It seems like only yesterday (okay last year) when we were rambling on about how Google Apps and all of these Web 2.0 companies were going to take our data and flush it down the toilet once they ran out of money. (And for that matter, remember when Discovery Streaming was the next thing to buttered toast?)Well, what a difference one summer can make.
After trolling the Bloggers Cafe at NECC '09 in Washington DC, eating at Google's micro-kitchen at Google Teacher Academy in, Boulder, CO- I must say that I didn't hear death knells for data, people weren't measuring coffins for school districts' tech admins, and it felt as the keys were left in the door to the walled garden and nobody worried.
Google has made such a strong showing since they introduced Wave, and are ramping up Google Apps for Ed even more this year with more support, more qualified districts, and with more companies using them. Tech educators seem generally confident that their data is safe with Google. As for the other Web 2.o companies, well you need only visit TechCrunch's Deadpool or look at the below image to see how the Web 2.0 world is changing. Google recently made the NEA's list of tech tool must-haves for this year, so don't worry- Google's got your back.
If Cloud Computing is finally in- what's out?
- Terms like: Web 2.0, 21st Century Literacy
- Discovery Streaming- sorry, but still no embedding? Blah. National Geographic has some embeddable video; I'll go there.
- Hosted LMSs like Moodle and Blackboard. I'll be the first in line for "Moodle the Web-app."
- Microsoft Word, though it was out last year too.
- Flash Drives- how many do have that are sitting in a drawer?
- Cable in the Classroom
Gotta say, with all the teachers I talked to this summer who shared Google Documents with me, collaborated on presentations, went to PD seminars- Google has got the buzz. I met folks who wanted to look at my Android phone, mostly because they wanted to see my Google Voice App, or see how Google has integrated their Apps into mobile phones. I'm excited to finally be able to use Google Docs with our students this year, and I don't feel worried that I'll lose info, at least from Google anyway.
Here's how The Cloud helped me this year:
- When my district email went down, I was the only employee that forward my district mail to Gmail. So for two days, I was the only one that still received my email, and was able to function, thanks to Gmail.
- Both of my computers crashed this summer- iMac G5 and laptop. Thankfully, most of my documents, even my taxes, were saved in the Cloud, whether at Google Docs or TurboTax online. I was never without a resource for my documents. I even uploaded a batch of photos to photobucket.com and saved those as well.
Dead Web 2.0
Thanks to Meg Pickard on flickr for the Web 2.0 image.
Thanks to flattop341 on flickr for the coffin image.
