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Cloud- Accessing Elementary Student Work

Hi Experts,

I am a computer teacher at an elementary school. I would like students to access their work from home. As a school district we are looking into the cloud but this will take time. I am looking to dive in and try a few things right now. We mainly save Microsoft office files- Excel, Word, PowerPoint so I don't want to move to Google Docs because it loses so many features.

I was thinking of Dropbox but the free 2G's might not be enough space.

Since I am dealing with Elementary school children I typically have one server folder that I share out so I am not that concerned with security as far as students deleting files, etc.

Any ideas? I also have 34 classes so I would have to replicate my solution 34 times.

Thanks

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Sirjacksinurbox

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Syed Ali

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Settleman

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Sirjacksinurbox

SkyDrive is still your best bet. Unlimited storage for office based files.

Another thing to think about is Google's new storage environment. Rumor has it that you get 5GB free, just for signing up. Even just signing up for a Gmail account give you 7+ GB of storage space for free.

I know you're against Google Docs, but you can use it just to store documents, and specify not to convert them to the Google Docs format, leaving the the Metadata that goes with all Microsoft Word, Excel, and Powerpoint documents in place and usable. In addition, you get free access to versioning and documents sharing, making it super easy to hand in homework and assign notes and what not.

SkyDrive or Google Docs are your best choice, for what you're looking to do.

jdolan2587

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So far I like the skydrive. Are any of the files stored locally or are they completely in the cloud?

I like how dropbox operates--- it has a local copy and also accessable from the cloud?

Sirjacksinurbox

It is my understanding that SkyDrive connects and syncs pretty much the same way as Dropbox does.

If it's of any help to you, I found a tutorial on the MSDN Blogs explaining the different ways you can connect to a SkyDrive.

Showing SkyDrive Storage in Windows Explorer

If your students have a user account and specified login, I would recommend that you map the drive as a home folder in AD, under the Profile tab.

Hope this helps.

Settleman

Skydrive does not sync the files. They are just online. every time you need a file you will have to download it. there is no offline backup like in dropbox.
And Skydrive way of showing the files in explorer is very slow because it works as a mapped drive over the internet and is not very easy to share with the students.

I'm a Microsoft partner and Skydrive isn't your best solution.

try using it and sharing files before and compare it with dropbox

jdolan2587

ASKER

All great suggestions. I am just trying to wrap my head around all of the pros and cons based on storage space and # of users.