Dropbox & DROPitTOme: A Final Reflection

My final project for ECOMP 6008 was to investigate the web2.0 tool Dropbox and an add-on application, DROPitTOme. The original motivation for this investigation was born out of the frustration of one of our 8th grade science teachers who had grown accustomed to the idea of students submitted their school work to him electronically but his setup with MobileMe was not meeting his needs. In addition, I am always on the lookout for tools to help reduce waste due to excessive student printing, and with the recent news that our middle school had exhausted its technology budget for printer supplies, this seemed like as good a time as any to conduct such an investigation.

Dropbox:
Dropbox is a blending of cloud computing and file syncing (think Google Docs plus iPod/iTunes management rolled up into one service). You can store, backup, and share a variety of files in your virtual space at Dropbox.com, but also download their software so that laptops, desktops and mobile devices can all be synced with the same library of files and folders. So for example, when you save your lesson plan on Greek Gods into your Dropbox folder on your Windows computer at home, that same file will show up on the web, your MLTI MacBook, your iPhone 3GS, and the iPad that your are piloting for your building's technology integrator.

DROPitTOme:
Where Dropbox really gains momentum in the classroom is when it is paired with the add-on DROPitTOme. This service allows you to give students access to a specific folder in your Dropbox account into which they can "drop" files. The students can't see what's inside the folder and therefore cannot change, remove or plagiarize someone else's work. The DROPitTOme location is linked to the teacher's account and is password protected, so the average web surfer cannot use it as a spam depository.

Other Players on the Field…

MobileMe:

A service provided by Apple for an annual fee of $99, this was the original setup our 8th grade science teacher had been using to receive student work. Aside from the fact that there is no free or lite version of MobileMe, the iDisk component to the service was proving unreliable for both student and teacher. Students would sometimes be denied access to the teacher's iDisk or not be able to upload a file when it was clear that format and/or file size should not have been an issue. The teacher would have difficulty at times with his iDisk folder on his laptop accurately reflecting the file inventory.

Since the transition to their Dropbox/DROPitTOme system, both student and teacher have enjoyed a much better digital file submission experience. I watched as students in green block were asked to submit their most recent lab experiment on static electricity via the teacher's DROPitTOme folder. The time delay between student calling out "lab submitted!" and teacher replying with "lab received!" was only a few moments. Students were happy that the assignment was passed in and the teacher was happy that he had their assignments, (although he was not looking forward to all the grading he was now tasked with completing).

SugarSync:

Closer in look and feel to Dropbox, SugarSync offers cloud-computing data access from any device, anytime, anywhere. Both services offer support for Windows and Mac, and their lists of supported mobile devices are identical. Dropbox pulls ahead with support for Linux users, but SugarSync makes up some of that ground by offering more free space under their free account (5 GB vs. Dropbox's 2 GB) and larger storage bonuses for friend referrals. Miguel Guhlin offers a comparison review of these two services on his blog Around the Corner. The one major drawback to SugarSync is the lack of a feature or add-on component that equates to the power that the DROPitTOme add-on gives Dropbox.

Google Docs:

One of the major players in Google's vast apps. library, Docs is designed to host a variety of productivity files types (documents, spreadsheets, and presentations) for the dual purpose of accessibility from any Internet-equipped computer as well as be shared with others. A user can upload a file, invite others to come and collaborate on its content creation, then download a copy of the resulting product at any time. However, Google Docs lacks a syncing feature that will automatically update local copies of the files with their cloud versions or visa-versa. And, there is currently no comparable system to the DROPitTOme add-on that would allow a student to submit a file to a teacher's Google Docs library unless each student had a Google account and access permissions. Taking on such a task can easily add more management and headache than teachers want to deal with.

Conclusion:
Each of the web2.0 tools discussed here have their strengths and weaknesses. No matter how much you try and prepare for potential hiccups or try to anticipate problems, no system will work flawlessly. So far, the Dropbox/DROPitTOme system is meeting the needs of our 8th grade science teacher and the positive feedback is causing me to consider implementing a similar structure in my own 6th grade computer literacy class. If feedback from my colleagues in the IT department are also positive, then this system could quickly show up on our list of topics for our next technology professional development day. While tomorrow the world could change and the needs of teacher and student shift in another direction but for now at least, if you are looking for a system for students to easily submit homework in a digital format that is also easily accessible for the teacher, then I would recommend you take a look at Dropbox and the add-on DROPitTOme.