URL: http://www.dropbox.com

Cost: Free to a 2GB limit. You can pay a subscription fee for more storage space.Age: Year 2 upwards

Accessibility: Access is available through any Internet browser or free dedicated mobile device applications.

Description: Dropbox is an online file hosting service that enables students to organise, maintain and share their digital data.

Australian Curriculum Links: ICT General Capability: Managing Digital Data – Level 3:

“Students manage and maintain digital data using common methods” (Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority, 2014)

 

Critique: Dropbox is a useful tool for teaching students how to organise and save their files to a cloud-based server, which is a now a common method of data maintenance and management to provide consumers with offsite back up of data (Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority, 2014). Students can use Dropbox in class as a way to save multimedia products they have created and to collaborate and share them with their teachers and peers (Murah, 2012). Dropbox’s simple functionality allows for simple sharing of documents by students through the creation of shared folders. It also allows users to access their files form multiple devices, so it can help to blur the boundaries between school and home learning tasks.

 

References

 

   Australian Curriculum and Assessment Reporting Authority. (2014). Information and Communication Technology General Capability (ICT) Continuum. Retrieved from http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/generalcapabilities/information-and-communication-technology-capability/continuum#layout=columns

 

   Murah, M. (2012). Teaching and learning cloud computing. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 59, pp. 157-163. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/257716672_Teaching_and_Learning_Cloud_Computing