Do you tire of sending yourself documents back and forth from work to home and from home to work? Here's a nice solution:
www.dropbox.com
You install this "dropbox" on your teacher workstation, home computer (free for 2GB of storage-2GB holds a lot of documents); an icon appears on your desktop and within it your documents are stored. One can also access it from other computers (friend's house, hotel, public library, etc.) by simply logging in to www.dropbox.com. You can also share some or all of your folders and documents with others--makes sharing with colleagues very easy!
You can easily move documents into it and can create folders and subfolders within it. After saving a file into it, if you open it to make changes it automatically syncs the changes. I've been using it over a year and still have space left of my free 2GB. If you experience trouble downloading and need the proxy settings, please contact me and I'll send them to you.
If you would like a demo on this, a one hour class is scheduled
Tuesday, April 12, 3:30-4:30 in the Central Services basement lab OR
Thursday, April 14, 4:30-5:30pm in the Central Services basement lab.
You only need to attend one of the sessions!
To register, go to: http://bellinghamschools.org/online-registration
Dropbox was how (in part) I got through National Boards. It's an invaluable tool, and I just found this link which gives additional tips and tools to make Dropbox even more useful. Here's the link: http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/5-applications-dropbox/
ReplyDeleteAlso - take a look at this you tube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=falHoOEUFz0&feature=player_embedded
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ReplyDeleteWhat is the advantage of dropbox over google docs? Does network services mind staff and students "installing" dropbox on district computers?
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteDoes anyone use Diigo as a bookmarking tool? Rumor has it that Delicious is going away, but you can easily copy all your Delicious bookmarks into Diigo. And More!! http://www.diigo.com/
ReplyDeleteDiigo for iPad
Your all-purpose digital library on iPad!
Diigo Power Note for Android
Your memory booster on the go!
Diigo offline reader for iPhone
Read bookmarks offline on iPhone
Tools for desktop browsers
Bookmark, Highlight, screenshot...in one place!
Here is a link to a video (commercial 1st) who uses Social Networking & encourages staff to use it in the classroom as well -- Twitter, YouTube being 2 of the main resources.
http://bcove.me/qw7unq1c
Shari:
ReplyDeleteThe advantage of DropBox over Google Docs is that with google docs you have to download the file, change it, then re-upload it as a new version of the original document.
With DropBox you open the file on your district computer, save changes to it, dropbox automatically copies it to the cloud for you, then when you get home dropbox automatically downloads the new version to your folder there, so it's always the newest version to look at.
This is only an advantage if you want to use MS Office files in their native format. If everything you need can be done in a Google Doc, then there's no need for DropBox.
Google Cloud Connect would one-up DropBox for us, but the district doesn't allow it yet.