Parallels: Cloud Computing and Change in Schools

Philip Delves Broughton had an insightful article, "Clouds are no longer blue-sky thinking" in today's edition of the Financial Times (Dec 7, 2010).

Broughton highlights the veritable explosion in cloud computing and the concomitant generational disagreements regarding its utility and safety. Generational disagreement plays a significant role; as he says, "One way you can be sure a revolution is under way is when generations fundamentally disagree. [...] For managers trying to weigh up whether this is a fad or here to stay, where you stand may just be a function of your age." To further flesh out what he means by "a function of your age," he provides the following: "For digital natives, the cloud is as natural to computing as the keyboard. The cloud is Facebook, Zynga, and Gmail. To an older generation, the cloud is WikiLeaks and data breaches."

The same sort of generational discomfort is evident in independent schools. Technology is causing great shifts to occur, and those shifts can happen outside the locus of control of the faculty or administration. Yet, technology aside, as one generation begins to hand off leadership to a younger generation, the same kind of seismic shift occurs: a new administrator, a new program, a new way of looking at daily operations in a division. Just as cloud computing is forcing companies (and schools, for that matter) to no longer "own" their data by means of possessing a server within school walls, handing over leadership responsibility is tremendously difficult for many in schools.

Leaders will need to pick and choose which leadership positions it makes sense to fill now, and which ones can be filled soon, just as schools and businesses will need to determine which data can live "in the cloud" now and which can be migrated later.

Lastly, just as cloud computing allows smaller companies (and schools) to mine their data more effectively in ways known heretofore to large corporations only, so too will leadership changes benefit schools in more ways that most can see currently. There are silver linings here, after all!