USING CLOUD COMPUTING IN PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL: FROM THE POINT OF VIEW OF COMPUTER TEACHERS

Education is one of the most significant pillars for development in every society. This is why many countries exert extensive efforts to provide chances of education for their children and to provide necessarily required tools. Computer may be at the top of these tools through its services which can be employed effectively in the process of education. The use of computer in education, however, there are several obstacles that can never be looked to blindly. The most significant among these obstacles are: the high financial expenses, costs of maintenance and updating, high prices of good software, in addition to the difficulty of choosing among various software offered at markets, with the difficulty of exchanging them if found inappropriate. These and other difficulties affect the budget of education which has been reduced in many countries under the impact of the world financial crisis. This has forced educational institutions to search for alternatives in order to achieve their goals. Among these alternatives is Cloud Computing which is considered a promising field for educational institutions through services it can offer, and for being accessible via the internet (cloud), with no need for familiarity, expertise or even controlling the infrastructure that supports these services. The most important features of Cloud Computing may be that the burden of software maintenance and update becomes of the duties of the vendors of this software, which may lessens the burdens of the users, allowing them to focus on using this software. Many educational institutions do not have the sufficient knowledge about the nature of Cloud Computing, and therefore, they are deprived of the advantages of this technology and its potentials for education. This is the reason that urged the researcher to conduct this study. The study tries to identify the status quo of employing Cloud Computing in public education in order to find alternatives for using information technology in educational environment. This will also help to recognize computer teachers' familiarity with and the extent of their activation of applying Cloud Computing with their students.