Learning in the Cloud - What Is Cloud Computing? - Part 2

What exactly is cloud computing anyway? You may be asking this very question.

Who knew the computer would turn in to what Carr calls "the machine of all trades" and the basis for the Internet as we know it. As the Internet has grown in reliability, capacity, and accesibility it has become a portal into the world. Companies are beginning to look at the Internet as just another utility to purchase instead of equipment and software to own. With cloud computing, the computing takes place somewhere out there in cyberspace, but the user doesn't know, or need to know, exactly where it happens. This video gives a simple explanation.






The Internet has become a major force in the business world, but is only at the threshold of its potential power in the world of education. Students use the power of the internet everyday to create content and communicate and collaborate with their friends. Cloud computing can potentially impact education in three major areas: social learning/collaboration, extending learning out side the physical and time limitations of school, and providing rich, engaging content
for this 'wired' generation of students.

Next post: More about these three areas...

Carr, N. (2009). The big switch: Rewiring the world, from Edison to Google. New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Company.