There Are 'Cloudy' Days Ahead for Education

It sure is hopeful otherwise it will be a dieing stage for the future of IT. Cloud is the future and it should overcome the issues asap.

Masterful response!. I sincerely hope that your enthusiasm and conviction continues as a lightning rod for us to follow so that toguether we can make education through the web not the great frontier but the promised land of opportunities and improvement for all.

I so agree RamonAntonio! In reality, though, hasn't much of education been propaganda and cultural dissolution?  Isn't EVERY culture biased in its view? The Soviet Union was quite famous for the Maxist-Leninist philosophy permeating their highly managed educational system leading for a time to complete elimination of some academic disciplines.

Our schools praise the greatness of America, we salute the flag, we proclaim our unity under God and that that unity is indivisible and that liberty and justice are bestowed to all.  We know that is fallacious.  If you were black from the time of this country's inception untill the 1960's equality was not to be found. A federally sanctioned policy of racial segretation reigned for decades. Justice was at best elusive.

I think that tyranny against free exchange of ideas and open discussion will always be with us in some form.  A watchful eye must always be cast for human foilbles will always be with us. Often we are seduced by lyrical songs of statesmen, industrialists, celebrities, evangelists, etc., that play to our desires.  We dance to music rich in movement and bereft of freedom. Emotional engagement without intellectual latitude.

Hopefully, it will not be as pervasive as it has been in the past and recent present.  I think the internet gives a hint of what is possible and a view that tyrants of every kind fears; different perspectives.  Though the potential is there to fashion an educational delivery system rife with dazzling presentations of ethnocentrism and ideological fanaticism it is my hope that the focus on the performance needs of the individual, in order to justify the expense of a new educational imperative, will precipitate the by-products of empowerment and the desire for new ideas, making the persistent pursuit and defense of liberty an unintended consequence.

Yes nimantha.de a bit cloudy, but hopeful. Without that, what's the point?

Indeed.  Pooling educational resources allowing one "class" between three or four schools. Or collaboration with a non-profit, or a government entity. Virtual environments for adult education classes exposing the participants to a variety of people, places and ideas. I think it can be a powerful tool for education, not just of the formal type, but for giving a greater view of the world, a taste of the variety of the lives that different members of humanity live and possibly through that exposure, some little bit of tolerance, some spec of understanding might seep through.

The Google imperative of developing a browser-based computer can have a lot advantages including availability, flexibility, convenience and security which make them quite attractive as educational tools for students of all ages and a variety of learning environments. Indeed the fear of one more tech-solution-of-the-month that is going to cost a bunch of money and cause the scrapping of the huge investment already in use that is appaently not doing the job is, in many ways, a valid one. Fundamentally, it is not the hammer but the way it is used that makes the difference.  If we begin to focus on the individual student, find out what it takes for THAT particular student to succeed and to consistently support them with what cloud computing has the potential to offer, the possibility exists of being able to truly revolutionize education, not just in the industrial world but all over the world.  Massive computing gives you massive power. Tremendous amounts of data can be acquired that were once considered unnecessary or unobtainable.  Data about say a student's learning style, cognitive speed, creativity, personality or memory recall, could be processed to give the student a clearer view of their capabilities and potentials. giving instructors a comprehensive view of student potentials and student needs. Immediate feedback means immediated adaptation. Now tools and methods can be suggested that would allow them to complete a formal curiculum which previously may present some difficulties but which could be overscome because maybe the material simply needed to be presented in a different way. Students would then feel full empowerment and full participation, becoming the masters of their own education and of their fate.

Google's announcement of a $20 a month Chromebook for students seemed this week to be a novel approach to getting a computer into the hands of more kids.

But, like everything that costs money, no matter how little, there's still a challenge to get the product distributed far and wide even to the poorest of students or school systems with meager budgets. 

While Google's cloud computer idea is  probably where the future lies, and where common sense says it should be, it's going to be a long haul to get schools to switch to the cloud.

Inertia and just the thought of "what are we going to do with all the hardware we've already invested in" is going to prevent a great idea from taking hold as quick as it should.

Now if Google could find a way to give away the hardware to schools for say a year, schools would see the advantage and then invest in a modest amount to upgrade to the cloud.

   Cloud is one of the emerging technologies in IT sector. I think like other sections, cloud can be used for clustering the resources in educational sector too. it would helpful for collaborative classrooms and online educations with virtual class rooms.

Best solution is cloud, but it has some issues still needs to be rectified. Thats the reason why its cloudy I guess

As son of teachers and educators I truly admire your excellent post Russel. Hat off to you.

Just one comment: cloud computing requires a massive effort by forces very distant from the end user and to put the education effort in unknown or unreachable providers posses real risks of Inquisitorial education, that is, you have to study what is there available which may not be what you want. Then education becomes propaganda and cultural disolution.

This is a moral, philosophical and ethical issue as well as profoundly cultural. However, it needs to be maintained in focus as education is offered as you point out. That famous dream of my children with other children could become the Macnugett-ducation of society. So we must be alert to avert those risks and maintain the basic tennet of education: liberty.

Great and profound post!