Breaking the Door Down: Netbooks- The Tipping Point for The Cloud

Image from akashgoyal on flickr

If this next quote is to be believed, the question is: are we ready?

"Netbooks prove that the “cloud” is no longer just hype. It is now reasonable to design computers that outsource the difficult work somewhere else. The cloud tail is wagging the hardware dog." - from Wired's Clive Thompson via Wes Fryer's Speed of Creativity

I wholeheartedly believe that Miguel Guhlin's fears are valid, when it comes to security and keeping student information safe in The Cloud. He reminds us in his last post that:

"there are complicated, though not complex, processes in place in every school district to protect that data. "

If you're in the position of acquiring tools for student information, then building your own in-house tool, like a Moodle, can be a worthy solution. That is--- if you have the funds and the time. What is wrong with using that solution? Nothing at all. Just hope you have someone on staff that knows how to use Cascading Style Sheets.

Unfortunately, most underfunded public schools aren't in that position. The Netbook, though, will stir the pot. Read the following scenario and decide what you most likely think will happen (and I'm not saying both are immediately great).

A district or a school, suddenly finds that buying 30 Netbooks is well within a reasonable budget (vs. 30 expensive Macbooks) to add for the next school year. Great! This school now has the ability for some 1-1 computing initiatives!

So they:
1. Begin using "walled garden" apps like Wordpress, Moodle, and Gallery2?

2. Go into The Cloud to use some wonderful Web 2.0 apps like wikispaces, Voicethread, Edu20.org, edublogs and more.

What is most likely to happen, is that most of these schools, many of them poorer, will jump into The Cloud. Teachers, seeking fast and easy tools are going to begin using these Web 2.0 tools without any training or PD, and they will put student information at risk. Districts are going to find themselves in a bind because they haven't developed AUPs that cover these new emerging tools, and they haven't set any standards in place as to how they are going to deal with student IDs and username/passwords.

In many ways, it's going to be a mess. For districts that have had the money and the resources- they have built their "walled garden" years ago with their mini Moodle world. Pat those districts on the back. From this mess, though- something wonderful is going to happen.

Teaching in The Cloud will hit the tipping point.

Then -what are we going to see?
1. More users.
2. More users = more security.
3. More security = more districts are going to be willing to put student info in The Cloud. (In fact- mark my words- there will be a day where parents will demand this because the most progressive, high-tech education tools and apps, will available in The Cloud)
4. More elaborate AUPs that give districts more freedom with The Cloud and student information. In fact, parents, at that point, will have so much of their own data in The Cloud, that the litigation issue will, most likely, be a misnomer.

The Cloud, for better or for worse, is about to get much more crowded because of the Netbook. Fortunately, the security that will come out of it will make a transparent education a reality.

Now, as educators, we all hope to get to a point where education is free for all, and the same tools are available to everyone. Or do we? Or do some districts hope to create a competitive environment where some of their tools are only available within their own Walls? Is a transparent education actually feared? In Miguel's last post he states,

"Web 2.0 technologies allow educators to rebel against the status quo and to incite our students to do so as well."

Is he saying teachers are to be feared because of Web 2.0? Have they gained too much influence in the classroom and their students? Should teachers be feared now because districts cannot control how they communicate? Are Walled Gardens built as a means of controlling the community- students and teachers alike?

As an educator, I feel we all want the same things for our students. I have to believe that. So- it's important to have this debate. Right now, we're in an arms race of sorts. There are going to be benefits and consequences on both sides. One thing I think is important though, and that's that we are all trying very hard to do the best for our students. We're using wikis and Skype to collaborate with other students, we're creating all-inclusive global projects, we're building our own in-house tools to serve our community- we're pushing the envelope for what can be imagined. And many of us are following standards that ensure student safety. We are working with a system that is both flattening on one hand, and trying to remain hierarchical on the other (hello oxymoron?). We'll either meet somewhere in the middle, or the educational system will, somehow, bust.

In this reach for computing and educating freedom, I remember a quote I had hanging on my door all throughout high school:

If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.- Henry David Thoreau

Image from Michael Dawes on flickr

For every teacher I run into these days on Twitter, at a conference, on my blog, there's very few of them that don't have the gleam of these words in their eye. I truly believe that we're in this for the same reasons. Our students.

My wonder is that when The Cloud becomes the norm and many of us are sitting around Walden Pond, will some districts' Walled Gardens have turned into gates?
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