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There is no question that cloud adoption is consistently on the rise, with industries like finance, healthcare and the enterprise communications sector leading the charge to migrate services and networks to the cloud. The education market, however, is also discovering the myriad benefits of cloud computing, and it’s not just colleges and distance learning companies that are researching and utilizing cloud technologies to educate students.

Cloud-based education from the primary level on up is an idea that is slowly gaining traction throughout the world. A one-room learning lab known as a “Self-Organized Learning Environment” made its debut in England last November, taught through an online mediator known as a “Granny Cloud.” The cloud educators consist of a group of retired teachers who communicate with the lab via Skype (News - Alert). Japan is also testing a cloud computing-based learning system for certain primary middle and high schools in which students will be able to access teaching materials through the cloud using a variety of remote devices.

The Gehlen Catholic School in Le Mars, IA recently announced that it was utilizing Google (News - Alert) Cloud services for storing students’ projects and homework. The school is also making use of online services for email and to help students and teachers collaborate and share documents. According to Lori Schuch, technology coordinator at Gehlen, students and staff each have a Google-based email address as well as a Google Drive account for storing data, including documents, spreadsheets and drawings. The result has been cost savings for the school, since it saves on printing as well as maintaining and managing email servers. And students and teachers agree that the cloud has enabled better overall communications and management regarding their work and projects.

A recent IDG survey shows that education, while not the dominant adopter of cloud technologies, is still on the map and growing. High-tech industries are of course the primary adopters of cloud computing at 18 percent of those queried by the research firm, followed by the financial services, government and manufacturing sectors at 10 percent each. Education came in next at a healthy nine percent, beating out telecommunications, utilities and other vertical markets.

What this ultimately means is that the cloud holds an overwhelming amount of promise when it comes to education and distance learning. And of course students themselves are helping to lead the charge, with some major cloud computing research projects well underway at colleges and universities throughout the world.

In January, Bell Labs (News - Alert) announced a project in collaboration with students at the Tecnologico de Monterrey, Campus Cuernavaca School in Mexico. The company, which is the research arm of Alcatel-Lucent (News - Alert), is working with students on expanding cloud networking technologies and designs in an effort to create a common communications network for the storing and sharing of data among thousands of processors and millions of users. Carnegie Mellon University, Georgia Tech, Princeton, UC-Berkeley and the University of Washington are also highly active in the cloud computing research space, working with Intel and other companies on new technologies. And MIT (News - Alert), Cornell, the University of Chicago, UMass at Amherst, Boston University and Duke are also active in research and development of cloud infrastructures and applications.

While the education sector may not be as aggressive as enterprise and other vertical markets when it comes to adopting cloud computing technologies, they are certainly not lagging behind either. And students are largely leading the charge when it comes to cloud innovation and advancements, working with some of the top technology firms in the world on standardization and scalable, cost-effective network and system design. With education budgets under constant strain and scrutiny and school systems continually seeking ways to operate more efficiently with less resources, it only makes sense that the education sector will ultimately be a major adopter of the cloud and all it has to offer.