Student's Aren't the Only Ones With Their Heads in the Clouds

Cloudcomputing. What is it and why should we care? Cloudcomputing is a fairly new term on the technology horizon. The Wikipedia describes it as: "... Internet-based computing, whereby shared resources, software and information are provided to computers and other devices on-demand, like a public utility." Click here to read more from Wikipedia. Basically, it's a means to deliver the software and network access that you normally would have to be at school to use from any computer connected to the Internet. That means you can get access to your server space and other resources from home, a conference with available wireless, or while you enjoy a cup of coffee and a pastry at your local coffee shop using any wireless device. Doesn't matter if it's a laptop that's owned by the school, a Windows Vista or 7 Home Premium PC that you've recently purchased, or an iMac/MacBook Pro. Even your Internet-capable Smartphone can connect. Pretty cool!

Soon our secondary schools will be starting a demo of Stoneware, a cloudcomputing solution, that we are looking at implementing in the near future. Not quite sure why they picked a name like "Stone" to represent the Cloud but I'm not their marketing person so I digress! :-) Anyway, a few of your fellow teachers will be trying out this software and seeing how it works for them. Hopefully it will be a successful trial and we can begin adding additional users and a full implementation for staff for the upcoming school year.