In the Clouds

Wordle about the content on http://blog.findingvegan.com/

So what interests you?  For me, one of my interests is vegan food, as you can see above by a little Wordle that shows some of the content on the websites I like to visit.  Everything is on the web, in this "cloud" that so many people fail to actually understand.  In the cloud exists, well - pretty much everything, websites, personal documents, photographs, videos, and data.  There is information on vegan food, videos on fitness, silly cat pictures, and also a pretty powerful educational tool. 

So what actually is the cloud?  This website offers a clear description of the cloud, in simple terms.  The cloud stores websites that we access.  It backs up our personal documents and data.  We share photographs, videos, and messages on it.  It's faster for customers, cheaper for companies, and allows us to securely backup personal data that normally would have been at risk because it was only stored locally on a computer, disc, or drive. 

So you can store your files, but aside from that, what is the educational potential of the could?  This website, cloudtrip.com, talks ways you can use the cloud in education.  The main way is by allowing technology to be integrated into the classroom - making learning fun and interactive.  What is more fun than learning to type by defending a cat from dinosaurs?  The student wants to win at the game, so they are going to work on their typing without it being a boring chore.  They will be motivated to type quickly and correctly or the ninja cat will not survive.

We can get organized on the cloud.  Lesson planning is something that is essential to any educator, from early childhood to university level.  One site that offers help is common curriculum which allows for easy lesson planning, time management, and collaboration.  Collaboration can even include material sharing.  Why reinvent the wheel?  You can share homework on the class website for students/parents to easily access.

Teachers can evaluate student progress by creating fun and interactive quizzes on Quiz Quipper.  This allows for the integration of devices too, such as tablets or smartphones.  You can see outputs to understand who isn't understanding what, to easily assign homework, and to engage students through interactive learning.

While CloudTrip talks about numerous potential uses of cloud computing in the classroom, the three listed here are just some of the examples of what is out there.  There are sites that offer a variety of educational tools, including games, planning, evaluation, and any other tool that is common for educators - plus a few you might not have thought you even needed, but will come to find you can't live without! 

So what does the cloud really mean for education?  It means potential.  It is an open world that allows for numerous possibilities.  Those possibilities are expanding daily.  We can plan, collaborate, educate, inform, entertain, and help students retain information.  As this grows, through collaboration, we can have far more resources to give our students, far more lessons, far more ideas, far more games, and far more educational opportunities in new and interesting ways.