When I look up at the sky I see clouds. Then it rains, the clouds disappear and their contents fall to earth to give us water and nourish our plants. It would seem that clouds are not as important as their contents. The 'contents' of academia have been stored in scrolls, books, journals, tapes, floppy disks, CD Roms etc. and now they are being stored in clouds. The clouds will pass and the contents will find a new home.

See this vision for better education: http://laptop.org/en/vision/index.shtml

I'm in the life sciences and we tend to be about 20 years behind the adoption of technology in the leading areas of Physics. Many Physicists are posting pre-prints to the open access peer-moderated ArXiv (the archive). Their ideas are critiqued and modified openly and some are then submitted to peer-reviewed journals. Some stay on the ArXiv and are referenced from there. I can see the ArXiv being fully peer-reviewed in the future and becoming the major way in which Physics is communicated and shared. The Life Sciences will follow and we'll see the initially slow and then rapid demise of traditional publishing platforms (i.e. specialist journals). This could transform public and university education in the sciences as current work will be freely available. There could be a boom of science communicators who take the free information from the cloud and package it for the public and the classroom. Currently you have to pay for access to this information and so the reduction in price barriers may increase career opportunities and help science reach a broader audience.

Hello Erik,

Thank you for your input - I liked very much this statement... The clouds will pass and the contents will find a new home.

But, what would that be... will we be going back to the scrolls - or would we be able to have a crystal ball gaze and try to find something.

Regards

Theodora Issa

Hello Ian,

Than you for the link - indeed, this might be a good way for the over populated countries - but would this have a translated version!

Thank and regards

Theodora Issa

Hello John,

Thank you for the contribution to this question... Well, I would comment on this statement 'Currently you have to pay for access to this information and so the reduction in price barriers may increase career opportunities and help science reach a broader audience'.

Well, do you really believe it will become cheaper - the worry now that everything on the web will have a price!?

Regards

Theodora Issa

Theodora,

Every technology goes through a life cycle of: idea, prototype, early technology, mature technology and obsolete technology. As it goes through the cycle the good elements will be absorbed into the field to which the technology belongs and the rest will be discarded. How much will be absorbed will depend on how good the technology is. I think it is the same with MOOCs. I have seen from very good reviews to not so good reviews. What I would expect eventually is that the bad is discarded and we will see further integration between this type of technology and traditional methods.

I congratulate you for thinking ahead of the curve, since posing these questions makes us reflect on what is hype and what is here to stay(I think the question is very alive with MOOCs). Whether we like it or not the field of education is evolving and we also have to evolve. What is important is how do we evolve to really serve the students.

@Theodora: http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Languages

Theodora.

Yes, I do sincerely believe that much of what we currently pay for will have free open access within the next couple of decades. This is the way that Physics has gone. This is what NSF and NIH are pushing for (you can see my US focus here for examples). If this all happens, educators and journalists and students will have much greater access to the latest research. However, this emerging model will also greatly challenge traditional publishers and many academic societies. Even large venerable academic societies such as AAAS will need to reinvent themselves, as they are currently fairly reliant on the "pay for access" model of science.

John.

Hello Arturo,

Thank you for your valuable contribution to this discussion. Appreciated. Indeed, the bad will be discarded in the future - but until then, I am scared that this might make its way to the students who will learn from that!

Certainly, we need to stop, think, and reflect, rather than go with the flow - but I am afraid the universities are caught in the cycle of competition, and they are neither thinking nor reflecting.

Good point, we need to keep the students as the focus, not only the accreditation, or the cost/benefit analysis statement etc...

Regards

Theodora Issa

Hello John,

Thanks for the contribution, woow this seems really different from what the thought is - but nothing would be free without the authors paying for it! this is what is happening with the open source - the authors/co-authors are to pay for the article to be published - and some journals (without naming any) would charge three authors around USD900.00 for a paper!

As you are aware funding is scarce !

Regards

Theodora Issa

Hello Ian,

Thanks for the link - but it is wikepedia! -:)

Regards

Theodora Issa

I tend to agree with the general tenor of the responses thus far - as far as I am concerned I don't think the cloud will change things too much. The cloud is just a shared storage space - I am much more concerned with the content that goes into the cloud and how we might improve the content = this can be done via the cloud or via more traditional internet resources. I haven't investigated MOOCS much but am a big fan of courses via iTunes university so see no problem with the concept. I think the bigger issue is accreditation - I like to learn things for their own sake - but can see that other learners might want to be accredited - this is still to be resolved in relation to MOOCS.

Currently, there are about 25,000 million Internet-connected computers worldwide , according to forecasts by Cisco , that number will double by 2020 . As a growing number of smartphones , tablets and PCs, among others, that the web is accessed , it is natural that users seek to access their files , content and emails from any computer , anywhere .

That's why today growing cloud computing in its various forms and at different levels : not only corporate environments today use this type of service , but also various educational institutions from all over the world.

Based on the above, the need for access to information makes the cloud is an opportunity for Central American users can share that information with users in Europe , China and the South Pacific , so that they will have the same tools and will be the overall level of education. That is very important because it provides equal opportunities.

With the cloud is gained independence and place devices : you can work from anywhere and from any device. Students can then adapt and use a tablet , mobile phone or a laptop or computer from school and still have all your configured environment. The success of the cloud depends on the internet connection and equipment available.

The use of the cloud in higher education, and will offer students, faculty and staff, customizable tools to work together and to enable students to learn in the most effective: email, word processors, communication tools and storage private and shared files, setting up a "virtual desktop" that space and services increases the current email account, and that pupils will be accessible via the Internet both as mobile devices.

Thank you all for your contributions - but there seems to be a misunderstanding on behalf of those who are running the higher education institutions... I hope they can read some of what you have contributed.

Keep the discussion going.

Regards

Theodora Issa