BIG FILES – TEACHERS’ NIGHTMARE

You want to  (or you have to) send big files such as students’ speaking files or video recorded presentations for Internal Verification; or video recorded lessons for Peer Observation; or audio/video assessment of students’ writing assignments  or  ….. you name it.

BUT  you don’t have a lot of time (YOU NEED SOMETHING FAST), you are not very techie (YOU NEED SOMETHING SIMPLE) and you don’t want to spend money (YOU NEED SOMETHING FREE).

There are plenty of options but the best in my opinion are:

TransferBigFiles

– transfer files up to 20 GB. I managed to transfer audio 14 GB file. It took around 10 minutes but was worth it.

FileDropper

– not as big as Transfer Big Files; it transfers files up to 5G; relatively fast (store the files up to 30 days)

DropSend

– transfers up to 2 GB but it’s fast and easy to use.

 

Yousendit

 

 

– up to 2 GB and it’s fast. Plus it has a unique feature – it lets you can e-sign documents.

SendThisFile

– up to 2 GB, similar features

They all give you a PRO option which will definitely speed up the upload but, as we agreed, we don’t want to spend any money – the free plans should be more than enough.

 

 

 

 

HANDOUTS, WORKSHEETS IN THE CLOUDS!!!!

You want to share various files like hand-outs, worksheets, video clips, photos or audio files with your students, colleagues or family BUT  you don’t have a lot of time (YOU NEED SOMETHING FAST), you are not very techie (YOU NEED SOMETHING SIMPLE) and you don’t want to spend money (YOU NEED SOMETHING FREE).

There are plenty of platforms or clouds you can use however the best, in my opinion are:

 

 

 

SUGARSYNC

 

 

Like others, it offers online backup and automatic file sync for work files or personal files like photos, videos, and music.

DROPBOX –

 

 

Stores up to 2 GB plus you can get 500 Mb for recommending Dropbox to your friends. This way you can earn additional 16GB space.

GOOGLE DOCS –

 

With Google Docs, users can share and collaborate on spreadsheets, presentations, drawings and forms

CUBBY

It starts out with 5GB of free storage space, plus you can earn up to 20GB more space by telling others about Cubby. You can Store, Share and Sync.

SKYDRIVE –

7 GB storage – so far the biggest for free.

BOX –

My favourite, personally. They give away freebies sometimes. I got 500 GB of free space for myself and two other people (so 1,500 GB altogether). It stores, it syncs beautifully and fast, it gives you options for sharing with different people or for keeping files private. And, apparently, “more than 85 higher education institutions have adopted Box’s cloud collaboration service to help their communities of students, faculty, and staff access, share and manage content online and from mobile devices.” (http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/cloud-goes-school-more-than-85-universities-adopt-box-help-students-faculty-administrators-1744040.htm)

 

Thanks to http://pixabay.com/en/users/Nemo/ for a lovely clipart “Sharing”

OUP WEBINAR

I really recommend OUP webinars – interesting, free, supported by additional downloads (ppts, pdfs etc), international audience, lots of sharing. The session is always recorded and emailed to all participants. I did “Teaching presentation skills” last month and it was great, lots of “nihil novi” but also lots of very fresh ideas. This month – Business English, maybe you will be interested. Tuesday, 12th February 2013 at 9:30-10:30 (GMT) and 14:30-15:30 (GMT). The only thing you need is headphones.

The registration form and more info below.

http://elt.oup.com/events/global/teaching_business_english_to_pre_work_students;jsessionid=90D415859C177C12967FE801616E26E6?tab=register&cc=gb&selLanguage=en