Section 2.2

Learning Goals

• 1. Students will define Cloud Computing and digital divide.

  2. Students will find examples of cloud computing innovations in a particular industry.

  3. Students will identify and explain both beneficial and harmful effects of an innovation.

  4. Students will describe an impact of an innovation on a larger group.

  5. Students will analyze the effect of the digital divide on the usage & subsequent impact of the innovation.

  6. Students will critique the innovation for evidence of bias.

Objectives and General Description

An important skill in APCSP is the ability to critically examine an innovation to determine its effects (both beneficial and harmful) and its impact on a larger group.  This lesson requires students to analyze cloud computing which is an effect of the Internet.  Students will be defining cloud computing and researching cloud computing innovations in specific areas, such as education, health care, entertainment, small business, etc.  They will then dig deeper and determine what role the digital divide plays in the impact of the innovation and what, if any, bias exists in the usage of the innovation.

Key vocabulary:  internet, cloud computing, impact, harmful effect, beneficial effect, scalability, efficiency, security, data storage, outsourcing 

Activities

Activity 2.2.1 (Budget 45 minutes)

1. Students will participate in a non-fiction reading strategy known as “Possible Sentences” to learn about cloud computing (Beers & Probst).  They should do this with a partner.

   1. Students are given worksheet 2.1 Possible Sentences.  They should read the vocabulary at the top of the page and write up to 5 sentences using 3 - 4 vocabulary words in each sentence.  Once a vocabulary word has been used, it can not be reused.  

   2. Students then read an article on Cloud computing.  Suggested articles

      1. https://www.salesforce.com/products/platform/best-practices/cloud-computing/

      2. https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/overview/what-is-cloud-computing/

   3. After reading, the students should review the sentences that they wrote and correct any information that is not accurate.

   4. Share accurate sentences (class discussion, padlet, etc.)

2. Review concepts of impact, harmful effect and beneficial effect.  

3. Each set of partners is randomly assigned one of the following topics:  education, small business, medicine/medical care and law enforcement (local, state, federal, national defense).  

4. Student partners research how cloud computing has impacted their assigned topic and should determine a harmful effect that has resulted and a beneficial effect that has resulted.  Then students create a google slide that shares this info and add it to a class slideshow.

5. Instructions on building a collaborative slideshow in google slides https://alicekeeler.com/2016/06/28/collaborative-google-slides/

6. I found it better to have students partners create their own individual slide show (one slide).  Then I gave the link to the collaborative slide show and had students add the slide one group at a time.  This drastically reduced the temptation to delete or modify each others slides.

Works Cited:

Beers, G. Kylene, and Robert E. Probst. Reading Nonfiction: Notice & Note Stances, Signposts, and Strategies. Heinemann, 2016.

Resources

• 2.2.1: Possible Sentences (Student worksheet)

• 2.2.1: Article 1 on Cloud Computing (Student Resource)

• 2.2.1: Article 2 on Cloud Computing (Student Resource)

• 2.2.1: Instruction on Collaborative Slides in Google Slides