A number of vehicles have been explored and one of our favoured ones currently is eBackpack. Fiona has made innovative use of Wikispaces too.
https://www.ebackpack.com/
Workflow - advice welcome
From: Lucy GallagherDate: Mon, 7 May 2012 at 7:54am
Lucy Gallagher Mon, 7 May
Hi Fiona
Had
a wee look on my Dad's iPad and I can see how you're getting
frustrated! I have a MobileMe account - though it ends in July - so can
save to an iDisk and I can also share files via iWork but that ends soon
too. I think Dropbox is good option to have in toolkit. You can have
more than one - you just 'unlink this computer' and you can sign in and
out of them. I've got three - one of my own and then one that Kevin set
up for project and one for 120th iBook. You could use your own email or
class email account? Your Sciennes email address, like mine, only lets
you have access to Kevin's Dropbox until you sign out and unlink.
I
notice there is also an option to save to webDav in Pages. I think this
looks the most promising. I'm not sure how to do it but have asked
Richard Burgess and Fiona Hunter. I reckon we'll have to set up a
phantom account using Seemis. We used to have P1D, P2D etc classes and
could have used them. Angela, would you be able to create a phantom
class account for P5C and P6A specifically for transfer of files -
calling it P5 Workflow and P6 Workflow?
Lucy Gallagher Mon, 7 May
Filing pupils work
From: Wendy FrenchDate: Mon, 7 May 2012 at 10:59am
Fraser Speirs Thu, 10 May
Hi Wendy,
When it comes to “filing work on devices” there’s a bit of a philosophical answer to that question. The model for document storage on iOS is that the document lives ‘inside’ the application that created it. To get your Pages documents, you open Pages; to get to your presentations, you open Keynote, etc.
It’s been my experience that this model for document storage is, in general, far superior to the idea that you have a filing system outside of the applications and I’d encourage you to try and see if this model can work for you. I hope I didn’t misunderstand the problem you’re trying to solve here.
As for getting files off the device, if the app supports printing and you have a Mac somewhere, you might want to look into Printopia – it creates a ‘virtual printer’ which, instead of producing a piece of paper, can produce a PDF and send it straight into Dropbox.
When it comes to “filing work on devices” there’s a bit of a philosophical answer to that question. The model for document storage on iOS is that the document lives ‘inside’ the application that created it. To get your Pages documents, you open Pages; to get to your presentations, you open Keynote, etc.
It’s been my experience that this model for document storage is, in general, far superior to the idea that you have a filing system outside of the applications and I’d encourage you to try and see if this model can work for you. I hope I didn’t misunderstand the problem you’re trying to solve here.
As for getting files off the device, if the app supports printing and you have a Mac somewhere, you might want to look into Printopia – it creates a ‘virtual printer’ which, instead of producing a piece of paper, can produce a PDF and send it straight into Dropbox.
Jenni Robertson Fri, 11 May
Hi Wendy, you could also use 'send to dropbox'. You set
up an email address for the Dropbox account you want the work to go to
(when collecting it in for example) using the site http://sendtodropbox.com/
You then create a contact for the email address it generates, call it
'Teacher' for example, share the contact with the class, then when they
want to hand in or you need a piece of work they can email 'Teacher' and
it shows up in your Dropbox in a folder called 'Attachments'. I use
this for my own stuff and it's lovely. Jen x
Jenni Robertson Fri, 11 May
Hi Wendy, forgot to say, sendtodropbox (i.e.emailing) allows you to share audio and (shortish) videos... Jen
Gillian Rae Fri, 11 May
I also use dropbox for filing pupils work. It gives me access to it on my
desktop computer and from there I can put in into folders and print the
things I need. I hadn’t heard of sendtodropbox which sounds good. Just
tried it but can’t access it from a school computer. Never mind.
My own school email is also good for the children to send things to. I
can then organise pupils work in folders on my online space.
Gillian Rae
desktop computer and from there I can put in into folders and print the
things I need. I hadn’t heard of sendtodropbox which sounds good. Just
tried it but can’t access it from a school computer. Never mind.
My own school email is also good for the children to send things to. I
can then organise pupils work in folders on my online space.
Gillian Rae
Andrew Jewell Fri, 11 May
Relative to filing children's work via your email I've
found setting up smart mailboxes, a trivial process in mail, really
useful to keep the various emails from my class organised and
accessible.
John Johnston Fri, 11 May
While we are talking about dropbox another useful service is http://otixo.com/
This lets you use dropbox (and other cloud services) as a webdav server.
Once set up, you can export/import pages and keynote files to and from your dropbox using https://dav.otixo.com
as the server address as the webdav server and your otixo account
username & password. The free set up allows 250mb of transfers a
month.
We have also noticed http://wappwolf.com that looks like it might be a useful dropbox addon.
cheers
john
Lucy Gallagher Fri, 11 May
John
I first
saw you speak at ITSU eLive when I was a D.O. there - 2005? - and you
were so influential about blogging and webby things you were doing at
Sandaig. We're intrigued but a bit clueless about how to set up webdav!
It seems like a tantalising solution for us but we're not sure how to go
about it in Glow. Could you advise on using it in Glow or otherwise? I
like your otixo recommendation and will have a wee play.
Thanks
Lucy
Lucy Gallagher Fri, 11 May
Wappwolf very nifty! Not sure if there are any security
issues but certainly for our purposes it's non sensitive data in terms
of pupil workflow. Dave McKee spoke to ICT Co-ordinators in Embra
recently about the potential benefits of being able to classify
different types of data used in schools.
I'm
likely being incredibly obtuse, John, but I still can't seem to figure
out webdav. Could you spell out the instructions above for the hard of
thinking?
Thanks
Lucy
John Johnston Fri, 11 May
Hi Lucy,
Pages & keynote let you save to and import documents to a webdav server.
otixo lets your dropbox act as a webdav server.
So you can access files in keynote & pages from your dropbox.
So for example you click the + in keynote to make or open a presentation. I've attached a iphone screenshot.
If
you have set up otixo you choose webdav put in your otixo username
& password and you can open keynote (or powerpoints) from your
dropbox.
I'll try to write a more detailed /screencast over the weekend.
cheers
john
Wendy French Sun, 13 May
Hi Fraser,
I have a mac in school but it is
quite an old one. I can print from emails if I email work to my work
account on the Mac. Would there be an advantage to having printopia?
Does it automatically send attachments?
John Johnston Mon, 14 May
Hi Lucy,
A wee bit late but:
is a screencast of setting up otixo on the ipad and movie files to and from a dropbox to keynote.
Not very polished, first try at grabbing the video from an ipad onto a mac via Reflection.
cheers
John
Fraser Speirs Mon, 14 May
Wendy,
Printopia essentially takes your existing non-AirPrint printer and makes it available to iOS devices. When you ‘print’ to printopia from your iPad you can have it send that straight to the printer but you can also have it, instead, send a PDF to the Dropbox account that’s set up on the Mac.
It’s not the same thing as having a WebDAV server set up – you can’t save a Pages document to Dropbox this way. You’re basically rendering your document through the iOS printing system and saving it as a PDF in Dropbox.
The big upside to Printopia is that it’s incredibly easy to set up (for the teacher) and use (for the kids – just print it).
If I can help in any way with getting something set up, drop me an email and we’ll set up a call/VC.
Best,
Fraser
Printopia essentially takes your existing non-AirPrint printer and makes it available to iOS devices. When you ‘print’ to printopia from your iPad you can have it send that straight to the printer but you can also have it, instead, send a PDF to the Dropbox account that’s set up on the Mac.
It’s not the same thing as having a WebDAV server set up – you can’t save a Pages document to Dropbox this way. You’re basically rendering your document through the iOS printing system and saving it as a PDF in Dropbox.
The big upside to Printopia is that it’s incredibly easy to set up (for the teacher) and use (for the kids – just print it).
If I can help in any way with getting something set up, drop me an email and we’ll set up a call/VC.
Best,
Fraser
Lucy Gallagher Mon, 14 May
John, you're a star! Seeing is understanding - thank you
very much for taking the time to set up the screencast (impressive in
itself). Otixo certainly helps solve one problem in how to access iLife
docs via Dropbox.
Still interested if anyone knows how to spell out suggestion of how to use Glow for webDav.
Fraser, you have also usefully added to the solutions possibilities and thank you to you, too.
Lucy
John Johnston Tue, 15 May
Cheers, Lucy,
As to using Glow for Webdav this is what I know, I've tested most of it.
- You need to set up webhosting in your my glow. Add the Web Hosting webpart.
- The LA, approve this request.
- The website can be public or private.
- You connect to it via webdav and can upload and download files.
Limitations:
Each
site can only be accessed by one user via FTP or Webdav. The site can
be accessed by anyone, for public sites, or a set of glow users via the
browser.
Limited to a max of 200mb
A while back I
requested that glow changed to allow group ftp or webdav access to a
site but this was turned down as no one else was interested;-)
Could be used as a way to distribute files from an ipad:
User sets up glow site, added files from pages or keynote.
Others access via web.
Problem
is there is no directory listing for sites so you would not get a list
of files uploaded the others would need to know the full URL to files.
You can also mount the webdav on your desktop (at least my mac can) but again this is limited by glow username & password.
I
guess a special shared glow username & password could be created by
your ASM but this sems a lot of bother for 200mb diskspace.
cheers
John
John Johnston Tue, 15 May
Did another quick test:
is a glow website. I created a pages doc and saved as a pdf to this server.
Made an index file with textastic. This, is not really practical for pupils, so would have to pass on full url to pdf, eg:
cheers
john
Lucy Gallagher Tue, 15 May
Great, John. Thank you so much for looking into this so
carefully. Bit manic at school just now but will try out your
suggestions asap.
Much obliged
Lucy
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