[kictanet] Computer for Schools and Cloud Computing

[James Kagwe]

Afternoon all,

Computer for schools is definitely a very good initiative by the Kenya 
government and a strong statement that it supports ICT and hopes it will 
be a major driving force for the economy as we transition to a knowledge 
economy.  This was clearly demonstrated by a budgetary in this years 
budget. The budget though small will definitely change something in the 
educational sector.

Cloud computing technology on the other side is growing rapidly and is 
being said to have the capability of making the third world leap frog to 
first world in terms of technology. Imagine an application in the cloud 
which is taken up by at least half of Kenya's SMEs and the impact it 
would have on them. Cloud computing is also easy and fast to deploy from 
a user perspective and does not necessarily require the skills of an ICT 
project manager in the classical sence (you probably do not need an ICT 
project manager to move companies mails to Google apps or hosted 
Microsoft exchange). Cloud computing is envisaged to revolutionise 
computing in the classical sence in that people may not require PCs to 
do their work to an extent where BYOD (bring your own device) model will 
be used at our workplaces. If this really happens companies will 
definitely realize lots of costs reduction. It is also envisaged that 
people will increasingly move away from convectional computing devices 
(desktops and laptops) to smart handheld devices like smart phones, 
tablets etc. This technology should inform us a lot in our computer for 
schools provisioning strategies.

The computer for schools approach has been buying out computers, setting 
up LANs and connecting them to internet in a laboratory. If trends in 
cloud computing continue we will see less and less of computers and more 
and more of handheld smart devices. Think about ourselves now and see 
how often we use the desktops in our offices. BYOD which is being fought 
by most ICT Managers will be an obvious situation. There is a 
possibility that the students in schools today might not use computers 
at all in their working life. I guess we should start thinking of how we 
can introduce these devices in schools because really they are the 
future of computing. Instead of teaching convectional programing we 
probably should be teaching mobile and cloud applications programming.  
The best thing about these devices is their mobility and the fact that 
you can charge once and use for several hours thus appropriate for areas 
with electricity power challenges.

I could write more but those are my quick thought.

regards,
James