Cloud technologies in education : the bibliographic review

Abstract

The paper considers the use of cloud technologies in education through the prism of bibliographic analysis. The article characterizes the current state of cloud technologies in education, summarizes the trends, and forecasts the directions of recent scientific research. The leading research methods were bibliographic (visual and quantitative) analysis of keyword networks and qualitative discussion. The bibliographic analysis is based on publications indexed by the scientometric database Web Of Science over the past 20 years. The sample for analysis was formed by searching for the words cloud technology, education, learning, and teaching. The results of the study showed: a significant increase in the popularity of cloud technologies in education in recent years; an increase in the number of studies related to various aspects of educational activities under the influence of Industry 4.0; a gradual increase in the number of studies on the virtualization of the educational process and the use of artificial intelligence in education; dissemination of research on the effectiveness of various types of training using cloud services and teaching methods based on artificial intelligence; the relevance of the trend of visualization of educational material and visual analysis in education. The qualitative discussion provided grounds to identify general trends regarding future research directions.: development of mass online courses and learning technologies (immersive, the use of virtual, augmented, and mixed reality, gaming learning technologies, BYOD approach); further virtualization of universities; development of inclusive education, educational analytics, and assessment (formative and adaptive computer assessment); early training of teachers to use cloud technologies and specialized services in subject learning; research related to visualization (big data, design, simulation, simulation of various processes, etc.) and the designing of relevant new academic disciplines; research of STEM and STEAM education. Conclusions and prospects for further research. The analysis gives grounds for some conclusions. The development of information technology led to the emergence of cloud computing, which qualitatively influenced the educational industry. Due to quarantine restrictions, cloud technologies have become the driving force for the development of academic learning technologies and have actualized the development of informal and non-formal education. Thanks to the development of digital technologies, mass online courses are more accessible and provide adaptive learning. The increase in online courses will inevitably lead to their new quality. Therefore, we consider the perspective direction of research that will be associated with the development of mass online courses and learning technologies for them: • immersive technologies; • the use of virtual, augmented, and mixed reality; • gaming learning technologies; • the BYOD approach. As of today, they have been studied fragmentarily and require additional study and systematization. Industry 4.0 will accelerate the increasing virtualization of universities, the provision of online learning, and the digitalization of management and organizational decisions at the administrative level. An important aspect will be the continuity of education along with the digital security of each subject of the educational process, so research on the use of blockchain technologies will be relevant. Increased interest in artificial intelligence, machine, and deep learning will determine a new quality in the individualization of the educational process. Inclusive education will develop, and academic analytics and assessment of personal academic results (formative assessment and adaptive computer assessment based on individual results) will become relevant Education today requires digital skills of the 21st century for everyone, and therefore the current trend will be the advanced training of teachers to use cloud technologies. Educational and professional teacher training programs should include mastery of cloud technologies. It will be essential to develop ideas about cloud technologies in the subject area. Therefore, it will be a perspective to study the use of specialized services in subject education. The spread of artificial intelligence in education will lead to the study of the effectiveness of relevant teaching methods. Therefore, the actual trend is for teachers' advanced preparation for the effective use of AI in pedagogical activities. The challenge for working teachers may be the problem of motivation to use cloud technologies in their professional activities. The search for effective online models of teacher internships will become another promising research trend. Analysis of any processes today faces the problem of processing big data that can be visualized using cloud technologies. Therefore, studies related to their visualization (design, simulation, modeling of various processes, etc.) will remain promising. The need to develop new academic disciplines (for example, "interaction design", "human-computer interaction", and "user experience") for the presentation of various data and design of the dynamics of their interaction is actualized. The trend of visualization in education and the appropriate training of teachers to develop visual images of knowledge models and use them in teaching will remain popular. Today, the skills of critical, algorithmic, computational, visual thinking, and modeling, which are formed on an interdisciplinary basis, are in demand. Therefore, the trend of STEM and STEAM education research as the development of interdisciplinary connections between natural sciences, mathematics, engineering, and digital technologies will gain popularity. Research in vocational education will also be promising: effective forms, methods, and means of teaching robotics, data sciences, artificial intelligence, and cloud computing with an occupation accent.