It’s Just Like Shoes

Elliot: Reporting from CoSN in Austin (March 12-13, 2009). At a session yesterday, Mark Weston from Dell articulated a vision for where 1:1 is going in K12. He talked about using low-cost netbooks and older personal computers, past their prime, accessing the latest and greatest educational software “in the cloud.”

 

Cathie: Yes, it’s just like shoes.

 

Elliot: My turn to say: ahhh, how’s that?

 

Cathie: We used to call it “timesharing.” We had a low cost, screen plus keyboard  we called a dumb terminal that had a hard-wired connection to a big timesharing computer located in the computer center. While it looked like we were computing on the local terminal, all the heavy-lifting was actually done on the timesharing computer.

 

Elliot: And when the network connection between the dumb terminal and the timesharing machine went down…

 

Cathie: …which was all the time….

 

Elliot: .. you could hear the yelling from all the offices.

 

Cathie: But things are different now; the network connection is reliable. And if you believe that I have a bridge I would like to sell you.

 

Elliot: Oh ye of little faith! Between the cable wireline guys and the telco wireless guys, someone will provide a reliable connection to the server in the cloud.

 

Cathie: I am glad you called them “guys.” We who are not guys know how reliable “guys” really are.

 

Elliot: Argh!

 

Cathie: You make it too easy, Elliot; sorry.

 

Elliot: No,  you are not sorry, but in any case.. With the dramatic rise in the role of netbooks in the hardware mix, cloud computing is almost really here.

 

Cathie: For schools, then, all they need is low-cost, dumb terminals – netbooks, or even older, outdated personal computers can at least access the web – and a server supported by that reliable network. The TCO of netbooks is quite low compared to PC’s and extracting extra years of life from outdated computers is a win for a district. The economics of cloud computing are really pretty compelling.

 

Elliot: and the shoes?

 

Cathie: Computer solutions are just like shoes. The old ideas that are good, like timesharing, always manage to come back. That’s why I always keep good shoes; they always come back in style again!

 

Elliot: Ahhh…. I never would have made that analogy.

 

Cathie: That’s because your square shoes are always out of style.

 

Elliot: Very funny; ha ha. Thank you, Cathie.