“Internet of Things will stump IT until clouds and big data come aboard.” Stephen Lawson
Increasingly, we are being inextricably linked to high technology tools and innovations. We are products of a culture where our personal and professional growth cannot be viewed apart from high tech advances. Therefore, it is critical to be able to efficiently integrate a high technology awareness into our everyday work and life.
Today, we witness an enormous expansion of information and knowledge in all fields. Cloud Computing and Internet of Things play a prominent part in the world of modern education, and have led to a vivid shift from institutionally hosted services recently. The latter services are now being provided through the Internet technologies from web browsers. Such services have proved to be much more affordable and available as compared with those provided by educational institutions.
The so-called future classrooms, which are also known as “smart classrooms”, “intelligent classrooms”, “classrooms of future” or “classrooms of tomorrow”, have found different interpretations so far. Generally, the main features of future classrooms have to do with intelligent equipment, intelligent learning environment, intelligent teaching and learning interaction, intelligent teaching and learning evaluation, intelligent teaching management, and lecture notes automation.
On the one hand, educational institutions are using lower-level cloud services for data storage purposes. On the other hand, Cloud Computing provides a perfect opportunity for the hosting of LMSs or institutional learning management systems in the cloud. This is especially beneficial for those institutions, which have problems with hardware and software purchase and maintenance. Therefore, they can enjoy the perfect opportunity of outsourcing the provisions of LMSs (Moodle, Blackboard, etc.) to a third party.
The concept of future classrooms presents a higher level of multimedia classroom development, based on a campus network, teaching space, control systems, integrated audio-visual systems, storage systems, communication systems, and other subsystems. The future classroom can be regarded as an integrated environment, which encompasses both the philosophy of smart teaching and intelligent classroom equipment.
Though Cloud Computing in education can count for such risks as data security, unsolicited email/advertising and being “locked-in” to the given provider’s products, it can also bring such significant changes as:
1. Advanced and practical use of information
2. High performance and reliability of applied systems and programs
3. Reduced power consumption and reduced emissions
4. Focus on core business of education
5. Expandable and standardized system integration
6. End user satisfaction.
The development of mobile technology, electronic books, electronic whiteboards and digital textbooks is inseparably linked to Cloud Computing and Internet of Things. The idea of future classrooms cannot be isolated from the development of other business systems, and should be directed towards highly coordinated and constructive outcomes.
By Lilit Melkonyan
