The Pros And Cons Of Internet-Based Learning And Cloud Computing

Two Computing Stories

Discuss the two Computing Stories, Internet access is giving advantages to the children in the examinations and Cloud Computing is a Trap?

Today’s world is very much dependent on the computer system. All the offices, schools, colleges are using the computer system for the official work. The computer skills give the ability of doing more effective work in more time specific manner. Not only the official work the personal use of the computer system is also very popular today. Internet technology in the computer system has brought the world in the hand of the common people. At present the world will become technically handicapped without the computer system and the internet technology. There are many facilities of the internet that are using by today’s world. The internet is providing new advantages to the users for making their lifestyles easier and happier. A lot of facilities of the internet are available that are giving advantages in various ways to the users (Snell, 1994). Cloud computing a concept of the internet, which is very helpful for the efficient control over the computing system using the World Wide Web. The cloud computing system is getting more popularity day by day but here are some issues that are being raised by the internet users.

The Actor Network Theory is about the relation between different facts of the technology. According to this theory the fundamental concept of technological activities are not different from the other social activities. The actors of the theory are represented as the actants. It can be any of the technological or social facts or collection of facts. In this assignment, two current issues regarding the computer system will be discussed. The first one is about the e-learning process of the internet. The fact is that the internet facility at the home of the student is providing advantages in their examinations. The second issue is about difficulty of the cloud computing system. The cloud computing system is providing more facilities in one platform but in some cases the system is trap for the users (Wu et al., 2011). Therefore the actants here are the “e-learning through internet” And the “cloud computing”. The two stories are not looking similar but they have connections with each other and affecting the social and business platforms as an assemblage.

The internet technology can be mentioned as the most important invention of the last thirty years. At present, it can be said that the life of the present generation will be different without the use of the internet. There are uncountable uses of the internet. E-learning process is one of the most important facilities of the internet. Internet is giving many facilities to the users; the whole world has come in the hand of the internet users. At present, e-learning process is a very popular learning process for every type of learner (Ng and Lim, 2011). Materials are available in the internet for learning any type of subject. One can learn a lot of things about a subject form the internet without using any text book or hard copy of the study materials. At present, the students are getting a lot of help in their studies from the internet.

Internet access is giving advantages to children in examinations

The internet is providing something new and different in every time. It gives the way of learning something from the internet with entertainment, comfort and happiness. It is the flexible platform of learning for the students. The children can learn a topic or subject from the internet in an attractive and efficient way. It has been found that millions of children have scored in a lower grade as they do not have the internet facility at their home. The children having internet facility at their home has scored greater grades than the children without having the internet. The e-learning process in the internet is giving the students the facility of learning something with different perspectives. Studying the details about a lesson after learning it form the classroom is very effective for scoring a good grade in the examination. The study materials are always available in the internet (Chai and Lim, 2011). The students can easily access the materials from their home whenever they feel the need of it. In many schools, enough number of teachers is not available for providing all the information about the topics of the lesson. The information about any topic is always available but the teachers are not always available to help the students in their lessons.

The e-learning has the ability of making the best possible results in the examination. The students without having the internet connection at their homes are facing problems in completing their home works. The development of the students having internet at their home is very good as compared to the past history. The investigation report is saying that the students of the age group of 9 to 19 years uses the internet facility daily or weekly basis and are getting the benefits of the online education. As per the survey report, 90 percent of the children are surfing the internet weekly for ding their home works (Boffey, 2011).

Cloud computing is a type of internet based computing by which receiving and delivering services by the internet. The cloud providing companies can change their service scale as the computing users need to. Those companies can scale up and scale down their services to the users as their recommendation. In this system, the users have to pay only for the resource service provided by the company according to their workload recommendation (Cusumano, 2010). A great advantage of this system is that one can get any type of software for the different types of jobs whenever needed. These are the most important benefits of the cloud computing system but there are some issues on the use of the system. The work progresses can be controlled by the end user but the data storage control will be in the hand of the cloud provider. In this system all the information are stored in the server of the cloud provider (Peiris, Balachandran and Sharma, 2010).

Cloud Computing is a Trap

Delivering the IT power of software as per the need of users is getting more popularity in the recent years. Large companies in the field of software and internet technologies like Amazon, Google and Microsoft are providing the software through the cloud computing. This system is very good if the users have a lot of money. The founder of free software foundation Richard Stallman said that the cloud computing is trap. The reason behind this statement is the cloud computing system is forcing people to use the paid software and the cost will increase over the time. In this system the private information of the users are stored in the internet server (Ronpaulforums.com, 2013). It is better to store the personal information in personal computers rather than the third party software. Millions of the internet users are uploading their personal data like emails, pictures, information regarding their works to the sites like Google. In this system, the user has no control over the storing of the data. This is one of the major reasons behind taking the cloud computing system as a trap. Operating an own copy of software is better than using a software platform provided by any third party. Own copy of software provides freedom of maintain the personal data with security. Whenever someone is using a software copy provided by a third party server, then he or she is defenseless (Ruzic, 2011). The total control is in the hand of the developer of that third party software. Many of the internet users are agree with this issue. People are comfortable with the use of the own versions of software. Many software are available which are free of cost (Techandsoc.com, 2014). When someone is paying for the personal computer system and then for the internet bill, then why he or she has to make another payment for the software platform that used in the internet? Actually the cloud computing is a threat to the progress of the free software providers. It is a concept where the products made for the business are not sold; rather the products are used for getting charge from the users constantly (Sasikala, 2011). The number of the people who are saying that the issue is not correct is not very few. Many of them are saying that the system is very good and providing more facilities to the users.

Conclusion:

The present world is very much depended on the computers and the internet facilities. At the present situation, there are many tasks which can’t be performed without using of the internet. Among the various types of use of the internet facilities, the facility of the e-learning process and its effects on the results of the students has been discussed in this assignment. The students are getting a lot of help in their studies from the internet. The children who have the internet facility available in their home are able to do better results in their examinations. The cloud computing system is a concept of software business using the platform of the internet. As previously stated the two actants are different in terms but they both are the facility of the internet. The e-learning process is actually similar like the cloud computing system. In both the cases the backbone of the system is the World Wide Web. Both are the features of the internet facility. The two factors have a great effect on the business and economical factor of the whole world. By combining the two actants the total matter can be represented as a discussion of advantages and disadvantages of the internet facility. Therefore, now it can be concluded that the two actants are affecting the economy and business of the world as an assemblage.

References:

Boffey, D. (2011). Children with internet access at home gain exam advantage, charity says. [online] the Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/education/2011/may/21/children-internet-access-exam-advantage [Accessed 14 Aug. 2015].

Chai, C. and Lim, C. (2011). The Internet and teacher education: Traversing between the digitized world and schools. The Internet and Higher Education, 14(1), pp.3-9.

Cusumano, M. (2010). Cloud computing and SaaS as new computing platforms. Communications of the ACM, 53(4), p.27.

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Ronpaulforums.com, (2013). Cloud computing is a trap, warns GNU founder Richard Stallman. [online] Available at: https://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?417285-Cloud-computing-is-a-trap-warns-GNU-founder-Richard-Stallman [Accessed 14 Aug. 2015].

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Sasikala, P. (2011). Cloud Computing Towards Technological Convergence. International Journal of Cloud Applications and Computing, 1(4), pp.44-59.

Snell, M. (1994). Lotus notes the internet advantage. Network Security, 1994(7), pp.4-5.

Techandsoc.com, (2014). Cloud computing is a trap, warns GNU founder Richard Stallman  |  The Latest News (old)  |  Technology, Knowledge, & Society. [online] Available at: https://techandsoc.com/the-latest-news/cloud-computing-is-a-trap-warns-gnu-founder-richard-stallman [Accessed 14 Aug. 2015].

Wu, J., Shen, Q., Zhang, J. and Xie, Q. (2011). Cloud Computing: Cloud Security to Trusted Cloud. AMR, 186, pp.596-600.