Upon beginning to read about web 2.0, cloud computing, and podcasting I constantly had the feeling I was trying to read a foreign language. I never realized how detached and ignorant I am about new technologies and how they affect the field of education. I mean, as a college student I acquired my Facebook account in 2004 with my .edu email account, yet I never thought of it as a web 2.0 technology. Growing up using computers, later utilizing the internet for educational learning, and becoming proficient in the Microsoft Office programs just seemed like normal ways students put technology to educational use. When I visited the Discovery Education website on web 2.0 tools, I was impressed at how many programs are out there available for people to use for sharing information. I guess we tend to stick to our comfort zones and what tools we have grown comfortable using (e.g. Power Point) that we do not seek newer and more playful tools such as Prezi.
I had the hardest time wrapping my brain around the language used to explain cloud computing. As hard as I try, I really don’t know much about the differences between an infrastructure (IaaS) and a platform (PaaS). I think it would have been great to have some known examples of such so that maybe I could research the product and learn more about what it does. Software as a Service was somewhat more comprehensible because I know the names of a few softwares and understand what they are intended to do. Despite not fully understanding the technical aspect of cloud computing, I did understand the reasons some educational institutions are turning to cloud computing services. It seems that despite the benefits of adapting cloud services, the negative aspects do imply some serious repercussions, such as sanctions due to privacy violations or exporting information (Nicholson, 2009). As a user of the iCloud through my iPhone and iPad, sometimes I wonder if any of the contents in it could be accessible to the public. Not that I have content that I should be ashamed of, but privacy is something that should be respected and one trusts big companies to protect it. I see it as a customer’s right to have their privacy protected. Hopefully, with the increase of cloud computing use by educational institutions, more clear guidelines and expectations are also set up for the protection of the customer.
Although podcasting was popular during my undergraduate years, I never had a college course where it was used as a tool for learning. I’m slightly jealous that I didn’t get to use it as a tool because I was always one of those students that wished I could listen to lectures again to make sure I had a good grasp of the learning material. If podcasts are really not too difficult to create, I definitely think this tool should be continued to be used in education, even for elementary education. At the same time I realize not all students can learn simply by listening, so vodcasts should also be utilized more frequently for students like me who are visual learners.
Small slightly irrelevant side note: my outdated Microsoft Word does not recognize many of the terms and names, such as iPad and podcast, as I completed a spell check on this summary. It suggested that I might have meant “vodka” instead of “vodcast.” No, Word, no drinking for you tonight.
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