New technologies have emerged that make cloud computing a more dynamic and user-centric experience.

Editor’s note: This Publisher’s Report was sponsored by Stoneware Inc.

With earlier generations of technology, the term “cloud computing” was an apt description for more reasons than one: As users connected to the cloud, the system was fairly opaque in that it couldn’t “see” the type of device the person was using. As a result, the cloud delivered the same computing experience to a user whether he or she was connected via a desktop computer, a laptop, or a mobile device.

But new technologies have emerged that make cloud computing a more dynamic and user-centric experience. This so-called “cloud awareness” brings the ability to detect what kind of device a person is using, so the system can deliver an experience that is optimized accordingly. For education, this has a number of implications.

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Suppose you’re a student logging into a curriculum software program. If you log in from a handheld device, the system might deliver an experience that is optimized for a smaller screen. Conversely, if you log in from a desktop computer with more powerful capabilities, the system might offload some of the rendering of graphics to the client machine, thereby freeing up server capacity for other tasks.

As the number of devices that schools are expected to support continues to explode, the flexibility this “cloud awareness” provides makes cloud computing an even more attractive option for schools.

The IT conundrum  

Increasingly, the window to cloud computing is held in users’ hands. Untethered from desktops, students and staff now roam about campus expecting ubiquitous access. And the variety of devices they rely on has increased as vendors have rushed to deliver new, cutting-edge smart phones, tablets, and ultrabooks. The result is that staff, students, and parents now rely on campus networks to access a wide array of information that is housed locally, or in the cloud, via a vast range of systems.

As a result, school IT departments finds themselves mired in a conundrum. They want to become an enabler rather than an inhibitor to mobile technology, but they need to manage these new connections in a cost-effective, secure, and transparent manner. This task has become very difficult for academic institutions, largely because they know so little about the end device. If they can’t see it, then they can’t monitor, manage, or secure it. To be successful today, they require intelligent tools that provide visibility into what users are working with, so the IT infrastructure maximizes the users’ experience.

Schools can use climate data to measure how well they are supporting the learning environment.

Editor’s note: This Publisher’s Report was sponsored by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Is it possible to identify and address bullying and other negative behavior at schools before it erupts into violence?

School bullying is now at crisis levels in the U.S., and it’s one of the primary challenges that school leaders face in managing the learning environment and ensuring that students feel safe and ready to learn. As school leaders look for ways to deal with this problem, some are turning to a promising new technology platform for help.

Before high-quality curriculum or pedagogy can foster student achievement, schools must establish a positive climate where staff, students, and parents all feel accepted and respected and where learning—not safety—is the main focus, experts say. Feeling safe and respected can be critical to students’ motivation to learn. It’s not hard to imagine how a student’s academic goals would come second to making it through the day without being bullied.

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Bullying has risen to national attention as an early indicator of violent crimes and suicide among adolescents. Although bullying occurs at all age levels, it is most pervasive during the adolescent and teen years, according to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). Forty-nine states plus the District of Columbia have passed legislation defining and outlawing bullying. State legislatures have mandated that school districts identify methods to document and decrease bullying and to find and implement non-violent conflict resolution methods.

“The call to action for districts is the growing number of incidents of school violence and their potential liability if bullying is not identified and reported,” said Laura Murray Parker, senior director of solution strategy for Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH). “A positive school climate that is conducive to learning affects everyone associated with the school, including students, staff, parents, and the outer community.”

In the age of school accountability and data-driven decision-making, district leaders have focused on using data to improve academic performance. Now, HMH aims to help educators apply this approach to creating an environment that positions students and teachers for success outside the curriculum.

District leaders have been searching for a way to assess their schools’ climate according to three parameters, the company says: (1) safety and security, (2) teacher effectiveness and classroom management, and (3) character education and emotional learning.

Spurred by a federal directive to use “multiple measures” of student success, performance assessment is reemerging as a strategy to delve more deeply into students’ skills.

In a darkened classroom at Francis W. Parker Charter Essential School in Devens, Mass., 15-year-old Tom Grigglestone is giving a PowerPoint presentation of what he’s learned in math this past semester—and how he’s applied this knowledge to a project he designed.

“I can predict where the NASDAQ will be when I know where the ‘Footsie’ has ended up,” he says, referring to the FTSE, an index of the 100 biggest companies on the London Stock Exchange.

He takes his audience through a series of slides that explain how to find the correlation between two random sets of data by using simple linear regression—pretty advanced stuff for a high school sophomore. In this case, his “audience” is just one person: his teacher, Nathan Soule, who scribbles notes on a sheet of paper as Tom is talking.

Tom is practicing for an exhibition, which the school calls a “gateway exercise,” that he must complete before advancing to the next grade level—like a graduate student’s oral examinations. Parker’s gateway exercises are a classic example of performance-based assessment, in which students show their understanding not by filling in bubbles on a standardized test but by producing actual work—an essay, a lab report, a presentation, a portfolio, or some other demonstration of competency.

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Performance assessment is what teachers do every day when they grade students’ projects and assignments, but often this work is not part of the high-stakes system that determines whether students are ready to graduate—or whether schools as a whole are making progress.

For a while in the 1990s, that was starting to change, as states like Connecticut, Nebraska, and Wyoming were developing large-scale performance assessment systems. But the dawning of No Child Left Behind “pushed aside” these efforts, because it was too costly for states to include performance assessment in their statewide accountability systems under the law, said Joan Herman, director of UCLA’s National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing.

Now, the tide is turning again.

With hosted VoIP service, schools have no call-routing equipment or software to house, manage, or maintain on site.

As school districts replace their antiquated phone systems, a growing number of districts are choosing hosted, or “managed,” voice-over-IP service. Besides being easier to manage, hosted VoIP service also enables schools to leverage federal eRate discounts more effectively, its supporters say.

Unlike premise-based VoIP service, hosted VoIP is a cloud-based solution that delivers telephone service over the customer’s data network. The customer has no call-routing equipment or software to house, manage, or maintain on site. Many school districts have welcomed the hassle-free nature of hosted VoIP phone service—and many have found that it’s more cost-effective as well, because it’s often eligible for Priority One eRate funding.

“As their old telephone equipment becomes end-of-life, more customers are switching to VoIP because they realize that, long term, that’s where the industry is going. It doesn’t make sense when buying new equipment to buy something that will have a limited lifespan,” said Harry Cook, lead channel manager for AT&T Business Solutions.

Click here to download the full PDF of the eSN Special Report on Hosted VoIP.

Hosted VoIP solutions, like those offered by AT&T, are easily scalable and can be used by multiple customers at the same time, making them more cost-effective and reliable for many users, Cook said.

“There are some economies of scale here. It should be cheaper than a premise-based solution, and … the customer doesn’t have to worry about fixing or maintaining it themselves,” Cook said.

Three years ago, South Bay Union School District in Eureka, Calif., upgraded the phone system at one of its two school buildings to a hosted VoIP service provided by AT&T.

Predictive analytics is one solution that can help with a number of education dilemmas.

For years, marketers have used sophisticated software to track consumers’ buying habits and web browsing activity, then crunch this information and—based on the data—make a series of intelligent predictions that allow them to target their sales messages much more effectively.

Now, this same technology is appearing in schools and colleges as well—and observers say it’s a development that could revolutionize education.

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Using predictive analytics software, teachers at Georgia’s Gwinnet County Public Schools soon will be able to see at a glance which students might need more help. Sinclaire Community College in Ohio has cut its student dropout rate in half. And the online American Public University System has watched its course completion rate steadily climb.

These breakthroughs come at a key time for U.S. education, which is under enormous pressure to innovate and provide better learning opportunities.

As school district officials struggle to meet the goal of having all students graduate from high school ready for college or a career, the challenges are significant: Operating costs are on the rise, while budgets for public institutions are shrinking. Infrastructures are aging and need costly updates. Changing demographics require that schools change, too, to meet the shifting needs of students. Performance is declining at the same time that expectations are rising. And “working harder” is simply not a sustainable option.

“When we talk with government policy makers and senior education leaders, there’s a recognition that education is the differentiator for national success. Everyone recognizes that education is critical, but [schools] still get their budgets cut all the time,” said Michael King, vice president of global education for IBM. “People in education really grapple with that problem.”

To overcome these challenges, the education field needs new and innovative approaches. And predictive analytics is one such promising solution.

More K-12 schools and districts are implementing cloud computing solutions.

Editor’s note: This Publisher’s Report was sponsored by CenturyLink.

Is cloud computing secure? That’s a question many ed-tech leaders have been asking as they’ve considered moving applications to the cloud. And the answer many are finding is: Yes, it is.

Despite concerns about security, more K-12 schools and districts have begun to move toward cloud computing solutions over the past few years. According to a 2011 Cloud Computing Tracking Poll by technology solution provider CDW-G, 83 percent of K-12 organizations already have used at least one cloud-based application, and 27 percent are currently implementing or maintaining cloud computing.

Cloud computing—a model for enabling convenient, on-demand access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources, such as networks, servers, storage, applications, and services, that are hosted by a third-party technology provider and delivered to users through the internet—is an approach that is attractive for education, because it allows K-12 organizations to scale and grow without having to own the technology, says Martin Capurro, senior director of product management for cloud services at CenturyLink (formerly Qwest).

“Cloud computing is a pay-per-use service,” Capurro says. “It’s seen as an easier way to meet budgets. The educational community has been quick to adopt this technology.”

Benefits of tapping the cloud

Cloud computing can be seen as offering three distinct services: Infrastructure-as-a- Service (IaaS), Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS), and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS). Schools can use any or all of the three, but using the cloud for hosted applications (SaaS) such as messaging, eMail, and creating sites for sharing and other social environments is particularly relevant for education and is a natural starting point, according to Capurro.

Desktop virtualization is saving schools much-needed money.

Why buy new computers, when you can hook up a simple device to a monitor and create the same experience through desktop virtualization–while potentially saving thousands of dollars on hardware, energy bills, and tech support? That’s the question that is driving the enormous growth in virtualization among schools across the United States and worldwide.

School IT directors who have tried virtualization say most users can’t tell the difference when they’re working on a virtual desktop instead of a regular PC.

The Wantagh Union Free School District on Long Island, N.Y., adopted a desktop virtualization model when confronted with the prospect of having to replace aging computers in its elementary school classrooms. “We had 10-year-old Dells and were really due for a refresh,” says Technology Director Don Murphy.

Instead of buying new PCs, the district purchased X series devices from NComputing Inc. of Redwood City, Calif. Wantagh elementary schools typically have five computers per classroom. With desktop virtualization, Murphy only had to purchase new PCs for teachers. Students use a monitor, keyboard, and mouse–along with the X550 device–to share computing power from the teacher’s PC.

“This was the most seamless way to move to a virtual experience,” Murphy says.  “We didn’t have to invest in servers. And with the energy savings, the project will pay for itself in a few years.”

NComputing Chairman and CEO Stephen Dukker calls the company’s ability to provide low-cost computing power to schools “one of those inflexion points in education, comparable to the time in the 1980s when PCs were gaining ground.”

NComputing’s products are based on the fact that today’s computers are so powerful, most applications use only a fraction of a PC’s capacity. NComputing taps into that unused capacity by enabling up to 30 users to take advantage of a PC’s computing power for as little as $70 per additional user. (That doesn’t include the cost of a monitor and keyboard.)

According to NComputing, districts that switch to its desktop virtualization products can save up to 70 percent on hardware, 75 percent on maintenance, and 90 percent on energy costs when compared with a traditional technology rollout.

Worldwide growth in virtualization

Those benefits are fueling enormous growth in desktop virtualization. Dan Griggs, an analyst with CDW-G, says predictions for sales growth range from 8 to 10 percent for 2010.

Dave Podwojski, director of government, education, and health care for Citrix Systems Inc., estimates desktop virtualization is a $23 billion industry worldwide, which includes all customers, not just the education market. “Desktop virtualization is growing dramatically,” he says. “It’s really becoming the way almost everyone is using computers.” He says Citrix has sold its products to more than 400 school districts in the United States.

NComputing’s share of the K-12 market has more than doubled in a year, from 7 percent in 2008 to 15 percent last year, says Dukker. “We’re about to cross over into having 1 million workstations in U.S. public schools,” Dukker says. For a company that started shipping desktop devices to the education market in 2006, “this is quite a remarkable success rate.”

But U.S. sales make up less than half of the company’s sales figures. NComputing has sold more than 2 million units in 140 countries, reaching 10 million students. While computers were introduced into U.S. schools long before the schools had internet access, in the developing world, it’s all happening concurrently, Dukker says.