Receive files directly to your Dropbox with 'Drop It To Me'

[For an introduction to Dropbox see this post. I have also written a bit about getting more Dropbox space for free.]

Once you have your Dropbox set up on your computers and mobile devices and have earned extra storage space, you may be thinking you have exhausted the opportunities that Dropbox has to offer. However luckily, the good people at Dropbox HQ have encouraged developers to come up with add-ons to make Dropbox even more useful.

This Dropbox wiki has a list of some officially endorsed add-ons available with clear descriptions of what exactly they do.

Unfortunately, the main add-on I have been using does not appear on this list. DROPitTOme (Drop It To Me). This tool allows users to receive files straight into their Dropbox from people without Dropbox installed. So, for example a child in my class could visit my DROPitTOme address, put in a password and then drop their completed work directly into my Dropbox folder.

Here is a quick guide to getting started with DROPitTOme:

1) Register your account (this will involve logging into your Dropbox)

2) Choose your unique DROPitTOme address and a simple password.
3) When someone else visits this address they will see a screen like this:

4) Once they put in the password, they will be presented with this screen:

5) They then select the file from their computer and click 'upload'.

I have found that this is a very good alternative to getting children to navigate through a complex folder system in order to save their work somewhere you can get at it. I really like the simplicity of DROPitTOme, but if you are after a more sophisticated solution then it might be worth checking out JotForm. This creates a 'form' that you can embed into a blog or wiki and visitors can use it to send files to your Dropbox.

Top 5 reasons we should not stop handwriting in schools (and ICT resources to help!)

Earlier this month handwriting was in the news as the state of Indiana dropped the requirement for children to learn cursive handwriting. At first I could kind of see their point- if I did not work in a school, the need for handwriting throughout my life would be greatly limited. However, on further reflection there are a few key reasons why handwriting should continue to be taught.

Top 5 reasons we should keep handwriting in schools
1) If you want to look arty and thoughtful to impress people then handwriting poetry in a battered journal is the only way- an iPad won't cut it.
2) It is lame to email thank-you letters.
3) In the event of a zombie apocalypse survivors computers will be useless and survivors will need handwriting to keep a record of humanity.
4) Cheques are here to stay.
5) We must keep handwriting to stop the greetings card industry from crumbling. E-cards are rubbish apart from Someecards (WARNING, some of these are definitely NSFW).

Handwriting resources
Now that we have established that handwriting is important, lets have a look at some of the free resources available to help. The handwriting section of Primary Resources has plenty of guidelines and paper to print out.

If you are using Smart Notebook, then the 'page recording' function can be a great way to demonstrate handwriting. Once you have recorded yourself writing a word, then you can leave it on loop, freeing you up to go around the room and check on children's progress. This Youtube video explains in more detail how to use the page recording function.

All about fonts
The best way of modelling handwriting is probably hand-write signs around the classroom and create worksheets manually. However, fonts in a handwritten style can be very useful and it is easy to find, download and install them. Sassoon Fonts are high quality cursive fonts including a fancy one that automatically and accurately joins up letters as you type. They are available for purchase in various bundles for use in a school.

There are also lots of free options available, I found some promising looking ones on Fontspace. When you download a font it will be in a compressed 'zip' file. Once you have extracted the file, you just need to right-click and choose 'install' (for Windows Vista and Windows 7). If you are on Windows XP you will need to copy the extracted file into your 'fonts' directory (usually found in /windows/fonts). For more help installing fonts watch this video from a helpful young man on Youtube.

D.I.Y. fonts
Another advanced option is to make your own font. Or challenge your students to make their own fonts. I'm sure there is a creative art/ICT/literacy lesson in there somewhere (design a font that your favourite Roald Dahl character might use). There are a number of paid options to do this, but I thought MyScriptFont looks fun and should suffice.

Getting Extra Dropbox Space Free

Since I started using it, Dropbox has become absolutely invaluable to me. (See my earlier post for an introduction to the joys of Dropboxing). It makes it difficult to remember a time when I had to bring a USB flash drive around everywhere with me and pass it around to share lesson plans and whiteboard files with my colleagues. Now, if I save a file into my Dropbox, I know it will be available the next day- even if I do not have access to my own laptop. It even saves different versions of files to avoid the nightmare saving over your own work scenario.

Anyway, if you are running out of space in your free Dropbox account (and the average teacher would probably find it difficult to justify the expense of a paid account) then there are a couple of ways you can get a few extra bytes of storage quite easily.

Social media connections

Go to this link (you will need to then log into your account) and you will be presented with a list of tasks, such as liking Dropbox on Facebook, that will earn you extra free space.

Refer-a-friend

Log into your Dropbox account and look for this icon:

You can then recommend Dropbox to your friends and colleagues (I am sure they will be grateful) and earn yourself some free storage space.

Exciting blog presentations

Uploading individual pictures of children's work is time consuming and might end up creating a long page that is a chore to scroll through. In this post, I hope to share a few easy ways in which you can make easy presentations of children's work.

Capzles

Upload a bunch of masterpieces to your Capzle account and it will display your photos in a fun, floaty filmstrip. You can scroll through the pictures using the bar at the bottom.  Zoom in on individual pictures by clicking on them. You can also customise your presentation add text and audio to your Capzle. By clicking on 'share' you can get a link to your work, or some code to embed it on your own website or blog. Capzles are best viewed in full screen.This Capzle was created by user 'R2D2', so all credit to him/her.

It was very easy and free to create an account.

Animoto

If you are feeling really adventurous, or want to impress with your slideshow, then look no further than Animoto. You upload the files for the slideshow, and it creates a really exciting video with lots of dramatic animation. When I made my slideshow, it took a while processing, but the results were worth the wait. Here is an example Animoto for you to gawp in wonder at. This time it is my own creation:

Animoto takes a little bit of setting up to start with as you have to register for a free educator account (or put up with the extremely limited capabilites of the standard free account- and why would you do that?)

Dropbox- share folders and files between computers.

Dropbox is a free program that makes it easy to back up and share files and folders between computers and access them on-line from any computer. Once it is set up on your computer a Dropbox folder sits in your My Documents folder and you save files in it as usual. Dropbox automatically synchronises the files between computers as you update them.

This video from the Dropbox website explains it quite simply:





 As a teacher, I have found it very useful for making sure I can access lesson plans and resources on my home computer and on my school computer. I also installed Dropbox on my fellow year 3 teacher's laptop so it is very easy for us to share documents and resources. It means I don't need to carry a memory stick around with me because even if I don't have my laptop, I can get my files from the Dropbox website.

If you decide to install Dropbox and want to be nice, you could download it through my referral link, This will get me some free bonus Dropbox space. Thanks!

Sketchcast- sketch out ideas with narration

Sketchcast lets you make videos by drawing using a simple Paint-style program and recording your voice over the top. So for instance, you could use it to create a video explaining how to use blank number-lines to complete subtraction. You simply press record and start drawing and talking at the same time. This is quite tricky to get used to but is a simple and quick way to create videos.

To get started, you just complete the registration form and then click 'create'. The interface is very clean and easy to use.

When you are finished drawing and talking, you click on publish. Once published, Sketchcast creates some code which can be used to embed your video into a blog or website.

VoiceThread- share comments on a picture or text.

VoiceThread allows users to add their comments and annotations to a picture or piece of text. The comments can be typed or recorded using a microphone. If you type a comment, then it pops up at the side of the page in a speech bubble. Multiple users can look at and comment on the same picture at one time, and can read and listen to each others comments as they appear. The way comments pop up in real-time makes it a very engaging and fun way for children to collaborate and learn from each other's input.

VoiceThread takes a little bit of setting up before it can be used effectively in a classroom setting. First you need to register for an Educator Account by clicking here and filling in the forms. You will need to create password that the whole class can use to log in.

Identities
Once you have created the account, you need to create an 'identity' for each user you want to use VoiceThread. To do this you need to log into your account, click on the 'Myvoice' tab and then click on the arrow next to your email address:

Once you have done this you just click on 'Add an Identity' and then type a name. It will also ask you if you want to add a picture. If you do not want to put photos of the class on the website (although by default your VoiceThreads will be private), you could get your class to draw their own pictures to use for their identity. Adding a whole class and uploading their pictures can be a little time consuming, but it makes VoiceThread much more fun for them to use.

Creating a VoiceThread
Once you have done the boring parts- registering, and adding your 'identities', creating a VoiceThread is very straight-forward. You need to click on the word 'VoiceThread' at the top of the page. Then click on 'create'.

On this page you need to choose a picture file to upload for  your VoiceThread. You can also use pdf files, which is useful if you want your class to comment on some text. When the file is uploaded, you need to add a title and description.

Possible uses
Here are a few ideas of how VoiceThread could be used in the classroom. I have found that one of the main benefits is that it takes away the apprehension that quiet members of the class have when joining in with a class discussion.

• Descriptive or factual writing about a visual stimulus.
• Commenting on an extract from a book.
• Identifying text features.
• Collaborating to solve a problem.
• Peer assessment of written work or art work.

Please add your suggestions and comments below.