DROPitTO.me quickly became one of my personal success stories this school year. Students enjoy “DROP’ing” their assignments to me, and I enjoy saving the school district money on paper and printer costs. I began to use a DROPbox and DROPitTO.me in my classroom as a way for students to turn in their assignments. These two services work together as a team for students to virtually turn in assignments. I came up with the idea for using these after reading a post on Free Technology for Teachers and wanting to create a greener classroom. As a rule I do not like to use services that are outside of district control. I feel uncomfortable having students enter in a user name and password for a service that the school system has not approved. However I also want students exposed to the latest in technology and apply that technology in a useful way to them. I want the student to say, "Hey I can use this." "This is a tool I can use." DROPbox is one of these services.
Think of the DROPbox as a folder on your computer’s hard drive. The difference with this folder is that you can access the information from any internet device. My Smartphone has an application where I can access anything in my DROPbox account. By integrating DROPitTO.me I receive a personalized URL. I can post or link this URL to my classroom website; all students need to do to turn in their work is enter a secure password and press login. Then they select the file to upload, I receive an email that tells me a new file has been uploaded. I also have the file in my dropbox folder. Now I am able to evaluate the student’s work. This saves time, paper, and other resources. Students are exposed to new technology that they can use and apply. I no longer have to worry about misplaced work or work without a student’s name on it. DROPitTO.me includes the file name, IP address, and file size. I am able to receive any file type, including movies. A real great advantage is collecting work from outside my room. If a student has work at home or another computer in the school, they access my DROPitTO.me site, upload their file and then I have it immediately.
You will need to register and download DROPbox then register for DROPitTO.me. I have received very positive feedback from students who have begun to use this method of turning in work.
Another word of caution when using DROPitTO.me, specify how you want students to name files. I have students save files as their first initial last name and the program and assignment #. For example, if this is our second word assignment the file name for me would be “mrileyw2” This really helps with organization and keeping duplicate file names to a minimum.
I am attaching a video that will show you how to set up your DROPitTO.me account.
How will you use DROPbox?
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