Should We Concept Education with the Cloud?
For a significant number of years traditional education has differed greatly from the way students learn and retain information today. To assist the students of today and make sure they are learning at their maximum potential, education systems should be more aggressively utilising technology and specifically cloud services, to their advantage.
Cloud computing, is technology that uses the internet and remote servers to store and access data and applications. This technology allows for vast amounts of data to be stored and accessed from almost anywhere in the world through any device. It also allows for easier collaboration among students working on projects or communicating on research or learning materials.
The use of the cloud has the potential to change education for the better. It does this in various ways, for example, cloud services can provide teachers with the ability to track student’s individual progress in real time, self-service analytics, automated grading and the ability to customize learning plans and curriculums based on each students individual needs and development.
Cloud services allow students to access materials and even classes from anywhere, which increases access to education, especially in remote areas of the world. It allows for resources to be available to all students, no matter their location. Rather than aspects of teaching being impacted by the limitations of physical classrooms, cloud computing and its services can provide a great way of allowing teacher’s to effectively use resources and accessibility across all students, rooms and curriculum.
With cloud services and resources, one of the most significant changes is giving the student access to written assessments and the opportunity to provide direct feedback to the student on each answer, so that adjustments and corrective measures can be taken in real time. This also helps the student to think critically, this providing a more in-depth level of learning as the student is given direct feedback.
With any technology, there is always a level of security that needs to be taken into consideration when utilising cloud services, particularly within a teachers’ personal classroom and their assessment data. Security for personal, educational data is vital and cloud service providers have the technical capability, experience and knowledge needed to ensure that data is secure and private, meaning the teacher and student can focus on learning rather than the security of data.
Cloud services and resources should be an integral part of education, due to the potential they can provide and enable. Utilising these resources in the right way by teachers and students,could transform the way in which students who wish to learn, learn. These resources and services can allow students, who are in more remote and disadvantaged areas to have the same access to education and resources, as students in more metropolitan areas.