Suggestions needed for online storage??!!

We're approaching the end of the school year and I'd like my kids to be able to access their work/products/photos/videos/ **EVERYTHING** of importance to them that currently lives on their computers. I want them to be able to access this stuff from whatever platform they use at home or the library (PC or Mac or whatever).

What are your suggestions to where we could uploading? We have MacBooks and I don't think they'll be wanting to store more than about 1 gig apiece. We did have a stand-alone server set up, but for reasons I don't want to go into here, it's not currently available for this. We were using Picassa for photos, but using the district's bandwidth, it takes a LONG time.

I'd like to have kids begin uploading Tuesday/Wednesday, as they're turning their laptops back in on Friday, so any/all suggestions will be welcome! (I'm not a tech teacher--just a teacher who's learning and having kids learn through 2.0 tools more than so many others, so I know I'm asking an elementary-level question)

Tags: 2.0, BackupFiles, ServerSpace, photos, picassa, save, storage, upload, videos

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Permalink Reply by Kevin H. on May 20, 2007 at 12:31pm

Hi Ginger

I use Box.Net myself and although they have a free version, I have upgraded to a paid tier -- I think it is about $50 for 5 gig for a year, and that allows me to host podcasting, videos, etc, that can be shared on other sites.

One thing that I liked about Box.Net (and maybe others do this, too) is that I can set up mini-accounts within my main account and then provide a username and password to JUST that folder, and no email logins for folks under my umbrella (I am thinking of students and email access, etc, here).

So you could set up a folder in your account called STUDENTS with a common username and password, for a limited amount of time, and allow them to download from home, and then close the folder off when everyone is done. Just an idea.

https://www.box.net/

Kevin

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Permalink Reply by Scott Beiter on May 20, 2007 at 5:26pm

Try mediafire.com. There is no registration required and seems to work well. I've used it for documents and images. There is no limit on storage space. Let me know what you end up using.

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Permalink Reply by Ginger Lewman on May 20, 2007 at 9:16pm

I like the idea of no limit on storage space. I'll be talking with a couple of kids about these options tomorrow morning and will let you know what we choose to use.

We're not looking to share info at this time--if we need to share photos, we'll do that another way. We're just looking to backup and and I appreciate everyone's help on this!

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Permalink Reply by SusanTsairi on May 20, 2007 at 11:00pm

Ginger what a great idea for end of year, thanks!

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Permalink Reply by Ray Tolley on May 21, 2007 at 4:51am

Hi,

I like the idea - I'm presently researching the use of VLEs and PLEs in the UK and am trying to think through the process of porting e-portfolios from one institution to another. This approach looks realistic - but I wonder if it could be implemented on a national scale for ALL students!

Can you comment anymore about how the files need to be organised before porting etc.

Ray T

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Permalink Reply by Ginger Lewman on May 21, 2007 at 5:44am

ohh...I'm not sure that I can comment anymore. You're already using words/terms with which I'm not familiar. I guess I'll try, but I'm not sure you're looking for this info: They have personal/school documents they may want to keep, as well as storing movies, podcasts (but those can go to iTunes), pics, songs, powerpoints/keynotes, and maybe some chat records.

Please bear in mind that I'm not a technology-minded person and rely heavily on students teaching me how to use the wonderful tools I learn about here and at conferences. I give them the curricular content and a generality for what the tool's supposed to do for them. They are the ones who then learn it and pass on tips to me and to one another--because they are SO much faster and heck, they need to learn it; not me! I just try to stand out of their way!

Ray, I'm intrigued by the suggestion that we could possibly implement a data storehouse for all students nationwide as they move from school to school or beyond! Wow! That's a tall order for us in the US, and there are the obvious safety issues. BUT... What if? Right now, our Department of Ed is spending millions on outdated/outmoded education delivery systems. Why couldn't this be an option for development?

Something to consider, for sure!

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Permalink Reply by Shayne Train on May 21, 2007 at 5:17pm

I've been concerned about posting information to the web. In the past, I've burned CD's for the students so that they could keep their work. Even with password protected sites, I know that students would e-mail friends and say, "hey, look what I did" and give out the password. I would also want to make sure that no last names (maybe just an initial) are used.

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Permalink Reply by Ginger Lewman on May 21, 2007 at 8:20pm

I agree with you regarding posting info to the web. I'll have to double check things with these sites, but your point about them giving out passwords is also a concern. I'll have to think about this a bit more, I guess.

Does anyone have any other suggestions? We have SO MUCH info that CDs are just going to be too much for some kids.

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Permalink Reply by Ray Tolley on May 22, 2007 at 3:14pm

Hi,
In response to Ginger and Shayne:

Yes, security of identity is essential. But do you not use a secure school/college VLE?

I think that I've changed my mind on the idea of an external repository. Should not the school/college be the guardian of a student's e-portfolio? And thus when moving on to another institution is it not the responsibility of that institution to pass on the e-portfolio as much as any other school reports etc?

BW
Ray T

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Permalink Reply by kherron on May 22, 2007 at 7:51pm

I too am trying to find this same solution. I have not completed thoughts on this and have several ideas but none of which I completely like. 1.) Create a webpage and then branch off of it where students have id with it - but this is primarily off of the schools site so must have access to it's server, etc... 2.) Do the first purchasing a .mac account or somesort???? 3. ) and this is a completely none processed thought and since I am completely new to this format we are now using (yes classroom 2.0 or wiki site. Could the students create one of these such places where people have to request membership, etc... to maybe help with security. Can we not create a group, secure it so they have to request access and then cant we upload files, videos, etc.... Of course I havent completed all of this but is it, or something similar possible? I am working on this too so will let you know if I find something. Please let me know the same.

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Permalink Reply by Ginger Lewman on May 22, 2007 at 8:38pm

For the school's website, we actually have two: one is for official information, with NO children's info at all. This one is via the district's website. The second is a password protected site where we invite people we KNOW to come visit. We also have provisions in place to change the password from time to time to make it harder for the "bad guys" to catch up with us. We're a charter school, so we don't have to have what the district provides us; we can make our tech fit the needs of our kids, for the most part! (imagine that!)

We built that website with a .mac account and in iWeb. Right now it lives on my computer, but we've got a server being set up to house not only our school website, but also kids' websites, as well as housing our own files. BUT--the server just got finished tonite, so all this question about saving files online is now moot! :(

Thanks for everyone's responses--I learned a lot and may still use some of this for other pieces of my online life!

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Permalink Reply by Dan Greenberg on May 27, 2009 at 6:59am

If your students have hotmail accounts MSN has a new feature called Sky Drive that allows users to upload and store files at no cost. It might be worth checking out.