Sorry for the very long delay in posting. The new job and my one-year-old are taking up 113% of my time. Just wanted to let you know about a new tool a co-worker discovered at Educause Southwest Regional. Drop.io is a file hosting site that gives users the ability to upload images, documents, audio, video, and more. A free account gives you 100Mb of space to set up your “drop” (area where you can upload your files), and users can then view a web-friendly version of the file or download the original.
Adding content to your drop couldn’t be much easier. Drop.io gives you an email address that you can use to email or MMS files that are auto-added to your drop. You also get a phone number that you use to call in and record audio which is then saved in mp3 format and auto-added to your drop (read: easy-podcasting). You can even fax directly into your drop. A Firefox add-in allows you to drag and drop directly into your drop.
Content can be protected by setting a guest password. You can even give guests the ability to add their own files, leave comments, and even delete files. Drop.io also gives you the ability to set an expiration date for the files you upload.
Viewers of your content have multiple methods of being notified any time you add content to your drop. They can sign up for email alerts (which you, the drop owner, can customize both the alert message and the welcome message) that are sent out any time you add content. Users can subscribe to an RSS feed or add it to your iTunes as a podcast. They can even get SMS alerts – they just choose their service provider and enter their phone number. Add drop updates to your Facebook feed so friends see when you add content, or add the drop directly to your profile. Users can tweet any file added to your drop. Users can even add a widget for your drop to their website. I could go on.
The educational possibilites are endless: podcasting, collaboration, team building, to name a few. So, do you use drop.io? Are you interested in drop.io? What ideas do you have for using drop.io in your class?
Click image to view drop.io demo.
Howdy folks! I’m an Instructional Designer at UT Dallas. I have a Bachelor’s in Elementary Education from Angelo State University and a Master’s in Computer Education and Cognitive Systems from the University of North Texas. I’ve been working in edtech for 11 years. Hmm… what else? I’m a *huge* fan of that little Irish band called U2, and I’m a bigtime Firefly/Serenity advocate.
Wow – I am very interested. That demo video shows some nice features. I also noticed that there is an iPhone app. It only costs $2, but you can add files on the go, take and upload pictures, record audio, etc.
We have some instructors that want students to create a final project – a teaching presentation. The biggest problem will be online storage of these files. This sounds like a great tool for that.
Don’t most LMSes such as (gods help us) Blackboard provide this functionality?
Hey John – I think the answer is both yes and no – they do provide some file storage, but not as nearly functional as drop.io is (recording audio over the phone, Twitter updates, RSS feeds, etc). Also, certain LMS installations might have a smaller storage limit. Each drop can have 100 mb. Currently, each of our classes has a 10 mb upload limit for our Blackboard classes. And it is all behind a password in Blackboard, whether you want it there or not. Drop.io has some flexibility there.