In any given semester, I need to access files on three to seven* computers pretty regularly, plus others on occasion. Until last spring, I handled this in one of two ways: a flash drive, or self-e-mailing. Flash drives are convenient enough: they don’t require internet access, plus there’s just the one copy of the file, so you don’t have to remember what’s the most current. But, then again, you have to have it with you. (I think George solves this problem with this key-shaped drive.) And, if you lose the drive, or dunk it in your coffee, or your bag’s run over by a psycho driver, well, you’re in a world of hurt. E-mail’s convenient, too: you don’t have to carry anything, it’s less likely to be obliterated by accident, and you have a reminder that you need to do something with the file. Then again, I would start to proliferate copies of a file–I have whole rows of files with titles like grading2do.zip, grading2do.zip 1, grading2do.zip 3, etc. Not the best.
Dropbox is a service that allows files in a special folder to be 1) synced across multiple computers; 2) accessed from any computer 3) shared at any level of scale (not shared, shared with a couple of users, shared with the world). In addition, it provides backup and versioning. There’s a free 2GB version, plus $9.99/month (50GB) and $19.99/month (100GB) plans.
Here’s how I use the free version:
- Dropbox is installed on my office and home computers. That way, the contents of one folder are mirrored on both machines. It holds papers I’m currently grading, documents for committees I’m on, and such. Anytime I change them on one computer, the change is propagated on the other. When I overwrite my blank rubric by clicking “Save” instead of “Save As,” I right click on the file, and select “see previous versions”–bang! the file’s back.
- I can also access that folder through the Dropbox website, so when I’m in the classroom those files are also available to me. (No more fretting over whether I have the flash drive with the presentation on it; no more logging into Gmail in front of the entire faculty senate . . . )
- There’s a subfolder that’s public; anything in that folder has a public URL that you can give out, willy-nilly. (That’s how I made available the rubric in this post.) What’s nice about this is that the same rules apply–it’s just a document in a folder, so anytime you update it, the update is publicly available. There’s versioning, and it’s backed up.
- Any sub-folder can be shared with anyone else. I arranged for a speaker to come to campus last year; rather than e-mail his W-9 form and other paperwork, he just put it in a shared folder in our Dropbox. Rather than clog colleagues’ inboxes with huge attachments, it’s easy enough to just point them to a shared folder.
Jason Snell made a handy video that explains how it works. Dropbox has helped streamline my (often fairly shaggy) workflow more than any other site over the past couple of years.
(And when the iPhone app is approved . . . glory days will be at hand.)
Check out Dropbox here.
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home + office + n, where n is the number of different classrooms n which I’m teaching.
Comments
1. Nels - September 01, 2009 at 03:53 pm
Jason, I remember you writing last year about how you didn't like flashdrives because of the need to have it with you. I've heard of Dropbox, but I admit that my 4GB flashdrive is all I need. I have every document I've ever written (just documents, no pics or video) on it, and it works great for me. I work on three private computers (one of which does not go online) and two public ones generally, so I do need something a bit more portable, and this works for me. I can see Dropbox being perfect for some people, but I'm a flashdrive fan. Oh, I do email documents to Gmail, but more for backup purposes. If I'm really, really paranoid about losing a document, it goes into an email.
2. Ron - September 01, 2009 at 04:59 pm
I made the shift from thumb drive to dropbox last semester for the same kinds of reasons. I felt it was a big improvement, and that with dropbox I spent lots less time transferring files and wondering about where the most recent version of something was.
3. Andre Malan - September 01, 2009 at 05:43 pm
The thing I love about Dropbox is that it frees up a certain amount of cognitive capacity. You never, ever have to think about whether or not something will be available on a certain machine, because it is just always there. It gives you this weird sense of freedom. Dropbox also works on Linux, Windows and Mac something that flashdrives sometime don't get right.
4. Billie - September 01, 2009 at 08:07 pm
I've been using DropBox for a while, as I tired of carrying around a 320g external drive (a drive, by the way, that held my dissertation, all teaching files, and photographs). DropBox has greatly simplified data management. I also use the free version, and have the current semester's work saved.
5. got80s - September 01, 2009 at 08:45 pm
I've used Dropbox since the early beta and it's never failed me. Also, if you want to backup to your flash drive you can use DropboxPortable (google it). It's in the forums on Dropbox and requires you login w/your account. I've not tried it but even Lifehacker posted about it a while back. It just treats a folder on your flash drive like another computer and when you run the app off the drive it syncs the files like normal to Dropbox, great if you say.. lose the drive somewhere on campus.
6. Drew - September 01, 2009 at 08:50 pm
...Google should make an App for this...They may have one...But I dont know about it...aside from Gmail that is...
7. Nels - September 01, 2009 at 10:25 pm
Do you have to be online while working on your documents to make this work? For a few hours each week, I have to work on a computer that is not connected to the internet. I guess you can copy all those files you revised when you weren't able to be online onto the site later? But, frankly, that's why my flash drive is great for me; it's all on there whether I can get online or not. But maybe I should explore this for backups, though I already have two external hard drives and a dozen old flash drives.
Jason, you say it works with files "in a special folder." If I work on those files in that folder on my flash drive on a non-connected computer, will it copy over once I get back to a computer that's online?
8. Jason B. Jones - September 01, 2009 at 10:31 pm
If you google "mount gmail as a drive," you may be able to find a solution.
9. Jason B. Jones - September 01, 2009 at 10:31 pm
Excellent point about platform independence--I knew I'd forgotten something very, very important!
10. Jason B. Jones - September 01, 2009 at 10:34 pm
As long as you access the internet with that computer sometime, you're fine. The files are stored locally, after all, in the special folder, and then the next time you connect, it will sync everything up for you.
If, on the other hand, the computer you use is one that never connects to the internet, then it's probably not the solution for you. (Dropbox Portable, on the other hand . . . )
11. Nels - September 01, 2009 at 10:55 pm
That's what I thought, and that one computer is never online. And I actually don't use the hard drives of any computer I use as anything but storage. That's why the flash drive changed my life. It's the only thing that contains documents that will be changed and, as I never thought about before, it's been working great since I work on connected and non-connected computers. I think some of my students need to know about Dropbox, though.
12. Wade - September 02, 2009 at 10:34 am
I think you all have convinced me. I've been mulling a jump on the dropbox bandwagon for a while, but for some reason have never made the leap. I think I'll give it a shot for the semester and see how it works.
13. G. Michael Guy - September 02, 2009 at 01:10 pm
I currently use DropBox as part of collaboration with 3 co-authors. (I use SugarSync for my own personal online backup syncing) We each have our own directory and a common one. We share files without emailing them and filling up our tiny mailbox quotas. Also, I try to avoid attachments whenever possible since once a file is emailed, it won't change--even if you have a last minute inspiration for improvement or a last minute realization of a fail.
As a note: my IT department blocks dropbox's website. But once we got the app installed, the service was not blocked. I suspect dropbox communicates over a port that isn't monitored or something. So perhaps the last use of your flashdrive should be to carry a copy of the dropbox app that you downloaded at home to your work computer...
14. Susie - March 19, 2010 at 07:56 am
Google docs now allows you to upload files, and it looks like you can choose whether to retain the original formatting, or change to google docs formatting (the first option takes up more space in your quota). I've only ever converted files to google docs, so I'm not yet sure how well it works otherwise.
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