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Strategic Planning for Cloud Computing Adoption in STEM Education: Finding Best Practice Solutions
Abstract
This chapter describes effective strategic analysis and implementation methods for the adoption of cloud computing services (infrastructure, platforms, and software) in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education. The benefits of cloud computing, including lower costs, scalability and virtualization capabilities, have been recognized and adopted by major educational, governmental and research institutions internationally during the last five years. However, the term ‘cloud computing' was only recently clarified in 2011 in the NIST's standard definition published by Mell and Grance (2012) as “a model for enabling ubiquitous, convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications, and services) that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction.” Despite the increasing clarity in defining cloud computing, the deployment models can be complex, encompassing hybrid, public, community and private cloud frameworks, all with varying levels of privacy, security, and trust. Data format, integrity, and portability as well as geographical server location represent additional factors that educational institutions must weigh when they consider adopting a cloud solution for their educational needs. The chapter provides advice on how to strategically plan for the use of cloud computing services and how to identify, weigh and assess the various factors in decision-making. Just as with e-learning when it was found at the end of the 1990s that purely online technological approaches were not as effective as pedagogical models (blended learning) which took into account human factors such as student motivation, teacher training, technological illiteracy, etc., the author suggests that a holistic technology adoption process that includes needs assessment and stakeholder engagement will be the most successful.
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