If you haven’t yet heard of Dropbox, a web utility that auto-magically creates a shared file folder across all of your various Internet-connected computers (or other people’s to which you give access), don’t feel bad. It’s only been around for a week. After downloading and running it through the ringer a couple of times, I’m still impressed. For a Web2.0 app (which there are way too many of these days), it’s simple and unencumbered — even if it currently limits you to 2GB of space (with a pay version slated for rollout, of course).
The premise is basic. You download and install a small file and your Windows/Mac/Linux computer now contains a shared folder that syncs across the net and keeps files handy no matter where you are. Services like this aren’t new — Mediafire and others have offered file sharing for some time — but the onboard drag and drop interface that Dropbox offers makes things that much easier.
So how can we use it in education? I can think of several ways, but the immediate ones surround teaming and collaboration. Classes could share documents, of course, but a special feature that assigns web addresses to files placed in a “public” folder makes it very easy to distribute materials. A special “photos” folder will host web-based albums — just drop the files in and you’ve got a web-based display.
All that ease of distribution should come with a hefty disclaimer, of course. Dropbox also makes it very easy to mistakenly share information and files that need to be kept confidential, so users should take extra care when dragging things around that little box on the desktop, lest they go out for the whole world to see.
If you want to check out the program just surf on over to Dropbox and take the little tour. If you want to try it out, it takes about five minutes to set up and get rolling.