The prospect of "cloud" in the marriage of education and cloud

From apps to live, Cloud computing (cloudcomputing) is becoming more and more familiar, and it has become a popular word. Figuratively speaking, "cloud computing" is like a bank atm, we go out and do not have to carry a large amount of cash, can be used at any time to access. Complex data processing, such as running software, that was originally done on a local PC or stand-alone remote server, is now coordinated by a large number of distributed computers, and this process is delivered to our desktops as a service via the Internet. , any user from the world needs only a simple access device to access this service locally via the Internet, and to achieve high-performance computing services for low configuration devices.

As technology matures, cloud computing is opening the doors of schools to serve education.

The migration of cloud computing in education is called the "Education Cloud", is the future education information infrastructure, including the education information must be all the hardware computing resources, these resources after virtualization, to educational institutions, educators and students to provide a good platform for the role of the Platform for the education sector to provide cloud services.

The education cloud includes various forms of "cloud-assisted instruction" (CLOUDCOMPUTINGASSISTEDINSTRUCTIONS,CCAI) and cloud-assisted education (CLOUDSCOMPUTINGBASEDEDUCATION,CCBE).

Cloud Computing Assisted Instruction (CLOUDCOMPUTINGASSISTEDINSTRUCTIONS,CCAI) refers to the education "cloud service" supported by the "cloud computing", which is used by schools and teachers to construct the information environment of individualized teaching, to support teachers ' effective teaching and students ' active learning. Promote students ' advanced thinking ability and group intelligence development, improve the quality of education. That is to make full use of cloud services brought by cloud computing for our teaching to provide resource sharing, storage space unlimited convenience conditions.

Cloud-assisted education (CLOUDSCOMPUTINGBASEDEDUCATION,CCBE), or "cloud based education", refers to the use of cloud computing services in various areas of education to assist in teaching and learning activities. Cloud computing assisted education is a new subject concept, belonging to the intersection of computer science and education science, it pays attention to the sum of various elements in the education activities in the future cloud computing era, mainly explores the application law of the services provided by cloud computing in education and teaching, and supports and blends with the mainstream learning theory. corresponding education and teaching resources and process design and management.

Cloud computing will be popular in schools because cloud computing is low on client devices. Kim Network CEO Rob analysis points out that cloud computing can be distributed on a large number of distributed computers in the memory, storage and computing power to become a virtual resource pool, and through the network to provide users with practical computing (utilitycomputing) services. In order to meet the increasing demand for computing, schools have to constantly buy and update computer equipment. If you use cloud computing services, the vast majority of computing tasks to the cloud (distributed computer server) to complete, just let the computer connected to the Internet. In Simtone's "General Cloud Computing Services" program for schools, schools have the option of using the company's desktop thin client and laptops based on the Asus EEE Architecture snapbook--Such devices have no operating system and internal data processing, and are very inexpensive The user opens a large amount of computing load on the client using a variety of software, and hardware maintenance is given to the cloud service provider. School teachers and students can also use the old computer, or the performance of the average Low-cost laptop and smartphone access to cloud services, to enjoy the virtual desktop provided by cloud computing fun. The use of such a cloud computing services, schools can greatly save the cost of computer hardware purchase and maintenance.

Cloud computing provides schools with an economical application customization service. Software as a service (SAAS) is a type of cloud service, and apps and Zohooffice are the services. School access to such cloud computing services, no need to spend a lot of money to buy commercial software licensing, some commonly used applications such as Office series, cloud services have been offered, low-cost, and some even free. The client's local computer can enjoy cloud services with only a graphical interface to the Linux operating system and the Firefox browser, without worrying about whether the application is the latest version, which greatly reduces the cost of the school's operating system and application software for maintenance and upgrades. Linux and Firefox are open source software that can get permission to use freely. A typical case is Google's cloud computing service apps, which provides free word processing, spreadsheets, PowerPoint presentations, Web production, and e-mail applications to individual users. In some schools, it is easier and simpler to use apps than to set up Open-source applications on a computer. So this is also a challenge for open source applications.

Cloud computing provides schools with reliable and secure data storage centers. In the virus rampant internet age, the security of data storage is more important. The problem of information security is particularly prominent in schools where professionals are lacking. Schools use cloud computing services, and data is stored in the cloud. Therefore, there is no need to worry about virus intrusion and hardware damage resulting in data loss.

Cloud computing makes data sharing easier. In Simtone's Education cloud computing project, ordinary old computers access the "Websnap" portal through their browsers to their "Universal Cloud computing Services" platform, while newer computers (which run WinXP or above) access cloud services through the terminal virtual machine software "Softsnap". The cloud service is delivered to each teacher and student with a virtual personal computer desktop. Whether you're at school or at home, or if you use a desktop computer, laptop, or cell phone, you'll get to the same virtual desktop, like a system that uses a single computer. So you can continue your work anywhere, or you can share your data on a variety of devices. Enabling shared mechanisms provided by cloud computing services also makes it easy to collaborate on sharing documents with others. For example, using apps, you can bring unfinished writing home, and work with your partner to complete instructional design text and presentation documents, and share with other teachers.

"Cloud computing" will provide educators and educators with all web-based services. The resulting "cloud education", "Cloud Teacher", "cloud teaching", "Cloud Teaching Resource Database", "Cloud Teaching Library", "Cloud research", "Cloud Examination", "cloud student Evaluation", "cloud employment consultation", and so on. For example, in the "Cloud teaching" network, teachers and students can interact with the "situational teaching" to provide unlimited imagination space and teaching scenes. In the "Cloud Teaching Resource Library" on the network, there will be every student's learning database, all kinds of students can rely on personal network key, at any time open, read their own learning materials. On the network of "cloud research", teachers will be able to exchange teaching experiences on the Internet at any time, consult the latest educational reform information and publish their own academic viewpoints. In the "Cloud student evaluation" of the network, each student will be because of their academic performance, learning performance, personal characteristics and other comprehensive performance, but the network is active, scientific, reasonable, human nature and has a development vision of comprehensive evaluation. In the "Cloud Student Employment Consultation" network, will have each student's growth record and the personal credit record, the student and the employer can carry on the information interaction at any time.

All of these are based on the "cloud" of "cloud education." In the field of education, 2011 is considered as the "Year of opportunity" of the national higher education and educational reform, the Twelve-Five plan, put forward the instruction policy of combining education industry with information industry, and ask the national colleges and universities to do well the work of the educational industry "cloud computing service innovation and development pilot model", Cloud computing will become the core technology of talent training and innovative education in higher education in China.

At the national level, the digital gap between the east and the West is huge, the educational resources flow is obviously different, which poses a great obstacle to the education equity and challenges to the construction of lifelong learning and the learning Society of all people. From the school level, information construction in the achievements of the same time, there are many problems: low-level duplication of construction, The phenomenon is serious, education resources is difficult to open and share, invest a lot of manpower, material resources, financial resources, but not obtain the corresponding benefit. The society urgently needs a kind of efficient and fair resource sharing, and the development of university Informationization is going to the demand-oriented and user-centric service.

From the perspective of the market, China Internet Association Integrated Network Information Center, Eric Consulting, Analysys International and other authoritative agencies report that 2012 China's cloud computing market will be more than 60 billion yuan, "Twelve-Five" period, cloud industry chain scale can reach 750 billion to 1 trillion yuan. Kim Network CEO Rob that in our country vigorously promote information education, digital learning era background, "Education cloud" will help "cloud education" industry information development. As China's cloud computing, especially the Internet of things and other emerging industries fast, "cloud education" in recent years, a number of cities have carried out pilot and demonstration projects, involving power grids, transportation, logistics, intelligent home, energy conservation and environmental protection, industrial automation, medical and health, fine agriculture and animal husbandry, financial services, public safety, public learning and other areas of government, Pilot has achieved initial results, will produce a huge application market.

(Responsible editor: The good of the Legacy)