If you're feeling adventurous, you can listen to the song while you read the new lyrics and replace them . . .
Standing
in the rain, with his head hung low
Couldn't find a seat, it was a sold out 504
Heard the roar of the crowd, he could picture the scene
Put his ear to the wall, then like a distant scream
He heard of one new tool, just blew him away
He saw stars in his eyes, and the very next day
Went to dropbox.com, having files to store
Didn't know how to use it, but he knew for sure
That one new tool, felt good on his Mac, didn't take long, to understand
Just one dropbox, icon down low
Was a one way ticket, only one way to go
So he started droppin', ain't never gonna stop
Gotta keep on droppin', someday gonna make it to the top
. . . and be a DROPBOX hero, got stars in his eyes, he's a DROPBOX hero!
Couldn't find a seat, it was a sold out 504
Heard the roar of the crowd, he could picture the scene
Put his ear to the wall, then like a distant scream
He heard of one new tool, just blew him away
He saw stars in his eyes, and the very next day
Went to dropbox.com, having files to store
Didn't know how to use it, but he knew for sure
That one new tool, felt good on his Mac, didn't take long, to understand
Just one dropbox, icon down low
Was a one way ticket, only one way to go
So he started droppin', ain't never gonna stop
Gotta keep on droppin', someday gonna make it to the top
. . . and be a DROPBOX hero, got stars in his eyes, he's a DROPBOX hero!
I shared this with my organizing your online life team. I'm not too sure they got a kick out of it. I did, though.
We learned about Diigo, Dropbox, Evernote, and Skype.
I had never used the first three and I use Skype every day. My sister and brother-in-law live in Germany and my girlfriend is in Russia. Skype is awesome.
Dropbox seems to be overlapped considerably in its functionality by other tools/devices. Their website also opens with a horribly boring tutorial video. I'm sorry, but if you can't whip up some better marketing than that, I'm not sure if your free product even warrants my time. Having said my two cents, I do understand why a person might use it. If a person is constantly skipping from device to device it seems like it could be a great tool. One of the coolest things is the easy sharing.
I should emphasize easy. Because what dropbox does is not terribly more than what email or a USB can do, it really aims to persuade users with its ease. It does what you already can do. Maybe it makes it a little easier.
I'm sure there are lots of dropbox heroes out there. I'm sure it saves them some time. Maybe I will go this route when I have more devices. For now, everything is on my laptop, USB, and email. So far, so good.
Diigo seems really cool!!!! More on this later . . .
I'm back . . .
So if I actually get on the Diigo horse I feel like it has the potential to revolutionize how I organize how the information in my online life. I think I will have to change the settings to make it not so invasive. I want to have it available when I want it, but I do not want it to bother me when I'm trying to do other stuff. I know it is vying for my attention but like a clingy girlfriend, people will be driven away. People need their space. It sent me an email and also popped up when I was googling stuff . . . so I turned it off and haven't turned it back on. I think I will some time after my life slows down. Or maybe when I have an expansive research project. Actually, I think it might be better to use it for some sort of fun application first so I get used to its functionality stuff. We'll see.
I'm definitely thankful for the introduction to all these new tools. Really cool stuff))))
Onward.
I'm back . . .
So if I actually get on the Diigo horse I feel like it has the potential to revolutionize how I organize how the information in my online life. I think I will have to change the settings to make it not so invasive. I want to have it available when I want it, but I do not want it to bother me when I'm trying to do other stuff. I know it is vying for my attention but like a clingy girlfriend, people will be driven away. People need their space. It sent me an email and also popped up when I was googling stuff . . . so I turned it off and haven't turned it back on. I think I will some time after my life slows down. Or maybe when I have an expansive research project. Actually, I think it might be better to use it for some sort of fun application first so I get used to its functionality stuff. We'll see.
I'm definitely thankful for the introduction to all these new tools. Really cool stuff))))
Onward.
Skype is awesome! I definitely agree for the long distance relationships its amazing. I also had a great experience with it in a class I took in undergrad. My professor would skype in the authors of books we read so that they could talk to our class! It was very very cool. And it made me think how nice this would be with guest speakers all over high schools and in college. It is a lot more convenient/cheap way to get speakers into the classroom.
ReplyDeleteI kind of felt the same way you did about Dropbox when I first learned about it. Kind of like "Yeahh so this is cool, I don't know why I wouldn't use it, but at the same time I already have been dealing with what Dropbox aims to fix and I'm doing it just fine." I had that opinion too. What my presentor in my group reminded us of though is that sharing/opening files on Drop box takes up way less space on your actual computer because it is storing it all to space on the internet instead. This may have been obvious to you (I know nothing about technology) but when I learned this, I really thought it would be a good thing for me to start using. It could save me a lot of agony if this computer of mine ever suddenly crashed (which it might do soon). So it wasn't so much of a time saver, but a computer space saver was my understanding!! But I know you mentioned that you use a USB so maybe all of your stuff is on a hard drive anyway and this isn't a concern. Anyway for me that was the cool part about it, and the kicker into getting me to use it!
Anyway, sorry for the long post! I enjoyed reading this and also enjoyed the Dropbox song lyrics. Winning.
Nice song! I wonder, do you think that making up fun little songs like this are helpful to your learning? (I'm doing my project for Anne's class on the usefulness of songs in a classroom...) P.S.
ReplyDeleteAnyway. You don't mention Evernote, do you have any thoughts on that? I find it really similar to Dropbox, in that you can post your files and your videos and whatnot, and you can pull it up on your phone too! Thoughts?
Hi - Just a quick thought about Dropbox and how it differs from email/USB for me. One is that Dropbox keeps only one version of a file, and when you are swapping files via email or USB, you can end up with multiple versions that have the same file name, etc. So there's some discipline required in terms of naming schemes, etc., that comes into play. Secondly, USB drives are notoriously lose-able. Additionally, Dropbox makes public sharing of a file really easy. So as you move to assembling more and more digital content, you may find it easy or helpful to drop a file into Dropbox, then link to it rather than clogging inbox space with a huge file. Finally, I find Dropbox to be drop-dead reliable. And since I have lost more thumb drives than I have thumbs, that helps me a lot. However, if you have a system that's working, don't let me invent a need that doesn't exist for you! :)
ReplyDeletePS - Dropbox is also accessible via app.
Matt I was in your group and I totally got a kick out of it ... I just couldn't hear that well cause everyone in class was talking so loud =) ... I remember after you presented DropBox I was like oh no ... Evernote is gonna seem so lame now cause DropBox basically does the same thing ... but I think if I were to chose between using the two I would use Evernote ... only because I think it's interface is so much nicer and I like how easy to use it is ... Not that DropBox isn't but I'm probably biased cause I presented Evernote. I had a DropBox folder on my computer a long time ago because a friend of mine from MIT told me to download it so she could send me pics ... after that I totally forgot about it ... so for now I think I'm just gonna stick with my Google Docs/Drive and USBs
ReplyDeleteMatt,
ReplyDeleteI can see where you are coming from about dropbox, but I think it has some cool benefits above USB/email. And not to repeat what someone above me said, but I totally agree with Kristin's take on some of the benefits of dropbox. I lose USB drives all the time and it's nice not having to constantly email new versions of docs to people. I like that I can easily share things with loads of people through dropbox, and that those others do not need to keep the clutter if they don't want to. Sometimes people delete older emails, but with dropbox they can always find it, as long as you keep it publicly shared.
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ReplyDeleteWell you already use Skype, and I gather that you are not a fan of dropbox. What are your thoughts and opinions about the other tools shared? So, do you have everything on your laptop backed-up on USB and email? Or is everything on the USB and your laptop in your email? I ask because what happens if your laptop crashes and you are no longer able to access the files on your laptop. Then you loose your USB? Will you be able to get at everything? The advantage of dropbox is that you have an automatic backup of your data effortlessly. Just a thought. . . .
ReplyDeleteYou can't hate on dropbox! That is like one of the most useful tools we have discussed besides perhaps Skype. Dropbox allows you to share very large files via the internet. This is something USB cannot do unless you are physically mailing a drive and email fails here as well because of size limitations. I am making a video for my friend's wedding in Japan and there is no other way of sharing it besides dropbox. I also used dropbox to share photos. Unlike facebook I can control the size and quality of the pictures and limit who receives or can view them. Give dropbox another go as it would be a great way to share video or other large files with your class.
ReplyDelete