Webwatcher: Dropbox

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Russell Stannard explores how Dropbox can make your life easier.


These days, we often hear about ‘cloud computing’. The idea of this is that we can load more and more of our content onto purpose-built servers instead of saving it on the hard disk of our computers. Most of us are already using the cloud when we do things like upload video onto YouTube or work with Google Docs. Even using Blogger means you are saving content on the Blogger server and using a Blogger application on the cloud. In this article we will look at a simple, easy-to-use, cloud-based file-sharing application called Dropbox, and explore some of the uses it can have for teachers.

What is Dropbox?

Dropbox is an application that gives you a free account where you can save up to 2GB of digital content. You sign up initially using your email address and, afterwards, you can sign in at any time to access your content. This means you can easily find your files from any computer: a friend’s laptop, the university computer, even an internet café. This is clearly a huge advantage, and one I often make use of when I am working in different countries and on different computers. For example, if I have a talk prepared, I can save it on Dropbox and then access it from anywhere in the world. However, the most powerful aspect of Dropbox is that folders saved on it can be shared. So, for example, each student in a class can share a folder with their teacher and the teacher can then access any content put into that folder. This can be really useful for e-portfolios: a student can upload mindmaps, recordings, videos, essays, etc into a single folder where the teacher can access them. Of course, this can also be done the other way around: the teacher can create a folder which is shared with their students, thereby creating a class folder where students and teacher can upload content. This can be an alternative way of distributing material to students. For example, a teacher who wants the students to read a certain article before the lesson can upload it into the class folder where all the students can access it quickly. Shared folders allow content to be accessed by anyone who shares the folder, and anyone who shares the folder can add content, but all users must have Dropbox accounts.

Possibilities for linking

Another feature of Dropbox is the ability to link. Links are very useful because they allow a certain folder, and the contents of that folder, to be shared with anyone, even if they don’t have a Dropbox account. However, with shared links, only the creator of the folder can add content. So if it is only the teacher who has a Dropbox account, the students can still access the content of the teacher’s folder if they are sent a shared link, but they can’t upload anything themselves. Links to Dropbox can be added to Moodle sites, written on the board or distributed in the way you usually do with any normal links on the internet.

Possibilities for uploading

Dropbox also has a very simple app that you can download to make it even easier to upload files to your folders. You can even have the app on an iPhone or iPad. This opens up all sorts of possibilities. For example, if you use an iPhone to take pictures in class, record your students speaking or even take some video footage, this can immediately be uploaded onto Dropbox where it can be shared with your students. Likewise, any recordings or videos that the students make can all be uploaded into the one area. If you use the app on your folder, it simply feels and works like any normal folder on your computer. So you can right-click with your mouse and create folders, delete folders and copy folders just as you do on your computer. You can also drag and drop content into the app. This makes the process a little faster since you don’t need to log onto the internet to access your files. However, everything is synchronised so it doesn’t matter how, where or when you add the content: it will be available from any computer at any time, either by logging into the website or using the Dropbox app.

Possibilities for teaching  

If your school or institution doesn’t have a virtual learning environment, sharing digital content with your students can be difficult. If you get your students to create Dropbox accounts, then it is easy to share a folder with them where they can access materials. Of course, you can also have folders inside folders, so, for example, you can have a class folder for each class you teach, and inside each class folder you can have weekly folders where the students can find the class content. This way, everything stays organised. If the students are doing group projects, they can create a folder, which they can then share amongst the members of the group. Any content they want to share with the rest of the class can then be added into the class folder and accessed by everyone. This works well when students want to share interesting links, articles and images that they have found on a given topic. If students create their own folders, which are then shared with the teacher, these can be a great place to upload feedback as well as to access the students’ work. Only the student concerned and the teacher can access the folder and see the work and the assessment. The student does not have to hand anything into the teacher; they just drop their work into the folder and the teacher can access it, read it and then provide feedback. If set up properly, this can save a lot of time.

I have made some help videos for using Dropbox. You can find these at: www.teachertrainingvideos.com/dropbox/index.html If you sign up for Dropbox on my recommendation, I get some extra space on my account for recommending you, so if you can, please do it at: www.dropbox.com/referrals/NTEyNTI1NDAxOQ?src=global9

 


 

Russell Stannard is a Principal Lecturer in ICT at the University of Warwick, UK, where he teaches on the MA in ELT. He won the Times Higher Education Award for Outstanding Initiatives in Information and Communications Technology in 2008, TEFLnet Site of the Year in 2009 and a 2010 British Council ELTon award, all for his popular website www.teachertrainingvideos.com.


This article first appeared in issue 85 of English Teaching professional, March 2013.

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