Thing 45: Cloud Computing

I'm in the cloud. My personal email is gmail because I got tired of having to switch all my email addresses when I changed internet service providers. I am starting to move my documents into GoogleDocs. I have a Flickr account and a Photobucket account.

I even have a Facebook page and a MySpace page but only because I needed them for the first 23 Things. I check them only when I get a message from them telling me that something new is happening. I did manage to connect with someone on Facebook that I haven't heard from since I graduated from college in 1972. She found me! I think that we are actually going to be getting together soon to catch up on our lives.

I very much appreciate the ability to access my stuff no matter where I am. I have already wanted some information stored in my school's E drive since I got home and wish that I would have transferred that document to my GoogleDocs. Transferring more files is going to be first on my to do list when school starts in the fall.

I would like to teach my sixth grade students about GoogleDocs because I think that would help them a lot in their high school career. I don't know how often kids have told me that the document was at home or, worse yet, on their flash drive but unopenable because it is a different version of the programs we use at school. My concern there is that they need to have email addresses to access GoogleDocs and to collaborate. We don't give the kids email accounts primarily because we don't want to manage or police them. Many parents don't want their young kids to have email for the same reasons. But it sure would be useful!

I just got something from the Official Google Blog about Google Apps for Education that I really want to run by our school technology people. I think that would give us more control without more work.

I think that cloud computing is the wave of the future. I'd rather surf on it than be drowned by it.