Times are changing, we often hear this phrase. Apart from environmental, economical and political changes, technological advancements have also hit the news blogs more often than the former three ideas. The term Cloud Computing was also one such idea that eliminated and simply wiped off the concept of hardware and software used for the purpose of data storage. Why cloud computing became so popular is no complex story, people wanted to access their data from remote servers and this phenomenon saved them from the havoc of taking care of CDs , thumb drives and floppy drives etc.
Ironic it is, but just as we can say clouds in the sky are everywhere, similarly cloud in terms of technology follow you in every corner of planet earth, provided that you have access to internet there. Why was this idea generated, how useful it is practically? Let us see to the following key points to get a better view:
- Accessibility: long gone are the times when you would hurriedly scribble down notes of a missed lecture or beg a friend to lend you his notebook for a day or two. With cloud computing, online lectures, PowerPoint slides and any study material can be uploaded and accessed anytime.
- Safe shelter: Well the worst part with those physical devices was that if you misplaced them by any chance you were bound to get doomed. This cloud technology saves you from such tragedies, by letting you have a personal username and id via which you can always access your notes and saved data at any hour of time. So may you need files at school at work or at a friend’s place you have full liberty to extract your personal data.
- ‘Sharing’ no big deal: If you wish to share your stuff with teachers, friends and colleagues no need to play the lending borrowing game. Just send a link to the file’s destination and your issue is resolved.
- Integration and collaboration: You can make groups and forums in your cloud. This will act as an innovative feature which is very popular in online learning environment. This will also built up interest of your group mates. You may also use instagram to share classroom experiences with your teachers and friends.
- Your data is trackable: One extra ordinary usage of cloud computing is that it keeps record of all your data, may it be raw, edited or finalized. It saves multiple revisions and versions of a document so that if you want your unprocessed data it is right there in your folder.
- Save trees: The biggest advantage of technology is its ability to digitize written text. This has in true meanings saved the trees from willowing and weeping. Now there is no need of a photocopier and also huge file and document cabinets. All they did was eat up the space in your rooms!
- Online study: There are numerous colleges and universities that have their software departments managing huge student databases. This may also include conducting online quizzes, a helpline forum for students and online video tutorials for students regarding assignments and projects.
- My options: If you are asking for the best ones Google docs and drop box are pretty famous. You can store in almost any of your personal data in there, even after years you can track it and it will be safe as something.
The advent of this idea has a lot of positive impacts as far as student life is concerned. Paper was a medium of storing your ideas and knowledge; it is an obsolete idea now. One can’t be standing still when rest of the world is advancing at a lightning-fast speed. We need to match the pace of the world. This cloud backup is a contingency plan, when the paper will evaporate from the planet you need to have your little technological closet for your precious data and information.
