Cloud Changes the Education Game
Cloud computing is making big waves in the field of education, spawning virtual learning centers, personal learning systems and distant learning programs. Yet another big difference cloud has made involves information durability, ensuring data can be stored in the cloud indefinitely, benefiting several generations over time. Slide sharing sites and video lessons on-line underline the ease with which complex concepts can be explained to students digitally. A lesson can be created just once and yet benefit students all over the globe.
Ever-increasing numbers of libraries are going on-line, with students from different countries already working collaboratively to generate new ideas. All of this is just the beginning of the change that cloud computing can bring to education.
A recent UNESCO report on cloud computing in the education sector makes for very interesting reading, discussing some less well-known benefits of cloud. These include:
- Low impact on the environment – Cloud computing enables educational institutions to reduce their own power consumption. Higher efficiency of cloud data centers lead to overall reductions in power consumption. Many countries also have legislation that sets targets for lower power consumption. Cloud computing is one way of meeting these targets.
- Focus on core business – Just as schools and universities do not have their own electricity generation and sewage treatment plants, it makes little sense for them to have their own computing centers. Since computing services are also becoming commoditized, it makes more sense for them to be delivered by professional computing companies so that universities can concentrate on education.
- End user satisfaction – There are clear advantages of cloud computing as regards end-user satisfaction. The range of services offered is increasing rapidly and one clear advantage of cloud computing over traditional methods is the constant upgrading of services and software. Students always get the very latest software to work on, meaning their work is always accessible to them. In fact there is a recorded instance of a girl accompanying her parents on a very long transoceanic cruise in a sail boat but still being able to keep up with her class by downloading lessons. The girl got all As in her exams.
In spite of the advantages, UNESCO is also quick to point out the areas where universities must be careful about the cloud.
A major concern is of course security of data. There is fear that sensitive student or institutional data could be breached. Reliance on a single cloud provider could introduce a single point of failure. However, should not be overly-concerning. Large financial and legal institutions regularly entrust their data to the cloud. The worry about failure is also overstated as cloud service providers give guarantees of up-times over 99%.
The fear that institutions could receive unwanted advertising can be eradicated by a well-drafted service-level contract. While selecting a cloud service provider, UNESCO recommends that institutions carefully evaluate the functionality offered. They must also see that the platform suits the applications the university intends to use and that the solution also supports tablets and other mobile devices. In addition to this, there could be some technical requirements that the solution is able to meet.
Negotiations for comprehensive cloud services should be carried out by regional or national educational authorities since they have better capabilities to negotiate and select services. Having many institutions use a common cloud service will also help in generating crossflows of ideas, which is afterall the very idea behind education.
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About the Guest Author:
Sanjay Srivastava has been active in computing infrastructure and has participated in major projects on cloud computing, networking, VoIP and in creation of applications running over distributed databases. Due to a military background, his focus has always been on stability and availability of infrastructure. Sanjay was the Director of Information Technology in a major enterprise and managed the transition from legacy software to fully networked operations using private cloud infrastructure. He now writes extensively on cloud computing and networking and is about to move to his farm in Central India where he plans to use cloud computing and modern technology to improve the lives of rural folk in India.
