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Cloud Computing & Distance Education

How cloud

computing can

sustain the

promise of

Distance Educatio

n

Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License

Griff Richards, Rory McGreal, Brian StewartEDEN June 2011 Dublin, Ireland

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What is cloud computing and why is it

important for Adult Literacy?

“Cloud computing is a nebulous term” (Anon.)

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“CLOUD” defined

Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google, 2006:

It starts with the premise that the data services and architecture should be on servers. We call it cloud computing – they should be in a “cloud” somewhere.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) defines the term as follows:

Cloud computing is a model for enabling convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications, and services) that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction (Mell & Grance, 2009).

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“CLOUD” defined

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Gartner Hype Cycle 2010

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Canadian Provinces

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Why the Cloud for Distance Education?

Lori Herod

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Distance Education Problems

faces endemic regionalization

programming challenges not computing

politics

funding

community leadership

professional collaboration

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Cloud Computing

accessing and using ICT

housed on “server farms” - large industrial scale computing centres.

computing services at less cost

lower energy costs - data centres near power

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Cloud Computing

Virtualization

Device independence

Elasticity

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Cloud Computing

On demand

Pay for bandwidth used

Industrial scale

Reduces capital/energy costs

Reduces physical space, labour

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Concerns over cloud computing

 Security

Fast reliable internet

switching costs

hype

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Why cloud computing?

Katz, Goldstein & Yanosky (2009) :

Driving down capital costs of IT

Facilitating transparent matching of IT demand, costs, and funding;

scaling IT;

fostering further IT standardization;

accelerating time to market by reducing IT supply bottlenecks;

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Why cloud computing (2)?

Katz, Goldstein & Yanosky (2009)

Countering consumerization of IT services

Access to scarce IT talent 

Supporting a five-9s & 24 x 7 x 365

Renewable energy

Interoperability internal/external

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Cloud service models

3 technical/marketing categories:

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) where the expert user implements their own software to optimize use of the computing facility

Platform as a Service (PaaS) where the client customizes their application to run inside the cloud management software

Software as a Service (SaaS) like Gmail where the user simply uses the software provided

suit user independence, expertise, budget and technical needs

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Cloud services

addressing content quality

learner support

compatibility of administrative systems

on-going IT management infrastructures, tools, broadband availability, support services (helpdesk)

evergreening of IT

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Cloud services

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Private Cloud Services

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Distance Education:Approaches/Organizations

community groups

community colleges or partnerships of both

. Funding: federal employment & provincial education

Funding is usually short term

Difficult to sustain programs and staff

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Target audiences for adult literacy

Rural and remote Canadians

Aboriginals

School dropouts (working poor)

New Canadians – immigrants who are literate in their own language.

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Needy populations

Aboriginals

working poor

Rural isolation

Urban

Access to IT

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What is the current use of IT to support

Distance Education?

Basic patterns:

CBTs on DVD or via web-sites.

 Online course or workshops

Web searches, email, conferencing,

Writing, blogging & digital media

assistive technologies, e.g. e-text readers

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Problems with uptake of the Cloud

No strong following among providers

Technology as a “moving target”

Accessibility

Few studies on efficacy

Trainers use technology personally but not for teaching

BUT accessibility in a cloud encourages localization and sharing across the wider community

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Problems with uptake of the Cloud

Strangulation by big companies

•Predatory pricing

•UBB (Usage Based Billing)

•Throttling

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What might a cloud computing strategy for DE

look like?

What are the challenges to realize such a vision?

THEN: email & collaboration software

Now: variety of on-demand services that require tremendous processing power for short instances

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The Cloud for DE

1. Provision of personal computing

2. Shared Community Resources

 3. Persistent personal storage - augmenting cognition

4. Analytics and personalization

5. Policy issues

6. Beyond text - Is literacy obsolete?

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 Conclusion – Impact of Cloud Computing on DE

1. Utility

use of free services

Elastic: power on demand

OER

Web services: text to speech; translation etc.

Mobile learning

21st learning is not possible without the

skills for accessing and using the Internet