to the CLOUD.......Mr. Johnson says!

Wow, I have to admit I was genuinely impressed with this article. In my field of expertise, security is an absolute REQUIREMENT for any medium used to communicate or exchange ideas on. And because of this small (yes i am being facetious) concern, I have shied away from using the cloud. Doug however has challenged my held paradigm. And because of this I will attempt to migrate some of my work habits to "the silver lining." I can appreciate that Mr. Johnson provided the pros and cons to working within the cloud.

I already mentioned one of the cons (security) but I am also concerned with power and bandwidth issues. Power to the gateway that you are utilizing for Internet access and bandwidth being provided to the school. Bandwidth is not CHEAP especially when you are talking DS3s and not just T1 trunks. Ultimately its a numbers crunch for the bandwidth. This brings a unique twist to things.

Will the school have an on-site staff for IT issues much like you have facilities engineers for the maintenance of the school? Will the parents have to support the notebooks used? Will the child be able to take the notebooks home? The last questions are more policy related but must be addressed especially when you consider that all children don't learn the same.

I think the actions and ideas that Mr. Johnson discussed are quite relevant to everyday classroom use not only for the student and teacher but also the parent. Online grade books and posted rubric can be of great benefit. In fact as a parent to a middle school student, I utilize technology to determine how my child is progressing through her courses. As a teacher this would help me to stay on task as well as find a medium to work with parents in -that isn't subject to a schedule or distance.

Mr. Johnson's overall assessment has me leaning towards the cloud and its many possibly applications in the classroom. Of course this ties in nicely with the ISTE.NETS standards of Digital citizenship and Technology Operations and Concepts. The children can be engaged early and often on NET protocols, surfing policies and the use of multiple web based applications. And we as a nation will address the needs of the corporate mongers who profess the need for additional education, not to better the world but to pay homage to the almighty god....PROFIT!!
((Sorry, last statement is a little over the top. But i do feel quite passionate about educating for a better world not necessarily a more convenient one))