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The Malta Independent | Thursday 31 March 2016
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The Malta Independent | Thursday 31 March 2016
The Malta Prompting Creativity: Creative writing which promotes storytelling Independent using technology by Claudio Laferla ICT Feature
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t is interesting that, though technology has permeated all our daily, business and leisure endeavours, there is one thing which I see that has remained stable in all this mumbo-jumbo of different available gadgets. Storytelling has remained intact, namely that, in essence, it is still the story in itself which in actual fact mesmerises the children and helps them to imagine and stimulates their ‘neurons’ to make more and more connections. On the 29th March, 2016 a creative writing which promotes storytelling using technology,
Cloud Computing for SMEs
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he widespread proliferation of digital technologies has transformed us into a knowledge-intensive society. New revolutionary digital technology trends will continue to change the ICT domain and create new opportunities at all levels. For decades, public and private organisations and individuals have addressed their technology needs in the traditional way by investing in high-end hardware and software. However, the increased availability of ubiquitous computing is creating a new paradigm, one that enables the consumption of ICT over the Internet as a service. This new way of delivering ICT is called “Cloud Computing”. This phenomenon will play a major role in the ICT domain over the next five years and will “fundamentally shift competitive landscapes by providing a new platform for creating and delivering business value” (How cloud computing en-
ables process and business model innovation, Berman et al). Cloud computing is already playing a major role in our everyday lives. Services such as Google Apps provided by the Google Cloud Platform, iTunes and Apple iCloud, Amazon Cloud Drive, and Office Online are examples of applications provisioned over the cloud. As these examples demonstrate, the cloud can be used to deliver a vast range of services. Other benefits offered by cloud computing include reduced costs by paying only for the services and infrastructure being used; reduced capital investment; on-demand processing and storage resources; and the enabling of entirely new innovative business services. Cloud computing also brings substantial new challenges such as data security and privacy, reliability of the cloud, governance and interoperability of data. However, with the
introduction of industry standards that address the technological, management and regulatory issues, these challenges will be overcome. To this effect, the Malta Communications Authority (MCA) and Malta Information Technology Agency (MITA) are organising a day seminar that will focus on the benefits and challenges in cloud computing implementations and deployment and the latest cloud computing technologies. Keynote speakers for this cloud computing event include Dr. Tobias Höllwarth a founding member of EuroCloud Austria and editor of the book “Migrating to the Cloud” and Maurice van der Woude general director of EuroCloud Europe. Hon Dr Josè Herrera Parliamentary Secretary for Competitiveness and Economic Growth will close the event and launch an ebook titled “Cloud Computing Guidelines for SMEs”.
took place at the MITA Data Centre. This pilot project was novel in the fact that a digital storytelling app was used. The core was still the story itself which was built by the children themselves. The digital app only helped to: (i) take photographs of the coloured pictures drawn, (ii) record the voices; and (iii) make the story available in a secure environment for the children to listen to later. Thus, the app in itself only assisted in making the drawing and the voice of the children shared securely online. Additionally, a group of student teachers who are currently in their third year reading for their bachelors degree in education, were also present at this event, as part of their observation practice. They expressed that the experience was a positive one, and that the students were engaged and extremely participatory using the tools provided. The student teachers pointed out that the young students had the opportunity to freely express their ideas to write creative stories and positively influence them on the importance of reading.
MITA Communications and PR Team
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n the 29th March, 2016 a creative writing which promotes storytelling using technology, took place at the MITA Data Centre. This pilot project was novel in the fact that a digital storytelling app was used. Cloud computing is already playing a major role in our everyday lives. Services such as Google
Apps provided by the Google Cloud Platform, iTunes and Apple iCloud, Amazon Cloud Drive, and Office Online are examples of applications provisioned over the cloud. All ICT Features are available on www.mita.gov.mt/ictfeature