What is the Cloud? - Advantages and disadvantages

We can define the term CLOUD as the services where information and files are kept on servers connected to the Internet.

Using the Cloud has many advantages, it is a service created for storage information and files, where you do not need to keep it closer to you anymore. On the one hand the most important advantage is that you can choose the scale and cost of your cloud (referring to storage), depending of your needs because many companies gives you free storage (with a limit) and you can amplify your storage by paying for it. In fact, you can have your files in any digital device you work with: computer, smartphone or tablet.

On the whole, many people nowadays use digital copies for everything, photos, books, music, video, etc., so it is normal that young generations’ uses these services to keep their files safe and to manage them in every device they use.

On the other hand there are disadvantages too, not everything in the cloud is good. For instance, the security might be a problem if someone stole your password and your files. There is a lack of control of where your files are, the “cloud” is a vague term to call “somewhere on the Internet”, and these could affect to your reliability. Also, there are not offices with Customer Support to ask about the problems that you could have. These services have a strict policy that could help you or not depending on the country where you live.

In any way is a useful tool to keep and share information with another people, and I normally use some of them, for example:

•  Dropbox, where I share with my friends our photos and useful documents for our studies.

• OneDrive or SkyDrive at my home with the computer, tablet and smartphone to have all my music, e-books and photos in all the devices I have.

• Google Drive for group work, and to keep personalized maps of the cities that I am going to visit.

If you want to know more about the Cloud, or Cloud Computing you could take a look to this websites where I found information:

Articles: 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/webwise/guides/what-is-cloud-computing

http://www.infoworld.com/article/2683784/cloud-computing/what-cloud-computing-really-means.html

Video:

Interaction in class

Work through interaction could motivate students and teachers. Following the examples above, we are going to context our class at 4th of ESO, in a History lesson. 

We are trying to stimulate our students, so we would like to use an interactual methodology, where the classroom could learn because of their work at the class, where the good students could help the others. How could we do this interaction classes?

• Group tasks. Maybe this is the easiest way to start an interaction between students; they could help each other, then explain their work, and evaluate themselves.
•  Debate. History could help students to be critic; they can share their reflections and ask why something happened. Debate could afford them to be more open and make easier to understand history for some students. In this area maybe role plays could be an option, where the students could participate as members of the history, make them act as a politician or a burgess.
• Blog. Not all students learn the same way, or are equal. Many students are shy, well; the blog is a tool where they can share doubts, news about the period we are studying and also a way to interact outside the classroom.
• Brainstorm. Starting a new unit could be easy if you start asking to the students what they think they are going to study next, and the brainstorm could help to separate myths of history.
•  Games. The classroom could be fun too, trivia games of the unit that you are teaching could make them more interactive.

On the one hand, the principal advantage in this list is the promotion of the interaction in class, the students can learn not only as receivers also as teachers, classmates, etc. They could be more independent of the teacher explanations and be more active searching information for the class.

On the other hand, there are disadvantages too. The biggest one could be the schedule, because this activities need time and the curriculum and the time of the classes are subject. Maybe these list could like to students but all depends in the type of class, if they are participative, if they have a good relation between them... Maybe group tasks could be stressful for people who does not like to share time with ther classmates for different reasons, we have to think for who are you teaching/working and adapt to them.