Exploring Cloud Computing and Web 2.0

After a rough glance on the functions of Google Apps, I was fascinated by how far Google has gone beyond from their search engine service to a playground for ePortfolios. By looking at the "brain" of the ePortfolio database, Google App, there is already hundreds of services that are free for average users and education purposes. First, there are a lot of technical advantages of using Google Apps. Its user-friendly platform encourages average people like me to create a great ePortfolio with ease. Within Google Apps, you can enjoy all the service and features without paying anything out of your pocket. Once you open a Google App account, it gives you access to branches of tools that can help you to develop a successful and effective ePortfolio. For example, you can upload word documents, spreadsheets, or presentations to the Google Docs; images can be stored in a uniform storage, Picasa; Google Groups is a discussion forum that allows students and teachers to exchange ideas and conduct evaluations, etc. Hence, it is a very useful tool for beginners and dummies.
Moreover, it lowers the administration cost of schools in handling students' ePortfolios. As schools can set up free accounts and set up their own domain names, students and teachers can access to all the tools, and launch their workplace in the same location. This creates a well-organized and more uniformed platform to manage a large number of ePortfolios. Besides, there is the function of mail migration that can help administrators and users to transfer all the data from an IMAP to Google App without any trouble.
Also, it has made good use of globalization. The station of students' ePortfolios is not constrained to only computer use, but also mobile devices. free plug-ins are available online to install Google App into BlackBerry smartphones. Hence, users can keep track and modify their work even though they don't have their laptop in hand.

I think the greatest downside of using Google App is that there is a greater risk in data loss. That is, the more centralized it is, the greater the risk of losing all the data at once. Since Google App is a huge hub that clusters all the ePortfolios and data in one place, any error or maintenance by Google itself will definitely cause great inconvenience. What's worse is that if Google App was shut down for some reason, imagine the huge loss of all the precious ePortfolios!

Besides, there is the high time cost involve in preparing ePortfolios. Creativity and compatibility are keys to success in making valuable ePortfolios. You need time to come up with great creative stuff, and it takes you another few days to debug your ePortfolio to make sure the links work well on the Internet. These process can be tedious and time consuming, and debugging sometimes discourages people to move on!(Because it is hard to catch a tiny mistakes in a sea of codes!)

All in all, I strongly support the use of Google App in making ePortfolios. Google is the most common web company on the planet. And with its all-round applications, it is a perfect platform that suits different styles and expectations.