File Storage

For this course I created a free account on MediaFire to store my documents. The set-up process was extremely easy and straight forward and uploading documents is a simple step also.

What is File Storage?

MediaFire allows you to store all your files online for easy secure access and enables you to distribute large files to hundreds or thousands of people without clogging inboxes or bogging down your website (MediaFire, 2009). The free version allows a user to store files up to 200MB and paying users can store up to 10GB although both the free and the paid version has an unlimited storage capacity. A URL is provided so that the user can post this link up on blog sites or email it to other people that he wants to access this information. They can then view all the listed files and download these files if and when they want.

MediaFire is an extremely easy site to navigate around and use. With only just a few clicks you can have numerous documents uploaded onto the file storage site ready for viewing. The site has a number of different uses i.e. personal, for business and school; you can even have different folders in the same account for each type of use.

Theory and classroom uses for File Storage

The file storage site would make the teachers’ job incredibly easy in the form of handing out worksheets. The teacher could upload all the handouts and extra worksheets and information for each unit of work, semester or even the year. All that the teacher needs to give to the students is the URL and then it is up to the student to access the work (more for older grades).

Students can use this storage site to post assignments on. A whole class could have an account and they could post up reports or information they wish to share with other students either for school or leisure purpose. When students upload projects onto the world wide web they are participating in Kearsley & Shneiderman’s (1999) Engagement Theory framework under the third principle, “Donate”. Students realise that everyone is going to be able to see their work, not just the teacher, so they produce work to the best of their ability.

References

Kearsley, G. & Shneiderman, B. (1999), Engagement Theory: A framework for technology-based teaching and learning, viewed 4th September 2009 <

http://home.sprynet.com/~gkearsley/engage.htm>

MediaFire. (2009). What is MediaFire? Citing computer references. Retrieved August 19, 2009, from http://www.mediafire.com/about.php