Guest Post

Surprising Ways Cloud Computing Is Changing Education

When we look back at our parents’ younger times, we see a vast difference in their way of living and ours. Everything has evolved with the passing of generations; be it developing buildings to skyscrapers or the modification of telephones to smartphones.

The growth of technology has resulted in some of the most remarkable innovations that one never thought could have been possible at one point in time. Nobody ever thought that education would be possible without the physical presence of students in the class. But here it is!

With cloud computing, students are not facing any difficulty or missing any crucial information from the teachers. The pandemic that has shaken the entire world could not shake student’s and teachers’ determination to gain and deliver knowledge, respectively.

What is Cloud Computing?

Cloud computing is a massive leap from the traditional way of business. Through cloud computing, different services are delivered over by the internet. For instance, servers, storage, database, networking, software, analytics and intelligence offer faster and innovative services.

Cloud computing is a cost-effective and 24/7 available. It makes data backup, error recovery and business continuity less expensive.

 Cloud Computing Services

Based on a cloud location, we can classify the cloud as

  • Public Cloud– It is managed by a third party cloud provider and is shared among multiple customers.
  • Private Cloud– It is offered for a private internal network.
  • Hybrid Cloud– It combines a private cloud with one or more cloud services.
  • Community Cloud– It computes in a collaborative effort between several organizations from a specific community.

There are four main models of cloud computing.

  • Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)– It is one of the primary categories of cloud computing services that allow to hire IT infrastructure from a cloud provider on a pay basis.
  • Platform as a Service (PaaS) -refers to the supply of an on-demand environment for developing, scrutinizing, delivering and managing software applications.
  • Software as a Service (SaaS)– It refers to delivering software applications over the internet on the demand and the subscription basis of a user.
  • Functions as a Service (FaaS)– It refers to the method that handles functional blocks of codes and set them to be triggered by a specific event.

The Utility of Cloud Computing

Cloud computing is mostly used by everybody and forms almost all types of work from sending emails to watching movies and editing documents. From the young entrepreneurs to the experienced government officials, everybody uses cloud computing in one way or another.

  • Cloud computing is used to create new apps and services and store, back up and recover data.
  • It is also used to host websites, blogs and is also used for streaming audio and video.
  • It is used to deliver on-demand software services and analyze data for patterns.

Education: One of the Major Pillars for the Building Blocks of Future

With each passing generation, there has been an immense growth in the mindset of people. Everybody has realized the importance of education in one’s life. Today 80% of the world’s families want their children to be educated and lead their lives in the best possible way.

Everything was going on fine until the awful pandemic hit the world. Almost every little thing came to a standstill. Businesses were affected, education was lost, people were suffering, and a rapid decline in the economy.

Even though the pandemic affected everyone lives, it could not affect the alternatives that people found out.

People always thought that physical education is the best form of education. A teacher in his/her class with a room full of students presenting a lecture is a typical example of classroom education. Today, the ongoing pandemic has made us realize that there is always an alternative way for every problem.

Cloud computing was not that popular in the educational field earlier, but now it is through cloud computing that students can interact with their teachers and peers.

Let us take a look at some of how cloud computing is changing education. For more information please visit: canada proxies

Innovative Way of Learning

Through cloud computing, teachers and students can exchange their thoughts, ideas and perspectives comprehensively. The students who were anxious to speak up in class in front of everybody can now muster up the confidence to share their ideas and thought process in an online class.

Students can respond to an assignment or class work by uploading a video recording or sharing images of the work they have done.  If the students are not sure about their assignment’s topics, they can also get assignment writing help through cloud computing services. Teachers can use innovative classroom ideas through the cloud.

Get More Access to Knowledge

Today, there is an array of webinars being hosted worldwide. Famous entrepreneurs, lecturers, researchers and professors speak on various subjects and communicate valuable information. When such events are hosted physically, most of the students cannot attend such seminars due to lack of time or inability to be physically present there.

But with the seminars, now known as webinars, being hosted online; everyone can attend it irrespective of time and place. A student can attend a webinar held in London or any part of the world by pressing a button on their laptop or mobile screens.

Cost-Effective Services

With cloud computing, users can save a notable amount of money. Districts no longer need to keep large staff or technicians, but a smaller IT staff group can manage the school or district’s cloud. Cloud computing helps save money on license, hardware, power and support.

With cloud computing services, the hardware requirements are also minimal. The cloud applications are operate without any hindrance on internet browsers on desktops, laptops and mobile devices.

With cloud computing, students can save their pocket money since they can attend school from their home itself. They do not need money for bus fares or taxi rides. With the online form of education, students do not have to buy hardcover books. The online edition of textbooks does the jobs. Most of the textbooks are available online in the PDF format free of cost. This also saves the students a lot of money.

Cloud computing also helps cut the amount of paper used and photocopying costs. Students can quickly get the necessary information through online classes.

Time Convenient for Teachers and Students

It is helpful for teachers as they get enough time to focus on instruction. As students and teachers can access materials from anywhere, the teachers can spend less time making copies for the students. The teachers do not have to deal with misplaced materials or assignments as the cloud holds all the information.

Instead of piling up and carrying stacks of answer sheets home, teachers can grade the students from their laptop or mobile phones.

Students and learners from different parts of the world are all connected through cloud computing. A student can take up a course in a thousand miles away, yet he/she will not face any problem because of cloud computing. It emphasizes virtual resources.

Virtual Classroom Environments

Educational organizations can have a virtual classroom for students with the help of cloud computing. The organizations can reduce the expenses by on boarding regular teachers and used skilled trainers who work at cost-effective prices. The organizations can maintain a real classroom environment with the help of cloud computing.

Collaborative Learning

With cloud computing, students can effectively collaborate with others. All users have easy access to resources across varied and multiple platforms.  It creates a strong foundation for developing communicative and collaborative skills.

Students can collaborate on an assignment to which the teacher can provide feedback. Feedbacks are essential for students to reach and complete their goals. Instant feedback and assessment can benefit the teachers and the students, respectively.  Students do not have to physically present in a group to work on an assignment or a project.

Students can expand their horizons using cloud computing.  Students who are not happy with the traditional way of learning can explore the concept of online education.

Easy Accessibility and Reliability

With cloud computing, students can easily access the course content, applications and data anytime. The users can enrol themselves in different courses and participate in all types of group activities.

Cloud computing services are also reliable, where every student and employee information is kept safe. The cloud can also adopt a VPN for ensuring data security. The VPN protocols are responsible for the automatic transcription of outgoing data and traffic.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Cloud computing has become one of the essential services in today’s fast-evolving world. With the use of cloud computing, education and business have reached different zeniths of success. For different companies and academic institutions, cloud computing has made communication easy and accessible. With a just tap on our computer screens of smartphones, the users can connect to different parts of the world. In seemingly, many surprising ways cloud computing is changing education and other fields of work. The more the world is digitalized, the more the world will understand the worth and utility of one of the earlier underrated cloud computing services.


Anna Jones, HOD, Finance at Ohio University, US teaches her students different finance subjects. Along with her services to the university, she is also associated with Crazy for Study as a subject matter expert. She offers several appropriate solutions in this textbook solutions manuals to the various tricky questions of the textbooks.