Sharing Files Between Home and School Computers

Do you ever work on a file on your home computer, then want to use it on your school computer? Or vice versa: You want to bring
a file home from school to work on it.

Let's look at some "old-school" and "new-school" methods of moving files between home and school.


		• Hard Drive – You can carry a bulky hard drive back and forth. These drives have become very economical recently and you can copy large files to them. But again, they are bulky. These drives are better used for local storage and backup than for file sharing.
		• Burn a Disc – Modern computers come equipped with CD-ROM and DVD burners. You can always burn your files to a disc and transport the disc. The drawback is burning a disc takes some time and you have the disc cost for every file transfer.
		• Thumb Drive – USB thumb drives are very easy to transport data from computer to computer. As long as both computers have a USB drive, it should work. Even though these drives are so scaled down that you can carry them on a keychain, you may misplace your thumbdrive or forget your drive at home or at school when you most need it.
		• E-mail – If you have e-mail access at home and at school, you can always e-mail yourself the file as an attachment. This is pretty quick and easy, but many schools have e-mail limitations.
		• yousendit – yousendit™ is a Web-based service that allows you to upload files to the Web and send a delivery notification to a recipient. In this case, you enter your home or school email as the recipient. You click on the link and you download the file you uploaded to the computer you're on.
		• Dropbox – Dropbox is another Web-based service. It takes just a little more set-up than yousendit™, but after you set it up, it's really easy to use. You simply drop files in a dropbox folder on your computer and it stores and syncs the file in the "cloud," which is just a metaphor for the Internet. The file is available anywhere you have Dropbox installed.

Editor's Pick: Dropbox
Our pick for the best way to share files between home and school is Dropbox. Here's a quick overview of how to use Dropbox:

Take the Dropbox tour (www.getdropbox.com)
Install Dropbox on your home or school computer
Place files you'd like to share in your Dropbox folder
Install Dropbox on your other computer
Access your files instantly from either computer

Sharing Files. Dropbox also works well for sharing files. You can give your friends or colleagues access to selected files in your Dropbox. Say for example you just made a new worksheet, handout, PowerPoint, or parent letter. You can share the file(s) with other teachers at your school or even with a colleague around the world.