Journal #1 Computing in the Clouds

Johnson, D. (2010). Computing in the Clouds. International Society For Technology in Education, Volume 37, Issue 4. Retrieved February 5th, 2010 from: http://www.iste.org/Content/NavigationMenu/Publications/LL/LLIssues/Volume3720092010/DecemberJanuaryNo4/Computing_in_the_Clouds.htm

This article is about teacher who talks about how he handles his computer files. He talks about his positive experience using the cloud. The author also feels using a program like the cloud would be extremely useful in schools. He makes a great point in the article that most people wouldn’t pass up. “If you’re on a computer with Internet access-whether it is on your desk at school, on your lap at home, on any computer lab or coffee shop in the world, or at Grandpa’s house-you can work without worrying about transporting files on flash drives, keeping track of the latest version of a document, or having the right software to open a file.” Not having to worry about transporting files from computer to computer can also help save your-self some time. I know personally 90% of the time I leave my house in a rush and 40% of that time is spent saving and sending myself files. This is because every single teacher I’ve had in the past 4 years had required all assignments to be typed and printed out or submitted via internet. Other advantages for using this in schools consist of being able to purchase low costing netbooks to access the cloud. With the severe budget problem in schools all around the world, this could majorly help. The author then predicts that “K-12 schools will at some point ask parents to provide basic computing devices for their children as a part of the school supply list.“ When I read this I laughed to myself because I’m surprised that laptops have not been required for all students to purchase, especially for college students.

A question I asked myself when I read this article was why haven’t netbooks or laptops been required for students (mostly college students) to purchase?
Answer: It seems as if schools do not require students to purchase personal netbooks or laptops because of the expense. It would be hard to ask certain schools such a largely populated colleges to have the thousands of students purchase laptops. Plus most schools do provide computers or even laptops.

My next question relates to myself and my experience with using web based assignments where I had to upload a picture of myself and post it on the Internet. The picture was part of an introductory assignment in a class where we learned how to upload to blogs. For this class, the blog is required to remain unblocked for other classmates to access/view. My question stems from this assignment but stretches to ask myself if registered sex offenders should be able to use social networking sites such as Facebook, Myspace, and Twitter. Or perhaps maybe should they have to announce that they are a registered sex offender that is visible to all site users. The reason I came up with this question is who’s to blame if a student was attacked by a sex offender who found her based off the blog she was required to make for school coursework. My answer to this question is either all registered sex offenders should not be allowed to use social networking sites, only if they announce that they are a registered sex offender that is visible to all site users. I asked myself if this was fair for these people, and I came to a conclusion that if they already have to provide their information via Megan’s Law, then putting that on social networking sites should be required too. Especially since these sites have all aged users.