Peter in the cloud of education
Cloud computing in education at FINKI
Katerina Zdravkova
University Sts Cyril and Methodius
Faculty of Computer Science and Engineering
katerina.zdravkova@finki.ukim.mk
Contents
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Introduction
Milestones of cloud computing
Cloud computing in education and in
research
Peter’s fascination
FINKI’s clouds
Systems integration
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Conclusion
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13th Workshop “Software Engineering and
Reverse Engineering”
Bansko, 26 - 31 August 2013
Who is Peter?
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Young and ambitious student attracted by
ICTs
Successful competitor at international
informatics competitions
He is aware that:
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In the new hi-tech era it is more than ever
inevitable to learn and acquire new
knowledge in order to survive and progress
in the present-day world
The increased demand for learning entails
that the educational process should have the
most important role
13th Workshop “Software Engineering and
Reverse Engineering”
Bansko, 26 - 31 August 2013
The challenge
Transformation of the educational
system seems to be very slow
 Any new technology introduced in
education soon becomes obsolete
and ineffective, often causing
confusion among teachers and
students, instead of offering better
education

13th Workshop “Software Engineering and
Reverse Engineering”
Bansko, 26 - 31 August 2013
Peter’s first contact with FINKI
His home school was similar to Plato’s
Academia
 Experience with MENDO
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13th Workshop “Software Engineering and
Reverse Engineering”
Bansko, 26 - 31 August 2013
13th Workshop “Software Engineering and
Reverse Engineering”
Bansko, 26 - 31 August 2013
August 2012, Peter’s
enrolment
Enrolment coincided with BOI 2012
 Will he be able to enroll?
 His colleague’s statement:
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“While iKnow exists, you should not
worry.”
eStudent Information System – iKnow
13th Workshop “Software Engineering and
Reverse Engineering”
Bansko, 26 - 31 August 2013
13th Workshop “Software Engineering and
Reverse Engineering”
Bansko, 26 - 31 August 2013
Peter’s first classes
He entered the amphitheatre trying to
be closer to the blackboard
 But, there was no blackboard there 
 Teacher uncovered the whiteboard
and made a cable channels news’
presentation
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13th Workshop “Software Engineering and
Reverse Engineering”
Bansko, 26 - 31 August 2013
First brunch
First visit to the labs
 Computer’s local storage was almost
empty
 But, there were several Internet
browsers
 He twitted a short message with his
first impressions: “The Faculty I
chose must be in the clouds”
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13th Workshop “Software Engineering and
Reverse Engineering”
Bansko, 26 - 31 August 2013
Peter’s research
What is cloud computing?
 Cloud computing and education
 Cloud computing and research
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13th Workshop “Software Engineering and
Reverse Engineering”
Bansko, 26 - 31 August 2013
Milestones of cloud
computing
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Early 1960s, MIT: Compatible Time-Sharing
System (CTSS)
Invented:
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Multitasking
Time-sharing
2006, Amazon Web Services
Initial aim: to create a balanced triangle
between software, infrastructure and
platform
13th Workshop “Software Engineering and
Reverse Engineering”
Bansko, 26 - 31 August 2013
New devices have
affected learning as well
e-Learning, m-Learning, s-Learning
 Cloud computing in education
 Key players: Amazon, Google, IBM,
Intel, Microsoft and Oracle
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13th Workshop “Software Engineering and
Reverse Engineering”
Bansko, 26 - 31 August 2013
Cloudy education
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2004, North Carolina State University:
Virtual Computing Lab (VCL) powered by
Apache Software
Applications like Matlab, Maple, SAS, SPSS
offered to more than 40000 students
Oracle: Sun Cloud
2009, IBM: Cloud Academy (ICA)
Sun Cloud retired, Exalogic Elastic Cloud
and Exadata Database Machine were born
Google Apps: Google Docs/ Drive, Google
Talk, Google Video and Google Sites
13th Workshop “Software Engineering and
Reverse Engineering”
Bansko, 26 - 31 August 2013
Cloudy Learning
Management Systems
BlackBoard/WebCT: xpLor
 Moodle + Amazon Web Services +
BitNami Cloud Hosting: BitNami
Moodle 2.4
 Cisco Networking Academy + Canvas:
Cisco NetSpace
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13th Workshop “Software Engineering and
Reverse Engineering”
Bansko, 26 - 31 August 2013
Cloudy research
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IBM and Google Cloud Computing
University Initiative launched Cluster
Exploratory (CluE) program
Massive cloud cluster Hadoop performed
more than 120 million computing tasks
The mission accomplished: research and
education of outstanding universities had
enormously benefited from this program
13th Workshop “Software Engineering and
Reverse Engineering”
Bansko, 26 - 31 August 2013
The transformation
Traditional blackboards  Interactive
whiteboards
 Textbooks  Digital contents
 Books  Tablets, smartphones
 Internet cable connection  Wireless
Internet
 Static E-learning 1.0  Dynamic Elearning 0.2
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13th Workshop “Software Engineering and
Reverse Engineering”
Bansko, 26 - 31 August 2013
Peter’s new smartphone
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A tool for ubiquitous access to:
e-mails
 Facebook profile
 Internet
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Can he access something else?
13th Workshop “Software Engineering and
Reverse Engineering”
Bansko, 26 - 31 August 2013
FINKI in Microsoft’s clouds
2012/13: more than 3000 students
 Partnership with Microsoft:
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Office 365
 Microsoft Live accounts / FINKI Live
accounts
 Access to Microsoft software for
educational purposes
 Microsoft SkyDrive

13th Workshop “Software Engineering and
Reverse Engineering”
Bansko, 26 - 31 August 2013
Peter’s fascination
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Blockbuster movies 
Computer Animation Club
Cloud solutions used:
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File sharing: Adrive, FilesFINKI, Dropbox
Asset management system: Tactic
Version control management: GitHub,
BitBucket, Google Project Hosting and SVN
Antivirus: Panda Cloud Antivirus
13th Workshop “Software Engineering and
Reverse Engineering”
Bansko, 26 - 31 August 2013
Tactic and Bitbucket/Github
13th Workshop “Software Engineering and
Reverse Engineering”
Bansko, 26 - 31 August 2013
Online communication
13th Workshop “Software Engineering and
Reverse Engineering”
Bansko, 26 - 31 August 2013
Peter’s privacy concern
To join or not to join?
13th Workshop “Software Engineering and
Reverse Engineering”
Bansko, 26 - 31 August 2013
FINKI in social media
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Enrolment procedure on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/user/FINKIedu
Staff on LinkedIn
http://www.linkedin.com/company/faculty-ofcomputer-science-and-engineering---skopje
Future diploma: Flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/finki-cse/
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/FINKI.ukim.mk
Twitter: https://twitter.com/CSEedu
13th Workshop “Software Engineering and
Reverse Engineering”
Bansko, 26 - 31 August 2013
13th Workshop “Software Engineering and
Reverse Engineering”
Bansko, 26 - 31 August 2013
Systems integration
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Central Authentication System (CAS)
 CAS functionalities currently provided only to FINKI
students and staff
e-Student Information System iKnow
 Provided to University students and staff
e-Learning systems: Moodle, LE
e-Testing system: eTest and cloudy e-Assesment
 e-Assesment currently implemented in primary and
secondary schools in Macedonia
Online testing and laboratory exercises system eLab
13th Workshop “Software Engineering and
Reverse Engineering”
Bansko, 26 - 31 August 2013
13th Workshop “Software Engineering and
Reverse Engineering”
Bansko, 26 - 31 August 2013
13th Workshop “Software Engineering and
Reverse Engineering”
Bansko, 26 - 31 August 2013
13th Workshop “Software Engineering and
Reverse Engineering”
Bansko, 26 - 31 August 2013
FINKI’s HPC
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High Performance Computing
supercomputer:
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84 servers
• Each server using 2 microprocessors (168 in total)
• Each processor having 6 cores (1008 cores in
total)
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2016 logical processors
The blade servers are interconnected
through Infiniband
84 separate links
13th Workshop “Software Engineering and
Reverse Engineering”
Bansko, 26 - 31 August 2013
The ambition
Simultaneous implementation of all
services by thousands of FINKI users
proved their scalability
 The ambition: to successfully extend
services from Faculty to University
and in perspective from University to
national level
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13th Workshop “Software Engineering and
Reverse Engineering”
Bansko, 26 - 31 August 2013
Cloud computing in
education
Few years ago, cloud computing in
education was “ante portas”
 Nowadays, many cloud services have
already become an ordinary solution
 FINKI uses many software solutions
and various platforms as a service
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13th Workshop “Software Engineering and
Reverse Engineering”
Bansko, 26 - 31 August 2013
Is the perspective so pink?
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It can be
Prerequisite: standardization
To speed up important activities and
functions, human beings standardise them
We live in standard rooms, houses and
cities, we transport using standard vehicles:
cars, trains, boats or planes
But, we still learn in traditional classrooms
with chalks and blackboards
13th Workshop “Software Engineering and
Reverse Engineering”
Bansko, 26 - 31 August 2013
Inspiration for the paper
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The intention to improve the learning
process in line with new trends
It is not exactly Peter’s experience, but
rather the teachers’ challenge to prove that
education can enormously benefit from new
technologies
The examples of recent modifications done
at our Faculty are a significant contribution
to education reconstruction and innovation
Students’ favourable feedback encourages
us to go further
13th Workshop “Software Engineering and
Reverse Engineering”
Bansko, 26 - 31 August 2013
Conclusion
Emerging technologies and plentiful
opportunities that they trigger don’t let
us standardize learning and education
 Possibility to learn always,
everywhere and by everyone makes
standardization of the learning
process easier said than done
 We should try to make it possible

13th Workshop “Software Engineering and
Reverse Engineering”
Bansko, 26 - 31 August 2013
Thank you for your
attention
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