Comments on: Don’t Fear the Cloud, Embrace It and Leverage It!

By: Sooz Blog » Thing 13 – Attending a “21st Century Learning” conference

Wed, 17 Aug 2011 19:54:42 +0000

[…] also attended the “Don’t Fear the Cloud, Embrace it and Leverage it!” session. I am still getting used to the idea of cloud computing so found it quite a fascinating […]

By: Eileen D.

Eileen D. — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 15:20:19 +0000

This would be an ideal tool to use and encourage students to use but I agree with some of these previous comments. I feel we are just not ready to totally use the cloud to impliment education in schools. It is something wonderful to strive for however. Blogs, web sites, etc. are currently being used and this is a positive step forward.

By: Andy Crozier

Andy Crozier — Sun, 24 Oct 2010 15:40:15 +0000

@MaryBeth – Going to the cloud isn’t just about what we do at school. It’s about giving students tools to make learning happen anytime, anywhere.

For schools to say “we don’t have enough bandwidth” is silly to me. Student learning should go beyond 8:00-3:30.

I would hope schools are working to increase their bandwidth every year regardless if they are “in the cloud” or not.

By: Kevin Hodgson

Kevin Hodgson — Sun, 24 Oct 2010 10:08:26 +0000

We’ve had discussions in the past about using the cloud to share grades with parents at home, but it never got anywhere. I know a lot of schools now do it, and I see the value in it, for sure.
I would love to have a space where my students could store, access and work on multimedia files at home or in school. Again, we’re not quite there yet.
Thanks for the presentation.
Kevin

By: MaryBeth Green

MaryBeth Green — Sat, 23 Oct 2010 13:23:21 +0000

Would be interesting to see the cost over 2-5 years of how much a school district spends in software licensing,upgrading,server costs and maintenance etc… Then compare it to how much additional bandwidth would cost to support cloud computing. Anyone know of such a comparison? Perhaps a school district that made the leap and how they did it?

By: Andy Crozier

Andy Crozier — Sat, 23 Oct 2010 02:27:09 +0000

Hey guys, thanks for the comments.

First off, you make great points. @atruger, Special education districts are tricky and the confidential information is something that needs an extra layer of security. I work at a Area Education Agency that is 75% special ed. We recommend to our employees to not put any student ID info on the web (cloud or not). Yet, that is only a percentage of their work. The other large percentage includes collaboration with individuals all across our area.

As for backing up info. Cloud apps are actually a great back up because of the redundancy in how they save (and back up) the data in the cloud. At least the way Google and Microsoft do it.

@Sherry, as for bandwidth. Your students only spend part of their day at school. Cloud computing gives them access to their work at home, the library, anywhere! Most schools use bandwidth as an excuse but most of our tests have shown that cloud apps use less data than other tools students and teachers use in schools (video streaming, educational games, web tutorial programs/credit recovery, etc..)

By: Sherry Haddox

Sherry Haddox — Fri, 22 Oct 2010 23:26:42 +0000

I agree with atruger. We have real issues too. We don’t have enough computer labs in our classes. We have two that are accessable to use once or twice a month with E2020 on the rise and evryone wanting to use the lab, we don’t have computers. We don’t have the bandwidth either.

By: atruger

atruger — Fri, 22 Oct 2010 12:52:26 +0000

I would love to move in this direction but any time I bring up a browser based tool my district screams bandwidth…which is a legitimate issue. Our classrooms are spread all over the county and are housed in other districts building so we don’t have control over the network in those classrooms.
The other issue is that we have spent so much money on software that how can we move to the cloud without wasting the money we have spent.
Another concern is that if we aren’t backing everything up then who is…does our information then belong to the “cloud”. We are entirely a special ed district and our information is ofter very confidential in nature, how is our information protected?
I am trying to move my district to using Google Apps for Ed but these are some of the issues that have come up.
I agree that this is the way to go but I have to figure out how to satisfy the lawyers, parents and administrators.

Sorry if this sounds negative or uninformed but these are the very real issues that I have to deal with on a daily basis.

Great preso! I really enjoyed it.