technology Del Siegle, Ph.D. Cloud Computing: A Free Technology Option to Promote Collaborative Learning In a time of budget cuts and limited funding, pur- development teams and by acquiring other compa- chasing and installing the latest software on class- nies with innovative additions (such as http://www. room computers can be prohibitive for schools. etherpad.com). Zoho (http://www.zoho.com) is Many educators are unaware that a variety of free another program that offers an impressive suite of software options exist, and some of them do not online productivity tools that permits users to col- actually require installing software on the user’s com- laborate on projects. puter. One such option is cloud computing. This For example, a student in New Jersey could be popular technology trend has been gaining momen- collaborating with a student in Hawaii on a pre- tum over the last 4 years. sentation that they share with a student in Paris by Cloud computing is a computing technology that using the cloud computing services of companies like uses the Internet and central remote servers to main- Google and Zoho. Best of all, the service is free; no Itain data and applications. Cloud computing allows software needs to be installed. The programs run on students and teachers to use applications without the Internet, and the files are saved on the Internet. installing them on their computers and also allows Although Google led the charge 4 years ago with access to saved files from any computer with an its online documents, its dominance of cloud com- Internet connection. This technology involves much puting is now being challenged by the major pro- more efficient computing by centralizing storage, ducer of productivity software. Microsoft recently memory, processing, and bandwidth. It also enables established large data centers in Houston, Chicago, a number of individuals to simultaneously work on a Ireland, and other locations and has launched cloud project—regardless of their location. The term cloud services for its popular Office program (http://www. computing is used because the services and storage are microsoft.com/cloud). Microsoft’s Office Web Apps provided over the Internet (or cloud). on SkyDrive allows users to create, edit, and share Some of the better known cloud computing Office documents with people who have Office offerings consist of productivity tools (i.e., word and those who do not. Two people can simultane- processing, spreadsheet, presentation, drawing, and ously edit the same spreadsheet, Word document, conferencing programs). Google Docs (http://docs. or PowerPoint presentation from different locations google.com/demo) is the best known of these (see through a PC, the web, or a Windows Mobile phone “Moving Beyond Google Searches: Google Earth, (Chan, 2010). Microsoft, like most of the free cloud SketchUp, Spreadsheet, and More” in Gifted Child computing providers, implants advertisements into Today, Vol. 30, No. 1, pp. 24–28 for information the applications to support the service. on Google Docs). Over the past 4 years, Google has Students and educators who do not have the Office steadily improved these programs through its own program can now create Word, Excel, PowerPoint, gifted child today 41 Cloud Computing __________________________________________________ Figure 1. Microsoft has joined the cloud computing __________________________________________________ movement with free web-based versions of its Figure 2. Young students can easily make simple popular Office Suite. improvements to their digital images with Picnik. and OneNote documents on Windows neously with a single document. This grams shared in this column are free. Live (http://www.windowslive.com). eliminates the need for multiple ver- Some of these options are filled with Users must have a Windows Live sions of the same document—the advertising, others are not. Some login. With it, they can freely create, current version is the latest version. require a user login and password edit, save, and share documents with- Finally, in many cases, each version (essential for storing and retrieving out installing any software. After log- of the document is saved and previ- files), although many do not. ging into Windows Live, students can ous versions of a document can easily In addition to the popular produc- access files they have saved or create be retrieved. Some cloud computing tivity tools provided by Google, Zoho, new files from the Office tab at the top options contain all of these features, and Microsoft, new specialty software of the page (see Figure 1). And conve- while others contain one or two of has surfaced that features some of niently, like in Google Docs and Zoho, them. the cloud computing components the documents they create are available Businesses are finding that cloud described above, but not necessarily for editing and sharing from any com- computing saves time and money, and all of them. Educators will find sev- puter connected to the Internet. schools will also find cloud computing eral of these programs very useful. The There are four major advantages to to not only be “budget friendly,” but remainder of this column is dedicated cloud computing. First, multiple cop- educationally beneficial. Students can to sharing a few of them. ies of software applications do not need learn a variety of computer production to be installed on computers around skills in a collaborative learning envi- Photo Editing the school. This saves time and the ronment. Projects started at school can cost of site licenses. Second, although be continued at home without having Digital recording devices have documents created with these applica- to transfer files or download compat- become ubiquitous. In addition to tions can be downloaded to the user’s ible software. the widespread availability of digital computer, they are usually saved on the In the not too distant future, it is cameras, digital recording devices are software provider’s server, so they can conceivable that cloud computing may now built into most computers and be accessed from any computer con- be the standard platform for all soft- cell phones. The images from many nected to the Internet. Third, in many ware, and users will pay a monthly or of these devices can be improved and cases, the creator of a document can yearly fee for using the services. Several enhanced with photo editing software. invite others to view and even edit the software providers have already moved Increasingly, in this digital age, ideas document. Several people in different to this business model. Although fee are being expressed visually. Being able locations can be interacting simulta- services already exist, all of the pro- to express oneself visually is becoming 42 fall 2010 • vol 33, no 4 Cloud Computing a useful communication tool. Students a variety of edit- enjoy taking and editing digital photo- ing functions. The graphs. They also can learn to improve opening screen the images they use in the presenta- offers options to tion they make and the products upload a photo for they create. Whereas Google’s Picasa retouching, create (http://picasa.google.com) is a popular collages, print an and free photo editing software that image, or create can be downloaded and installed on slide shows that users’ computers, Picnik (http://www. can be posted on picnik.com), Splashup (http://www. the Internet. splashup.com), and Pixlr (http://www. Once a photo pixlr.com) are three cloud computing is uploaded, it can online applications that will meet easily be improved most students’ image-editing needs within the Edit and run on the Internet without being tab (see Figure downloaded and installed. Beginners 2). Students can will enjoy the easy-to-use features of crop, improve the Picnik, while more advanced users color, remove red can appreciate the more sophisticated eye, and sharpen features found in Splashup and Pixlr. their images. Although each of these programs runs Students can save through the Internet without install- their retouched ing additional software, they do not images back to technically meet the full definition their computer of cloud computing for two reasons. with the Save & First, only one person can retouch an Share tab. The image at a time. The programs lack the Create tab con- collaborative feature of cloud comput- tains a number of ing. Second, the images are stored on advanced features the user’s computer, rather than on that are mostly a remove server (although there are restricted to the __________________________________________________ options to store and share the final premium ($24.95 Figure 3. Students can create a variety of collages image on the Internet). With these two per year) version. of their favorite images with Picnik. drawbacks in mind, they are still useful The Library tab programs that educators and parents permits students and advanced features are restricted to will want to consider. to upload up to five photos, provided the premium version. Picnik (which was recently acquired they have established a login and pass- More advanced users are probably by Google) can be used without cre- word. The premium version permits familiar with Adobe’s Photoshop, ating a login and password, although more photos to be saved on the site. which has been an industry standard users will need one to create slide Students also can design and save col- for photo retouching. One key feature shows that can be shared on the lages (see Figure 3) of their photos. If of Photoshop is the ability to create Internet. Picnik also has a wide range students have a login and password, layers. With layers, parts of several of advanced features that are blocked they can create automated slide pre- images can be combined to create new on the free version. With little to no sentations that can be posted to the images.