a rich resource of visual representations
 * ISLE is a science tool that offers science teachers a valuable framework for students to collaborate as they develop science-oriented questions, design an investigation, collect and analyze data, and share results.
 * NSDL- is a huge bank of lesson plans, video clips, science literacy maps, and much more
 * XtraNormal allows students to create and develop a storyline with full animation around a number of themes

Important Findings on Student Outcomes
The iconic symbols of education, hard cover textbooks, chalkboards, and wooden desks may soon become mere historical representations of the way students are taught. Administrators and teachers understand the importance in preparing our youth for the 21st century with the appropriate skills and knowledge. The [|Partnership for 21st Century Skills]is composed of a group of experts in education and policy who advocate for readying students to compete in a global economy by teaching the four C's - critical thinking and problem solving, - communication, - collaboration, and - creativity and innovation. As you can see from the modest list in the section above, there is a proliferation of technology tools used both in school by teachers and out of school by students doing homework that employes focused collaboratoin, communication, creativity, and critical thinking.

By the middle of the last decade, virtually every school had access to computers with Internet access (U.S. Department of Education, 2007). The use of technology in schools is, so it seems, driven by a dramatic increase of students using cloud technology tools and computers outside the classroom (Walsh, 2011), approximately 57 percent of the school children polled in the 2003 U.S. Bureau of the Censuswere found to use a computer in the home for homework purposes (Walsh, 2011), and 71percent of these digitial natives said they relied mostly on Internet sources for the last big project they did for school, As sophisticated TI and CASIO calculators minimized teacher emphasis on math computation skills in the 90s, cloud technologies are putting cursive writing in the backseat as typing skills takes prominence in 2000s and library search skills are being supplanted as students are being how to fine-tune a Google search.

Teachers are finding valuable resources are available that greatly enhance students' learning. Martin (2011) reports that high school teachers in North Carolina have created a Virtual Computer Lab in Raleigh which is modeling how high schools can use computers in the classroom and at home to accelerate learning. Educators are saying that students are embracing hard sciences and associated computers with discovery and innovations "rather than simply updating their Facebook status" (p. 1). Martin has interviewed students who stated that having access to software programs that are generally not available to them (such as Adobe Dreamweaver) has given them new perspectives about computers. Another student cited that it was valuable when she built a PowerPoint presentations or created documents in Word to have a version that was the same at home and at school (p.2). Students having access to software that is not commonly available due to its expense allows them to follow their passion and study topics in human genetics, create virtual worlds, or explore the world of graphic design.

Computers aren't the only means of delivering cloud technologies to the students. When purchasing my husband's first smartphone last Christmas, the Verizon technician told him that he rarely uses him computer anymore, everything he needs can be done on his phone! At the conference I attended last month, I bought a book and a t-shirt that was entered into the database using an iPod! The iPod Touch and smartphones are being leveraged by districts more and more to put a computer in every student's hand. Students can use them as cameras, to capture data; as tape recorders, to create podcasts; as calendars, to manage projects; and create PLN (personal learning networks) to tweet responses to lecture surveys to give immediate feedback. Roxanne Nys (2012) points out that this is what teachers call a 'teachable moment' when they can connect classroom learning and real world tools. She has collected a number of other suggestions for using smartphones in the classroom:
 * **Time Management:** most cell phones come with a calendar that teachers can have students post assignment/project due dates. Students can also set reminders for themselves for homework time.
 * **Audio Tool:** most cell phones come equipped with a voice recorder. If the student tends to forget things, this is a very handy tool. Use the recorder to memorize terms, practice foreign langage pronunciation, and dozens of other tasks - Yodio (a term used to combine 'you and your audio') is a cloud service that can be linked to the cellphone number that can be used to link a photograph to a voice recording. This could be used for field trips, providing feedback, or young children can interpret drawings they have made to share with family members
 * **Camera:** consider having the students complete a multi-media report using their smartphone cameras. Recently the phones have much better resolution that at first, but remember they still can't be enlarged without sacrificing picture quality. Most students don't seem to mind however.
 * **QR (quick response) Codes:** They are everywhere! The smartphone can be like a handheld scanner. These QR codes have messages and information that is fun to explore. Students can scan or create their own! Explore i-inigma.mobi and Q-Reader; and the online QR Code generator Kaywa.com Students can read directions that are imbedded in the code, create a code that moves students to a file stored online or to the school website. QR Codes are a fantastic way to distribute files, video messages, hyperlinks, and so much more to students! For more information click here:
 * **Google Search:** Mobile: Did you know that Google is accessible by text? Try it... type 466453 (google) and in the message write, define: choose your own word, and send. In minutes you will receive a text back with a definition for your word. Think of the possiblities, the next time you go to the zoo, students can type in the scientific names of the animals and this information can be used later to explore species and taxonomy.
 * **Google Voice:** provides you with a single phone number that rings on all your phones, saves your voicemail online, and transcribes your voicemail to text. This could be used in several ways. Students do not often do a thorough job of editing their own work. Using their Smartphone, students can record themselves as they read through their work... errors in punctuation, usage, and transitions become evident as they read. This strategy is rarely used because it is difficult to hear yourself in a classroom with 25 other students reading their papers. Also, there is no guarantee that they will do this at home as homework unless there is a way to hold the students accountable. That's where Google Voice comes in! This SaaS provides the teacher with a free phone number that comes with voice mail that is automatically transcribed and emailed! This is ideal because the phone number does not have to be connected with a working phone, and now the teacher has two ways of assessing student work - orally and by reading the typed transcript.
 * **Twitter:** There are many ways that tweets can be used in the classroom. It is a perfect solution to the abundance of emails teachers get. Tweets have to be short (140 characters or less), but they are incentivizing because the teacher typically can respond quickly. The two methods on the podcast that were mentioned were a) a poll during class lecture, and b) students posted comments, questions, concerns throughout the discussion. These tweets were displayed on a large screen in the front of the room so everyone could see them. This provided students with immediate gratefication since they could get responses right away from their peers and it did not interfere with class in anyway - in fact, it was enriching. The teacher mentioned that when she had a substitute in the classroom, she knew exactly was was going on and was able to respond to the students' posts.

Finally, Many parents are already using the cloud in their homes which makes it much easier for students to accept its mysteries. For example, parents use Google Maps to find their way to a friend's new house, others store pictures in the cloud in Flickr, and now many schools require teachers to keep an updated gradebook online so parents can access their child's grades on the cloud. Therefore, when students need to find their projects online and collaborate with their peers, this is not something that is completely foreign to their parents, and while they can't help them //do// the work, they can often help them //find// it.

Emerging Trends and Open Issues
Sometimes it is difficult to decide if cloud computing is "the next big thing" or just another marketing gimmick to rope us into expensive services and software. According to a recent survey of 5,300 organizations in 38 countries, change is already taking place around the world as people move to embrace what the cloud has to offer (Quintero, 2011). The promise of reduced costs, improved performance, and greater flexibility are driving interest to the cloud. When school districts move to cloud technology they no longer have to deal directly with computing/IT needs (software updates, storage, etc.). The key to understanding this change and its broader implications is to appreciate that we need to transition from viewing computing as a product to computing as a service, much like public utilities, IT resources are delivered to schools through the Internet, just like electricity is brought into our homes through the power grid. Users pay according to their consumption level, and the service provider takes care of the rest (Quintero, 2011).

Due to cloud technology, the personal computer is no longer the only electronic device with which students access the Internet. Eisele-Dyrli (2011) shows that mobile devices using cloud technology are rapidly moving from the experimental phase to receiving school and administrative support as classrooms use iPod Touch and iPads as tools for learning. Surveys show that the number of teachers allowing smartphones in the classroom has tripled over the past five years, and 62 percent of parents are willing to purchase a mobile device for their child if the schools found it necessary for increasing student engagement (Eisele-Dyrli, 2011). As a result, many teachers are creating lessons and exploring aps for students to use to enhance their learning experiences. Johnson (2009) and Holzberg (2009) both predict that soon students will be asked to purchase computer tablets as part of their school supplies in order to deliver electronic textbooks and access to essential SaaS software. Unlike most software that resides on a personal or office computer, cloud-based software is mostly free. The advantage of always having the most recent version at a fraction of the cost in a format that is accessible from any PC or tablet means that cloud technology is here to stay, and educational institutions really need to take advantage of this amazing resource.

Teachers use Web 2.0 resources such as wikis, blogs, GoogleDocs and interactive white boards to enhance their teaching, while the student users are recognizing the value of the social networking aspect of the SaaS platforms. National groups such as iEarn ([|www.iEarn.org]) are partnering with teachers to create virtual connections that are seamless in a problem-based lesson format. In the iEarn platform, teachers create PBL lessons, and post them on the iEarn website, and then iEarn promotes the project to other teacher partners in far off islands. Classrooms across the world can work together using cloud PaaS (document storage sites) and SaaS (go to meeting and other collaboration sites) to learn about other countries first-hand, create cross-cultural projects, or merely explore complex mathematical data as a team. Much as Blue and Tirotta (2010) discovered, the cloud breaks down classroom walls and encourages knowledge to be constructed dynamically as teachers, students, and peers collaborate to construct meaning.

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U.S. Census (2003) Retrieved from http://www.census.gov/hhes/computer/publications/2009.html

Reviewed By: (John Kelly, Secil Caskurlu 2)