Cloud computing has become commonplace across industries, allowing for the seamless, real-time transmission of and access to data anywhere, any time. Yet this seemingly geeky tech isn’t constrained to businesses in the know — consumers have embraced it too. From Google Docs, to Apple’s iCloud, to Microsoft’s advertisements, the cloud is now a household word.

Yet I would argue that the cloud has yet to truly disrupt one of the most hallowed and stagnant industries around: education.

I believe access to high-quality education is a right, not a privilege, and that developing more cloud-based tools that empower educators and students is the way to support that vision. When it comes to how educators teach, create materials and interact with the wider world, the potential of the cloud remains largely untapped.

The Sky’s the Limit

Admittedly, education is a slow-moving field with a long cycle to make changes and adopt new solutions. As a result, innovation can be tricky and the status quo has remained, from print textbooks on up. Yet with rising costs, increasing student demand and greater federal and state focus on quality improvement, educational technology is gaining a foothold. In 2012, CB Insights estimated that edtech companies received $1.1BN from venture capitalists, angels and other investors. We’ve seen innovations like Coursera, edX and others take the national stage and ask the public to rethink how — and where — students learn. My own company, Boundless, was part of that trend, going to students directly to offer them affordable alternatives to expensive textbooks.

I’m not arguing that education is unaware of the cloud — institutions have been coming around to the potential for some time. According to a 2013 report from CDW, higher ed institutions and large businesses led the way with cloud migration, with 43% of higher ed respondents “implementing or maintaining cloud computing.” That same report found that higher education cloud migration broke down the following way — 31% for storage, 29% for messaging/conferencing and collaboration, and 25% for computing power.

Yet while industry data show that institutions are thinking about how to transition to this technology, it’s largely in relation to IT infrastructure. With cloud-based services, faculty, students and administrators can easily access files, emails, databases and other resources. To achieve that internal efficiency, the industry’s focus is on replacing physical tech considerations (such as servers) to save on-campus costs and free information or services from physical constraints.

While it’s encouraging to see campuses embrace tech to make day-to-day life more efficient, what about the bigger picture? Institutions may be storing vast amounts of information in cloud-based solutions, but there has yet to be a fundamental leap to using this technology as more than a repository for files.

Awareness of the cloud’s potential for on-campus collaboration isn’t enough — we need to think beyond cost savings and single institution efficiency to the broader world. What could the cloud do to connect low-income students to quality information? How could it foster collaboration between a professor at Harvard and an educator in rural India? Would students be able to participate in real-time study groups, regardless of location?

A Right… Not a Privilege

More important than file storage or institutional efficiency, cloud-based technology could bring us closer to the goal of universal access to education. We could truly connect anyone interested in learning to the resources, experts and support networks they need. There would be no limit to the number of students who could access information, or the amount of information educators could share, create, or edit.

We’ve made great strides already. In the last few years we’ve seen MOOCs grow and expand. While this platform for education is still evolving, it removes barriers to information and enables students anywhere in the world to take classes from professors from different states, countries and continents. We need to keep innovating, building on this progress and bringing more elements of education to the masses through the cloud.

With each news headline about higher education in the U.S., the future seems more and more dire. We’ve reached more than $1 trillion in national student debt. 7 in 10 students admit to not buying a textbook because of its cost, which can be over $100 for an intro level book. Thanks to high costs, not every student can access the education they want.

What’s incredible is that we haven’t started to solve this problem. Even as almost every other industry has seen costs go down and quality go up through technological innovation, higher ed has remained relatively untouched.

We have the power to create a world where quality education becomes a right, not a privilege. The cloud is the gateway to making this happen on a global scale.

Ariel Diaz is the Founder and CEO of Boundless, an education company that creates affordable and effective online textbooks and learning tools that improve education for millions of students and educators.