

Understanding online file syncing

From: Teacher Tips

Video: Understanding online file syncing

Hi, I'm Aaron Quigley and welcome to another edition of Teacher Tips. Once my data is synced to the Dropbox website, I Clicking outside the folder will automatically At this point we've talked about how Dropbox can

Understanding online file syncing

Hi, I'm Aaron Quigley and welcome to another edition of Teacher Tips. This week we're going to look at Dropbox and how we can use this online file storage system to create collaborative planning and sharing of documents among our colleagues. Here I've navigated to Dropbox in my web browser. I've already created an account, so I'm just going to Sign In. If this is your first time using Dropbox, you can simply click on create an account. Follow through the prompts, and Dropbox will do everything you need to get it properly installed on your computer. As well as create your account in the system. I'm going to go ahead and sign into my account, using my email address and password, and click the Sign In button.

Now that I'm logged into Dropbox, I can see a very basic setup. Here I have the ability to upload documents to the Dropbox server. I can also create new folders and organize these documents. But the real power of Dropbox comes in the ability to share these folders and share these documents. The way Dropbox works, and if all you want to do is have the ability to upload documents to web browser and view them and share them. You can simply use a web browser every single time you want to interact with Dropbox. However, Dropbox is automatically installed on my computer. The ability to use Dropbox without ever having to open a web browser.

Here in my Mac, I can see in the upper right hand icons, that a small Dropbox icon is there. This Dropbox icon allows me to quickly access all of the folders that are inside my Dropbox. Furthermore, I can also go into Settings and I can actually manage all of my Dropbox preferences, directly from my computer without ever having to login to the Dropbox website. I can also open up the Dropbox folder that's been created on my local system. This folder acts just like any other file folder on your computer. I can drag files into it, I can open documents from it. I can even work inside of this folder, when I'm not connected to the Internet.

However, the minute I do have Internet connection, Dropbox is going to take anything I've placed in this folder. And it's going to automatically sync it up, to the Dropbox website. Once my data is synced to the Dropbox website, I then have the ability to share that data with anyone else. If someone else has a Dropbox account, and we are sharing a folder, then that folder will automatically be downloaded and synced to their computer as well. If I then go in and make a change to a file, it'll not only be synced up to my computer and my online Dropbox. But that change will also show up for someone else's account, in someone else's Dropbox.

As educators, we can use the power of Dropbox to create collaborative planning folders. The way this works it either through our online computer Dropbox or through the Dropbox website. I can create Dropbox folders, such as lesson plans or phone log. I can even create online calendars or forms. On my local teaching computer, Dropbox is going to go ahead and sync up those files. Any changes that I make on my local computer will automatically be synced up to the Dropbox folder, which is stored on the Dropbox servers. I can then take one of those folders and I can choose to add additional teachers that have access to them.

Now please remember these teachers will have the ability to not only download that information, but also change those files, re-save them. So that we can now work collaboratively on projects. That teacher can add additional teachers. Or even I can add additional teachers. You can have an unlimited number of users all interacting with the same folders. And all able to download, make changes and re-save all of those documents. Furthermore, not everyone has to have complete access. Let's say that teacher two and teacher four, would like to share just a forms folder.

Well these teachers could choose to share a folder, outside of the rest of the group. Inside your Dropbox you can have a variety of folders, with a variety of sharing options. Here in my Dropbox home page, I'm going to go ahead and set up a lesson planning sharing system. This is going to allow me to use other educators at my school for collaborative planning. We're going to create a variety of folders to organize lesson plans into, so that we can work on a thematic unit within our teaching team. To do that I'm going to first click on the create New Folder icon. I'm going to call this first folder Planning Ideas.

Clicking outside the folder will automatically create and name that folder for me. At this point what I can do with the folder highlighted, is I can invite others to this folder. I'm going to go ahead and type in a few teachers, that I would like to invite. Once you have a teacher typed in you can simply press the tab key on your keyboard, it'll automatically enter that email address and allow you to type in a new teacher. So there I have two teachers added, I can simply click Share Folder. Each one of these teachers will receive an email asking them to join the shared folder. If the teacher does not have Dropbox already set up, they can click on the link, and Dropbox will walk them through the process of setting up their free account.

As well as installing it on their computer. Now the other way we can do this, is by also creating folders directly on our computer. So for my lesson planning folder, I'm going to go ahead and do that inside of Dropbox, on my local computer. To do that, I'll click on the Dropbox icon in the upper right hand navigation. Here I'm just open up the Dropbox Folder. You can already see that Planning Ideas has been synced to my local computer. And I'm going to go ahead and just create a New Folder here. And we'll call this one Lesson Plans. I'll click outside the folder. And you noticed very quickly the Dropbox created a small circular icon to show me that it was updating to the website.

Now that it's updated I have a check-mark, which means that the information that's on my local computer is now 100% synced online. I can see that by going back to my web browser. Here I have Lesson Plans already set up. I can click on Lesson Plans and I see that this folder is empty. However let's say that someone else decides to add content to this. I have Dropbox open on another computer and I'm going to go ahead and upload a file. You notice in the upper right hand corner that my system has told me that a file has been added. I can also choose to go in and refresh my web browser. And I can now see that Lesson Plans have been added to my regular Dropbox folder.

In order to organize this, I can simply click on it, drag it down to the folder where I'd like it, and release it. You'll notice automatically, my system tells me that there's been a file changed. And it's moved that file into the appropriate folder. So Dropbox allows you to quickly share documents. You can share information. You can even create a system where people can go in, add their own information to a document and click the Save button. A few words of caution, however. Please make sure you properly train everyone that's on your Dropbox folder. For example, I'll go ahead and open up my Dropbox folder on my local computer. Let's say I don't want this Getting Started file anymore.

I can go ahead and click it, I can choose my right-click and Move to Trash. By doing this, however, it's no longer available on the Dropbox servers. Which means, if any other teacher was sharing that file with me, then that teacher would see it deleted not only from the Dropbox server, but also from their local computer. Let's say a teacher would really like to have a copy of all the Lesson Plans on their local computer. So they just click the Lesson Plan folder and they drag it to somewhere on their computer. Well what's going to happen is that's actually going to move all of the Lesson Plans outside of Dropbox.

Which means that other people sharing that folder will no longer have access to that information. When you're training teachers to use Dropbox. Please remind them that it's best to make copies. So they'd want to right-click, and choose Copy Lesson Plans. And then they can paste the Lesson Plans folder somewhere else on their computer. Another thing that happens, is, if two teachers have the same document open at the same time, and both of them make changes. You might also end up with conflicted copies. You'll actually see a new copy appear that would say, lesson plan.

It would have an opening bracket and say conflicted copy and then the name of the person who has the conflicting copy on their system. If you see a conflicted copy appear. Simply go in take a look at both files, figure out which one's the most accurate one. You can rename it and then delete the other one. At this point we've talked about how Dropbox can be a great tool for sharing information across our building. In my own school teaching teams use Dropbox for collaborative planning. And we also have a school wide Dropbox folder that allows us to quickly share information among educators. Such as the forms that we most commonly use including office referral forms and hall pass forms.

Now that we've set up Dropbox. The next step is to look at how to access Dropbox in variety of places?

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This video is part of

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Teacher Tips

98 video lessons · 22396 viewers

Aaron Quigley

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  1. 7m 59s
    1. New This Week - National Geographic GeoTour NEW
      7m 59s
  2. 1m 45s
    1. Welcome
    2. Is this course right for me?
  3. 12m 43s
    1. What is the flipped classroom?
      4m 16s
    2. Building a flipped lesson plan
      4m 22s
    3. Finding resources
      4m 5s
  4. 12m 33s
    1. Using Evernote to organize your classroom
      7m 49s
    2. Using Skitch to create dynamic presentations
      4m 44s
  5. 16m 29s
    1. What is Common Core?
      4m 52s
    2. ELA/Literacy
      6m 41s
    3. Mathematics
      4m 56s
  6. 10m 2s
    1. Using the iPad as a teacher
      6m 18s
    2. Using the iPad with your students
      3m 44s
  7. 20m 47s
    1. Getting started with Edmodo
      8m 5s
    2. Managing your classes
      8m 48s
    3. Communication
      3m 54s
  8. 6m 27s
    1. Prezi: Teaching best practices
      6m 27s
  9. 12m 50s
    1. Blogging fundamentals
      12m 50s
  10. 14m 40s
    1. Getting started with Schoology
      6m 46s
    2. Integrating Google Apps
      7m 54s
  11. 11m 59s
    1. Understanding online file syncing
      7m 47s
    2. Dropdox options and workflow
      4m 12s
  12. 17m 46s
    1. Managing student behaviors with ClassDojo
      11m 44s
    2. Control classroom management with an iPad
      6m 2s
  13. 22m 21s
    1. Creating a student-friendly worksheet
      11m 0s
    2. Modifying assignments quickly
      11m 21s
  14. 8m 51s
    1. Podcasting in the classroom
      8m 51s
  15. 11m 5s
    1. Hour of Code
      2m 18s
    2. Kodu
      2m 1s
    3. Writing your first program
      6m 46s
  16. 18m 8s
    1. Create a quick class website
      8m 20s
    2. Upload assignments
      9m 48s
  17. 6m 39s
    1. Creating screen capture video
      6m 39s
  18. 10m 14s
    1. Mind mapping for students
      10m 14s
  19. 6m 35s
    1. Creating online interactive discussions
      2m 53s
    2. Exploring educational uses of todaysmeet.com
      3m 42s
  20. 4m 19s
    1. Exploring the Adobe Education Exchange
      4m 19s
  21. 10m 55s
    1. Online learning with bContext
      1m 7s
    2. Creating digital videos
      9m 48s
  22. 5m 53s
    1. Free website platforms
      2m 3s
    2. Selecting a website platform
      3m 50s
  23. 10m 52s
    1. Students on the Internet
      3m 55s
    2. Teaching proper Internet use
      6m 57s
  24. 10m 42s
    1. Learning through interactions
      4m 6s
    2. Creating social learning experiences
      6m 36s
  25. 15m 7s
    1. Exploring social bookmarking with Diigo
      7m 7s
    2. Sharing a list of websites
      3m 57s
    3. Creating a resource collection for students
      4m 3s
  26. 10m 57s
    1. Lesson planning with Common Curriculum
      4m 47s
    2. Managing your instructional schedule
      6m 10s
  27. 10m 11s
    1. Piktochart in education
      3m 20s
    2. Creating infographics
      6m 51s
  28. 9m 24s
    1. Exploring the role of a learning management system
      3m 56s
    2. Three free learning management systems
      5m 28s
  29. 8m 57s
    1. Understanding crowdfunding
      3m 27s
    2. Explore education crowdfunding tools
      5m 30s
  30. 6m 48s
    1. Creating drag-and-drop lessons
      4m 50s
    2. Using pre-created resources
      1m 58s
  31. 7m 22s
    1. Exploring VoiceThread
      3m 46s
    2. Creating and sharing a VoiceThread
      3m 36s
  32. 6m 44s
    1. Lesson planning with BetterLesson.com
      4m 1s
    2. Accessing common core lesson plans
      2m 43s
  33. 6m 45s
    1. Exploring the free resources
      2m 59s
    2. Exploring the teacher portal
      3m 46s
  34. 7m 1s
    1. How does donorschoose.org work?
      2m 42s
    2. Creating compelling projects
      4m 19s
  35. 8m 31s
    1. Adding your classroom as a project
      3m 0s
    2. Building awareness through social media
      5m 31s
  36. 7m 41s
    1. Find high quality lessons for your classroom
      5m 27s
    2. Assess the quality of lesson materials
      2m 14s
  37. 11m 58s
    1. Selling lessons plans on TeachersPayTeachers.com
      1m 39s
    2. Uploading lesson plans for sale
      10m 19s
  38. 6m 40s
    1. Lesson planning on an iPad
      3m 53s
    2. Creating recorded lessons on an iPad
      2m 47s
  39. 4m 41s
    1. Maximizing class downtime with DuoLingo
      3m 13s
    2. Creating self-motivated learners using DuoLingo
      1m 28s
  40. 6m 13s
    1. Adding the Office Mix PowerPoint plugin
      2m 58s
    2. Creating videos from PowerPoint presentations
      3m 15s
  41. 7m 39s
    1. Creating stories with Adobe Voice
      7m 39s
  42. 2m 37s
    1. Lesson planner at learner.org
      2m 37s
  43. 2m 55s
    1. Real-world learning in the classroom
      2m 55s
  44. 6m 49s
    1. Formative assessments with Pear Deck
      6m 49s
  45. 5m 4s
    1. Increasing student collaboration with Flipgrid
      5m 4s
  46. 8m 15s
    1. Managing electronic assignments
      4m 10s
    2. Turning in assignments
      4m 5s
  47. 3m 29s
    1. Google's new free LMS
      3m 29s
  48. 5m 24s
    1. Using Trello for classroom project management
      5m 24s
  49. 13m 40s
    1. Creating interactive cloud-based lessons
      3m 3s
    2. Creating Classflow lessons
      5m 41s
    3. Presenting Classflow lessons
      4m 56s
  50. 2m 27s
    1. Students creating electronic prototypes
      2m 27s
  51. 7m 17s
    1. Creating interactive video lessons
      7m 17s
  52. 3m 58s
    1. Creating collaborative art space
      3m 58s
  53. 8m 30s
    1. Showcase learning with infographics
      8m 30s
  54. 5m 54s
    1. Tracking individual student learning
      5m 54s
  55. 5m 6s
    1. Taking class polls to check for understanding
      5m 6s
  56. 4m 56s
    1. Turn down time into learning time
      4m 56s
  57. 4m 37s
    1. Student math mastery and learning tool
      4m 37s

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