Copy - Alternative to Dropbox

I use the free version of Dropbox to backup some of my files and give myself access to important documents from any of my computers. It's a great deal, but I frequently have to move files to keep under my 9.5 GB space limit. A new account on Dropbox starts with 2 GB of storage. I also use Google Drive and Microsoft SkyDrive, which offer similar features and a little more space.

If you aren't familiar with how these services work, the simple version is that they duplicate any file you add to them across all your devices plus their website. There are also additional features which make sharing files with others easy.

Dropbox also has integration with Moodle 2.x, which makes it very useful for adding files to your online class.

A new alternative to Dropbox/Google Drive/SkyDrive is Copy, which offers 15GB for free to start but will also add 5GB through a referral link like this one. So if you sign up for Copy, you get an additional 5GB and so do I. Copy works with MacOS, Windows, Linux, Android and iOS, so you can access your files from just about any device. The advantage with Copy is that it has all the necessary features, but gives you more space right at the start. If you sign up through the referral link, you will have 20GB to start with and then you can refer others and gain an additional 5GB for each referral.

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Blackboard Podcasts

I've been searching for podcasts about Blackboard and have come across a few. Some are too site-specific while others could use a little more polish before I would recommend them to others. However, one podcast I did find to be useful and high quality is Teaching with Blackboard by Jason Rhode at Northern Illinois University. Episode 5, posted last week, discusses how to incorporate RSS feeds into Blackboard using Feed2JS , a website and tool for converting an RSS feed to JavaScript which can be copied and pasted into your Blackboard course. This gives you a relatively easy way to add dynamic content to a course. For many instructors, RSS may be a foreign language, but I think if you listen to the five minute podcast, you will learn enough to get the idea. If you want more, Jason's previous podcast covers RSS and podcasting in more detail.

QuickSource Guides to Blackboard

The Resource Network in Harrisonburg, Virginia, publishes fold out guides to various software applications like MS Office, WordPerfect, Adobe Acrobat and more. They have student and instructor guides to BlackBoard for $4.00 each. Prices are lower if you buy in bulk. I got mine yesterday and they look nice and are easy to read. Each one covers the important things you need to know to use Blackboard as a student or instructor. They are also available through Amazon.com for $4.95 each.

Avoiding lost work in Moodle

When students are working in our installation of Moodle, there are some common ways that their work can be lost. Because Moodle doesn't save what you've written until you click Save (assignments) or Post to Forum in Forums, anything that interrupts your connection to Moodle can lead to lost work and frustration. Interruptions include computer problems or network outages or disconnections. If you are writing anything longer than a paragraph, it's a good idea to use a text editor to do your writing and then copy and paste into Moodle so no matter what happens, you won't lose any of your work. If you combine your use of a text editor with an online backup plan, you'll have a secure backup of all of your work even after the class ends and you can no longer access it (see below). You could use a word processor like Microsoft Word, but you may need to save your work as plain text first to avoid seeing formatting errors when you copy and paste from Word into Moodle. A...

Technology & Instruction for UNEX

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