Cloud Computing in the Education Environment for Developing Nations

In developing nations where distance education is viewed with great interest, cloud computing provides a necessary solution in creating a 21st century educational environment. Cloud computing facilitates the use of open source in educational institutions in the online learning environment where the social web or software can be used to network institutions, libraries, and students in their homes. This approach enables remote laboratories for educational institutions, research, and industry. Combining this with a virtual platform will provide academic institutions the ability to provide instruction, and research establishment to conduct high level complex research. This paper presents the concept of laboratories at home as the authors see it in the light of cloud computing era, taking into account the existing norms and standards as well as achieve educational goals required for science and engineering laboratories with what can be referred to as Networked Smart Educational Devices.