Thursday, May 30, 2013

Dropbox for the Music Teacher



I have fallen in love with Dropbox!

I was first introduced to Dropbox by a colleague. She recorded herself singing some songs for our district honor choir for the students to use when practicing. She shared the audio files with me via Dropbox.

I have also used Dropbox to store sheet music. I scanned the music for the All-State Children's Chorus and uploaded it to my Dropbox so that I would be able to study the scores at home on my iPad, even if I forgot the sheet music on the piano stand at school. Likewise, it prevented me from leaving the sheet music at home and not being able to rehearse with it at school. In fact, at All-State Children's Chorus, my student forgot her music in the car, which was parked 4 blocks away in a parking garage. I gave her my iPad and she was able to view the sheet music via Dropbox!

The biggest use for Dropbox has been with my preparation of my National Board Portfolio. When I began the analysis of my videos, I first set up two laptops on the kitchen table. One would be used to play video footage while I typed on the other. At some point, I had an epiphany and uploaded my videos to Dropbox. I was able to view them on the iPad and type on my laptop. I also uploaded all the instruction manuals (which were organized in a 2.5 inch binder). With Dropbox, my iPad replaced a laptop and a huge binder. It was much easer to move my things upstairs and downstairs when needed.

I was also able to share files with my sister so she could proofread them. When you open Dropbox on your computer, you can drag and drop files into the folder as you would into any other folder. It is very easy!

If you have not tried Dropbox, you should check it out!

7 comments:

  1. Dropbox has been very helpful when I need students to send me work online. I use DropItTo.Me and it allows them to send me their work without needing an email address - works like a charm!

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    Replies
    1. I'm trying to find a way to get my band students to send me videos of their playing tests...would Drop it Tome work for that?

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    2. I'm trying to find a way to get my band students to send me videos of their playing tests...would Drop it Tome work for that?

      Delete
    3. I'm trying to find a way to get my band students to send me videos of their playing tests...would Drop it Tome work for that?

      Delete
  2. Another helpful tip ... I saved our color coded school calendar to Dropbux and was able to look at it while at the doctors office scheduling appointments months in advance. It was much faster than searching for it on the district website.

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  3. It's incredibly useful, isn't it? That's one of the great things with online storage. Although if you want to completely ensure that your important files are backed up, you don't stop with just online storage. You also have to have offline copies of your files that's stored securely and organized to your convenience.

    Williams Data Management

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  4. Box.com is used widely and very similar to DropBox as well. I love using Dropbox, Box, Evernote and Bump in the mobile environment to share, retrieve, and use files on the go.

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