5
Peter Vaisanen
Ontario Tech University
Abstract
The 21st Century has brought a new set of skills that students will need to be successful in the world: critical thinking, problem solving, communication and collaboration. Technology can support the development of those skills and has also brought change to the way teachers and students go about delivering information and learning. The majority of students and teachers in developed nations, all have cell phones, computers and easy access to the internet at their fingertips. This chapter explores the use of technology, but more specifically the use of cloud computing, in a classroom. In the first section, the author explores the literature around cloud computing by analysing its benefits and drawbacks. Benefits will revolve around accessibility, collaboration, organization and cost, while the drawbacks will touch upon privacy, access to the internet and reliability. In the second section of the chapter, the author looks at specific cloud computing applications such as Google Classroom, Google Docs and Google Slides and how they can be implemented within a classroom. The idea behind this chapter will be to inform readers about cloud computing while also making connections between the use of cloud computing to help develop 21st Century skills.
Keywords: cloud computing, google classroom, google docs, google slides, technology, 21st century skills
Introduction
Teaching and learning in the 21st Century has brought change to the way teachers and students go about their everyday lives. For example, the majority of students and teachers all have cell phones, computers and easy access to the internet at their fingertips. Whereas students and teachers traditionally never had this as an option. Students are learning differently, and teachers need to adapt on how to deliver the information. This chapter draws upon the use of cloud computing in to a classroom to help develop 21st Century Skills. The chapter will also analyse the benefits and drawbacks that cloud computing can have when implementing it in to a classroom. Finally, it will offer recommendations of how to integrate specific applications within a classroom to help with student learning.
Background Information
The P21 Framework highlights the essential skills students need to be successful in the world today: critical thinking, problem solving, communication and collaboration skills (Battelle for Kids, n.d.). In this part of the chapter, it will look at the benefits of using cloud computing and how it can facilitate a 21st Century Classroom, but also how it could impede it.
Cloud computing is defined by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Lewis states the following:
as a model for enabling ubiquitous, 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