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Today’s schoolchildren are tomorrow’s workforce. Yet even though plenty of schools are migrating to mobile devices and cloud technologies, it’s imperative to ensure the workforce of tomorrow is prepared to utilise the technologies they’ll be facing.
That’s what Amazon Web Services (AWS) is affirming. The cloud provider has announced AWS Educate, a program that helps educators and students use “real-world cloud technology” in the classroom.
The program, which has separate channels for educational institutions, educators and students, gives various collateral: AWS credits ($200 of credits per educator at member institutions, $75 at non-member institutions, $100 and $35 per student respectively); AWS training; curated content and collaboration tools.
Cloud computing, as regular readers of this publication will note, remains one of the most important skill sets in IT, a point that Amazon notes in its press information – “there is a growing demand for developers, information technology professional, and forward-thinking business leaders with demonstrated knowledge of cloud computing.” Anyone who signs up to the Educate program will get a variety of resources, including webinars on best practices, instructional videos and customer case studies.
Teresa Carlson, vice president worldwide public sector at AWS, said: “For years, the AWS educational grants program has put cloud technology in the hands of educators and students, giving them the ability to put big ideas into action. Based on the feedback and success of our grant recipients and the global need for cloud-skilled workers, we developed AWS Educate to help even more students learn cloud technology first-hand in the classroom.”
Amazon is not the only cloud provider to offer resources for education; IBM has its Cloud Academy, for example, while Microsoft has extensive Azure facilities for educators. Yet it’s an important topic, one which CloudTech has previously examined. An article from 2013 by Patrick Fogarty, faculty advisor of instructional technology at Xaverian High School, New York, noted the importance of “creating a learning environment that isn’t limited by the building’s walls.”
Find out more about AWS Educate here.