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Sharing Tips and Tricks on Cloud Computing

In your courses you have been asked to share your tips and tricks of cloud computing. Post any ideas, activities, resources, or other tips you may have regarding cloud computing in this discussion forum.

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Derek Osborne on April 25, 2011 at 8:33pm

One of the great benefits of cloud computing is the saving of server space. All of the documents and presentations I have accumulated over 14 years takes up a lot of space. All teachers can move a lot of documents to the cloud and save the district on the costs of the servers. The next issue is email. I don't know how many times I have gotten the "your mailbox is full" message, but converting to the cloud would be another way to save a lot of server space and not lose those emails that cant get through. I haven't used the cloud much as of yet, but I can see my students being able to collaborate on projects and save their materials for class and not have to worry about things dissapearing for forgetting them at home.

Permalink Reply by Mark Nerczuk on April 29, 2011 at 10:09pm

I started using Google Docks with my classes last year and I love it. Students turn in more assignments than before by sharing directly with me. I don't have to deal with 200 pieces if paper for each assignments and look it over directly on line and sent the feedback on line. Good stuff.

Permalink Reply by Eric Whitney on April 30, 2011 at 2:53pm

I couldn't agree more. I believe more school districts will be looking at cloud computing for the very reason you state. I am hearing more and more about districts that don't even support an email server anymore, but just use gmail instead. In addition to the cost savings of cloud computing, I can see that the convenience is also a huge bonus for teachers and students. I watch my middle school daughter dealing with the issue of transporting her work back and forth to and from school. Things have been misplaced, lost and forgotten on more than one occasion. The cloud would be a great tool to keep her organized between school and home. It certainly keeps me together between many work locations!

Permalink Reply by Kevin Karkkainen on May 3, 2011 at 3:11pm

I agree. The cost savings can be significant and streamlining services, through google for example, makes it easier to integrate multiple tools.

Permalink Reply by Denise M. Legghio on April 25, 2011 at 10:32pm

Wow, this is a great site. I tried it before I posted. So cool! I feel my first exposure to cloud learning was when I was asked to create a Google document. I have been the using the tried and true method of creating a word document and working on it when I am at the computer on which it is saved. This opened a whole new world for me, I was able to work on it while I took my daughter to visit her grandparents, I would sneak up to their office and work away. . .when I visited my husband at his office I could simply log on while he had a "daddy/daughter lunch date" and work away. Then I was introduced to the Google calendar and (again) a dimension of my new world came to life. I have even implemented the use of the calendar at my husband's office. He has been using a paper calendar to schedule time in his conference room. . .imagine the headaches that occur when one attorney books and another has not checked the calendar and schedules clients at the same time. Now, everyone can log onto the calendar from home, office or on their blackberry and check availability. . .ahhh, no more conflict headaches. :)

Permalink Reply by Derek Osborne on April 27, 2011 at 10:00pm

These types of calendars are becoming popular. We are starting to use them at our school. Currently, our calendars are on the servers, but if we put them into the cloud, we could then see the schedules from anywhere. We schedule facilities, computer labs, laptop carts and rooms with these calendars. It would help to see them from anywhere, but could run into a problem with schedule conflicts if everyone who can view it could schedule. Just a view only.

Permalink Reply by Mark Nerczuk on April 29, 2011 at 9:50pm

There are few websites that I have been using to create puzzles long time before I knew the word "cloud computing" The firs one is Crossword Puzzle Maker http://www.armoredpenguin.com/crossword/

It takes minutes to make beautiful crosswords that can be solved on line or printed in pdf. form. I usually use it in pdf. Another good puzzle site is a Word Search maker if you use word searches. I use it to reinforce vocabulary with my ELL students. http://www.teach-nology.com/web_tools/word_search/ Next good site will allow you to a quiz builder by Word Smith. It makes matching quizzes that you can modify to your needs http://www.wordsmyth.net/?mode=qm

Permalink Reply by Jimmy Dunn on May 1, 2011 at 5:49pm

Mark, I love Armored Penguin! The crossword puzzles can be great for a study guide before a test or quiz. After students were comfortable with the crossword puzzles I would print off for them, I had them create their own, then switch with a partner.

They also have an option to complete the puzzles online. I experimented with it and was not pleased. Stick to creating them as .pdfs and printing them out!

Permalink Reply by Jimmy Dunn on May 1, 2011 at 5:46pm

One form of cloud computing that we have started using a lot at my school is Dropbox. Dropbox basically works like an online flash drive. You can save files to private folders, public folders, or shared folders. You manually enter the usernames of whoever you want to share with.

I'd known about Dropbox for a little while, but only started using it when I had to. We had a 20 minute movie that we needed to get from my school to an elementary school in my district. They needed it that day, and nobody had a blank CD. It was simple to setup my Dropbox account, put the file in a folder, help a teacher at the other school setup their account, and share the folder. The whole process took about a half hour.

When you create your free account you will get 2GB of storage for free. If you are interested in Dropbox, and want 2.25 GB instead of 2GB, click on this link: http://db.tt/qCAkj8h (You and I both get .25GB for free) Enjoy!

Permalink Reply by Andrew H on May 2, 2011 at 10:22am

This is the program my administrators are using on their iPads. They are able to move files from their PC and from the network and transfer them easily to their iPads. Great app and tool!

Permalink Reply by Andrew H on May 2, 2011 at 10:19am

In my district we registered our domain with Google and are currently using Google Calendar at our Elementary/Middle school and administrators are using Google Mail on their phones. We have tossed around the idea of moving our entire mailing service to Google Mail so we no longer deal with GroupWise or licensing, but with the Amazon Cloud crash that happened a few weeks ago the incentive wasn't there to move completely off of our physical file servers. My best approach to this would be synchronize Google Mail with our GroupWise server so we would be able to get the best of both worlds and still have e-mail archiving in our control.

Google Calendar helps out a lot with our staff and events that take place in our building and it helps manage our computer labs. I will slowly move my district towards Google Docs, most likely by the end of this year I will introduce my Central Office Administration staff and building administrators. Once our school district leaders have been using Google Apps and Docs, then I will begin to help move it into the classrooms with teachers.

Permalink Reply by Robert Prudhomme on June 13, 2011 at 9:44pm

I think it's a good idea to slowly move over to using the Google platform. I think the entire Google interface is user friendly and easy for anyone to quickly learn how to navigate which is a huge advantage. The ability of NOT having to waste time saving and uploading documents to an email is huge for me because it gives me back time that I can spend doing something more useful. That alone makes me interested in cloud computing utilities.