Journal #1 Computing in the Clouds NETS III & V

          Johnson, D. (2009). Computing in the clouds. International Society for Technology in Education. v37.4 http://www.iste.org/Content/NavigationMenu/Publications/LL/LLIssues/Volume3720092010/DecemberJanuaryNo4/Computing_in_the_Clouds.htm

          In the article, Computing in the Clouds, author Doug Johnson introduces the concept of relying on applications and file storage on a network: either a local-area network, a district intranet, or the Internet. This eliminates the need to save information to external disks and even emailing documents to oneself. This is beneficial because if your computer crashes, all information will be located online and accessible from any computer with internet. This saves room on your computer as well, allowing it to run faster and more efficient. However, this idea off trusting an online network to secure all my information makes me a little hesitant. I don't believe turning over everything to technology and/or the internet is the best idea. Having a hard copy of document or storing them on a hard drive is the best back up for me. However, loading pictures online may be a good idea since picture take up a lot of memory on a computer. 
           So how would I bring this concept to the classroom? Would it work for me personally? Using this concept of "computing in the clouds" can only go so far in education. To implement this in the classroom, students must have access to a computer and this is not always the case. This does allow the piles and piles of papers to be saved online and eliminates paper waste. Personally, I love an organized file system in paper verses this computing with clouds idea. However, I am an "email it to yourself" person and I admit I have forgotten to email my document to myself and ended up not having it when I needed.