Cloud computing

According to en.wikipedia.org  is a "kind of Internet-based computing", where you can share and deposit all your data, information and any kind of document. Moreover, you can access them from any electronic device if it is connected to the Internet. 

Nevertheless, I honestly believe that there are some advantages and disadvantages. 

Among the most important advantages of using the Cloud, we find its cost, because yo can use it for free and, if you need more GB, you can pay a small amount of money. Apart from that, I must highlight that there are some many important plus sides, such us its agility and independence that it provides; its hability to share resources with whoever you want and wherever you and other people are, and those are the main reasons that we can consider the cloud a dynamic tool that increases the productive capacity of its users. 

But, when there is light there is also shadow, and I believe that the main downside of the cloud is its security. More often than not, our data are hosted on servers located in countries with different laws from ours and where our security is not as guaranteed as we assumed. 

Despite this seemingly huge disadvantage, I use the cloud every day inasmuch as it allows me to work on the same document from different devices and to share with my colleagues date, information and all kind of documents, music and videos. 

In conclusion, I believe that the cloud is a extremely useful tool that we can use every day, even in the classroom!

https://en.wikipedia.org

http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/C/cloud_computing.html

http://searchcloudcomputing.techtarget.com/definition/cloud-computing

http://www.wikinvest.com/concept/Cloud_Computing

Interaction in class

If we want that our students have a significant learning, we have to use the appropriate methodology, which must be based on motivation and interaction. How will students interact with me and between themselves? In my history of Spain lessons I will use:

• Blog: I will use the blog of the subject as a meeting point outside the classroom, when my students are at home, for instance. On the blog, they can keep working and talking with me and other students, even from different classrooms.
• Wikispaces: it is a web where students and I can do some collaborative activities, such as the creation of a story or some debates on different aspects that relate our history and current life situations.
• Discussions and debates about activities: the methodology I will use in my lessons goes from the specific things to general ones. I will give my students different kind of documents, made by me or historical documents, and they must work with them at home, discussing about the content at classroom during the lessons.
• Group work: some activities will be done by my students in group, therefore, they must organize and communicate themselves to get a good mark.

The main advantage of using motivation in class is that the students can learn by themselves, that is to say that through interaction they can debate about the most important issues of the subject and the can learn and teach at the same time and from the teacher and even from each other. Thereby, students can get a significant learning.

However, interaction has also a main downside, time schedule. Maybe, students debate about some issue and the debate can extend in time and it can change all the planning.

Despite this disadvantage, I believe interaction is a key tool for 21st century education.