Google Apps and Netbooks supported by major educational research project

The just released 2009 Horzon Report which is based on "ongoing primary research effort that draws on a comprehensive body of published resources, current research and practice" looks at future technological in education states the the two top trends are portability such as netbooks and cloud computing such as Google Apps. read report



Quotes from report

cloud computing ..."Inexpensive, simple solutions to offsite storage, multi-user application scaling,hosting, and multi-processor computing are opening the door to wholly different ways ofthinking about computers, software, and files."



portability "making it an ever more versatile tool that can be easily adapted to ahost of tasks for learning, productivity, andsocial networking. For many users, broadbandmobile devices like the iPhone have alreadybegun to assume many tasks that were oncethe exclusive province of portable computers."


"cloud computing transforms once-expensive resources like disk storage and processing cycles into a readily available, cheap commodity. Development platforms layered onto the cloud infrastructureenable thin-client, web-based applications for image editing, word processing, social networking, and mediacreation. Many of us use the cloud, or cloud-based applications, without even being aware of it. Advances incomputer science to ensure redundancy and protection from natural disasters have led to data being shared across many different hosting facilities. Improved infrastructure has made the cloud robust and reliable; asusage grows, the cloud is fundamentally changing our notions of computing and communication."



"Already, cloud-based applications are being usedin the K-12 sector to provide virtual computers tostudents and staff without requiring each person toown the latest laptop or desktop machine..."



"The idea of a single portable device that can make phone calls, take pictures, record audio and video, store data, music, and movies, and interact with the Internet — all of it — has become so interwoven into our lifestyles that it is now surprising to learn that someone does not carry one..."