How do you back up your teaching and writing files? See if one of these describes you.
- You save your files to a thumb drive and carry it around with you.
- You email files to yourself for safekeeping.
- You subscribe to an online backup service.
- You backup your own files with an external hard drive.
- You’re going crazy trying to remember which computer, hard drive, thumb drive, etc. on which you saved a particular file.
- Some other method.
I did all of those except for #3. (Notice the use of past tense.) I use three different computers, my laptop, a desktop, and my work computer at school. I hate it when I’m at school, but the file I need is on a thumb drive at home. Last year, I washed and dried my thumb drive in the pocket of my pants. Gradebook, letters, lesson plans, everything for school was gone in the time it took to wash and dry. A friend of mine lost her thumb drive. It was like losing a diamond engagement ring. All the teachers at our school were hunting for it. It was never found.
Then I’ve had nightmares that I forget to take the thumb drive out of my computer and my house burns down, taking the novels I’ve worked so hard o into the ashes. Yep, that’s a nightmare.
That’s why, when I found out about Dropbox, it was as if the heavens opened up and the sun shone down. I actually heard the Hallelujah chorus. Well, maybe just in my head.
Dropbox is simple to use and takes about 1 minute to set up. You download the app from Dropbox, then move the files you want to save into a Dropbox on your computer. Then you download the app to all the computers you use. Now, whenever you use any of those computers, all of those files will be available to you. No more worries about thumb drives. No more worries about the house burning down and taking my computers with it, because you can also access your Dropbox online.
This has to be the best app for organizing a teacherwriter’s files since the thumb drive came along. Check it out. I think you’ll like it. Dropbox.
