Luckily, there are plenty of schools around the globe that are ‘up to speed’ with technology change, with good folk who share their knowledge and experiences.
Hello Dropbox – here I come 🙂
What is Dropbox?
Put away your flash drive, and stop emailing yourself files, because once you get Dropbox, the ways you deal with moving, sharing and backing up your files will change forever. Whether you are sharing things with your family, working on school projects, collaborating with colleagues, or just securing your own work, Dropbox is an amazing tool.
Drop Box it is a service that provides 2GB of free online file storage (with paid upgrades possible for heavy users).
What impresses me the most is the speed at which it backs things up.
Dropbox for Teachers
Jonathan Wylie has put together a Top Tips for Using Dropbox at School, explaining how it works for a busy teacher, expanding on the advantages for teachers. Did you know this includes being able to run a drop box for your students? DROPitTOme is a free service that works with Drop Box to allow people to upload files to your Drop Box account without giving them access to the contents of your Drop Box account.
Essentially though:
- It’s free
- It’s convenient
- It saves you time
- It synchronises your files across all your computers and devices.
Would you like to quickly access your Dropbox files while you’re browsing or using web apps in Chrome? You’ll need to head over to the DropBox extension page and add Dropbox to your Chrome browser. You can pick up instructions on how to do this by reading Access your Dropbox quickly in Google Chrome.
With the ‘Dropbox for Chrome’ extension, you can:
- Browse all files in your DropBox account
- Instantly download files from your account
- View recent events (uploads, downloads, and file modifications)
But essentially, this extension allows you to peek into your dropbox on the fly, without further ado! Neat!
If you are already using Dropbox, and are wondering what else you could be using it for, here are a few additional reads:
- From the Dropbox Gurus: Ideas for Beginners, Intermediates and Wizards. I was astounded by the many further options that I need to explore this year.
- The Ultimate Dropbox Toolkit and Guide with a comprehensive list of tips and trick to make good use of Dropbox.
- The Complete Dropbox for Educators is also worth checking out.
Is Dropbox and Google Docs Integration on the Way? That would be grand – but it seems that we’ll see Dropbox Rewind first. This will let you “hop to your Dropbox at any point in the past.” For its users, this could be the perfect defense against deleting files by accident and never remembering to make backups. Dropbox users can also expect to see file system usage analytics.
If you’re still on holidays and want a challenge – why not take part in the The Inaugural Dropbox Dropquest and win nice things like 50 Gb storage for life!
Finally – a handbook/guide from MakeUseOf:
Related Articles
- Dropbox and Google Docs Integration may be on its way (zdnet.com)
- How I use Dropbox to install bookmarklets on my iPhone (alexknight.net)
- Using Dropbox for File Sharing & Online Backup (tengoldenrulesblog.blogspot.com)
judyoconnell.com 
Pam, as long as you can access the website you’re OK!! I have only used the website at school too, and often only use the web version as I flit from one machine to another. It’s fast to upload to as well – so if your network actually lets you upload to sites, you’re home and hosed!
Thanks for the links to more info on using Dropbox. I love the idea of it and have started using it but unfortunately I’m restricted by our DECS network, I can access the website, usually, but can’t get the Dropbox installed 🙂 I’m not giving up though – it’s such a great tool that it deserves perseverance!
great post, i’m a big dropbox fan and am really keen to see dropbox in schools, keep up the good work!