Exercise Seven: Cloud Computing

Cloud computing is a term that gets thrown around quite a bit, but what is it exactly?  Basically, it means that instead of saving to your computer or to a server in our school district, you are saving your work on the Internet.  This means that you can access your work from any computer (or other device) with Internet access.  Since Mounds View provides Gmail accounts for all users, a powerful new tool for collaboration with our fellow teachers or for our students to use when working on group projects. Watch the video below for a thorough explanation of how Google Docs works.

This next video gives an example of how you might use Google Docs with students to give feedback on their work:

Google Docs is one example of cloud computing; there are several others out there.  In fact, most of our activities reside in the cloud, since you create an account for each website, which then stores your work.  Since we have Google Apps for Education, that is what we're using for our activity this week. 

 

Activity:

1.  Create a Google Doc that you could use at school (it could be a word document, a form (note that you will specifically create a form in another camp activity) , a spreadsheet, a presentation, a calendar...you have tons of options!  

2.  Share your document with your drill sergeant and a few of your fellow recruits.  Give them access to comment on your document.

3.  Create a link to your document and include it in your post. Make sure that your document is either a public document or accessible to anyone with the link, so that others can view it!

4.  Answer these reflection questions:

  *  How would you use cloud computing with this particular example?

  *  Would cloud computing be a useful tool in your classroom?  What are the pros and cons?

5. Comment on 3 other recruits blogs for this week's activity.