Instructify

Ever need to send a video, or audio file that’s more than 20MB (the size limit on a Gmail attachment)? Drop.io is the answer. It’s really fast and easy. All you do is create a “drop” with a unique URL, add file(s), then decide if you how long you want it available (up to 1 year from last view), whether you want a password, and whether visitors can add, or delete files from the drop (great for projects). You can even share the drop through Twitter. Just click on “Drop It” and voila. Once you have files in your drop, you can notify folks by email so they can retrieve files.

What if you have files larger than 100MB (the limits of a drop on drop.io)? Here are some alternatives from Lifehack Magazine some taking files up to 500MB. You’ll never need to burn a CD again. -ALICE MERCER

drop.io

Amazing - 7 Ways to Send Huge Files - Bigger than Gmail via Lifehack Magazine

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Back that Thing Up: Backup to Email

Get 1GB of storage for free with OpenDrive

“Is there any e-mail in your inbox right now that you’ve read but you haven’t done anything about?”

When writer and speaker Merlin Mann asks this question of a packed-to-overflowing audience of Google employees, the world’s most prestigious knowledge workers laugh, ashamed (but relieved) that their dark secret has been brought into the light. You can hear the moment at minute 15:15 in the hour-long “Inbox Zero” video, a recording of a 2007 presentation that adds multimedia sparkle to the “Inbox Zero” series of posts at Mann’s “time, attention, and creative work” blog, 43folders.com.

Teachers, of course, are also knowledge workers, and we get more than our share of e-mail: personal e-mail, administrative e-mail, informational e-mail from listservs and colleagues, e-mail from parents, and, most importantly, e-mail from students. Swing a cat, and you’re likely to hit an educator who has over a thousand e-mails in his or her inbox. Such a mass of messages can cause high stress levels, and Merlin Mann offers compassionate and sensible advice for this 21st-century problem. Mann is one of the technology sector’s go-to guys for productivity, whose enthusiasm for David Allen’s Getting Things Done book has probably influenced the notable proliferation of applications and websites designed specifically to help people implement “GTD,” as Allen’s plan is affectionately called.

There are just a few key points to the Inbox Zero system, one of which is to “process” rather than “check” e-mail. Processing e-mail, says Mann, is “more than checking and less than responding”; it consists of clearing out your inbox (and your mind) by taking a small, simple action on every single e-mail. Often, this action is “delete” or “archive”; sometimes it’s “reply briefly, then delete or archive” or “enter date on calendar, then delete or archive” or “enter task on To Do list, then delete or archive.” Mann’s technology background also makes him a useful source of advice on things like e-mail settings, filters, and templates; and there are in-depth pieces on such advanced topics as how to get rid of an enormous backlog of e-mail with an “Email DMZ.”

So. Is there any e-mail in your inbox right now that you’ve read but haven’t done anything about? — AMANDA FRENCH

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Organize your to-do list online with Remember the Milk

Get everything done. Maybe.

Read Seth Godin’s e-mail checklist before you forward that e-mail

We’re all prone to a little questionable judgment every now and again, whether it’s caused by a crazy birthday party, a lack of sleep, or just some strange interaction with allergy medicine. But that doesn’t mean you should send that email to your ex at 3am or give your principal a piece of your mind after a night of venting with your colleagues. You’re only going to regret that rambling mess of incoherence and misspelled choice words.

Luckily for Gmail users, Mail Goggles has you covered. Mail Goggles prompts you to solve a couple simple math problems before you send your email. You know, just to make sure your head is on straight. The default setting makes Mail Goggles active only late at night on weekends, but you can change the settings to whenever you want.

Now, if only my cell phone had my back like this. -NICK YINGLING

Mail Goggles

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Read Seth’s Godin’s Email Checklist before you forward that email

How to register students for Web 2.0 tools without an email address

emailSTRIPPER – Not at All What it Sounds Like, Yet Still Cool

Finding email unity in your Google accounts

Email abuse. No one is immune. Every one of us has committed or been victimized by some form of email crime, whether we’ve forwarded chain letters that promise a digital camera if enough people respond, typing messages in ALL CAPS, or writing on e-stationery with a dancing kitten graphic. Marketing guru Seth Godin wants each of us to do our part to stop these abuses by following his handy Email checklist.

Godin’s specialty is marketing, but his advice applies to anyone who uses email on a regular basis (which is pretty much everyone). Most of the reasons are common sense stuff (always include your contact information, write in a font that’s easy to read, don’t make it any longer than it has to be, don’t email when angry, and consider whether a phone call might be more appropriate instead). Godin’s implied golden rule is to only send emails that people actually want or need to get, are in a format that’s easy to read and understand, and that don’t waste the reader’s valuable time.

It wouldn’t hurt to pass this on to your students, too, before they start forwarding emails about how Bubble Yum gum contains spider eggs. If we can teach tomorrow’s generation proper email etiquette, we may stamp out email abuse in our lifetime. -BILL FERRIS

Email checklist via Seth’s Godin’s Blog

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How to register students for Web 2.0 tools without an email address

emailSTRIPPER – Not at All What it Sounds Like, Yet Still Cool

Back that Thing Up: Backup to Email

Photo credit: idogcow on flickr

So, you’re reading about all these great Web 2.0 tools on Instructify, and you want to start using them in your class, but as you try to set things up, you run into a little-bitty hitch…when you go to sign up students, the sites ask you for an email for each student.

You ponder the wisdom of giving twenty-plus 6-10 year olds their own email. Your district may explicitly forbid this (in addition to your own common sense about things). What to do?

Some Web 2.0 applications (like Wikispaces, and VoiceThread) will let you set up classrooms with an email. For Wikispaces, just email help@wikispaces with a list of student names/user names and a password for each one. For VoiceThread, sub accounts are built in. Just go to your account page, and click on the add identity button.

You could also sign up for Gaggle Mail, a service that will provide free emails to schools (with ads which can be turned off by paying a fee).

What if you have a service that is not as accommodating as Wikispaces and VoiceThread, but you don’t want to be administrator to a classroom full of emails even on a service like Gaggle Mail? Well, there is a GMail work-around. It’s called the “append” feature. Here is an example:

1. First, you will need your own GMail account (but only one is necessary). Let’s say you are awesometeacher978@gmail.com
2. You go into Ning, or Tumblr, or Edublogs to set up a blog for a student (you can do this as a batch process in Edublogs).
3. When it asks for an email, type in your gmail account name, but add a plus sign and something that will identify that student.
   ex: awesometeacher978+malik@gmail.com
4. The beauty of it is that if the service requires that you answer a confirmation email it still works because GMail ignores that +malik, and will send the email message through to awesometeacher978’s account.

So don’t fear the Web 2.0 gatekeeper asking for an email, and try some of these solutions in your classroom. -ALICE MERCER

Hat tip to Sue Waters at the Edublogger

Email was supposed to make our lives easier. It was supposed to open up new opportunities for learning, to communicate with students, even an easier way to assign and turn in homework. If only your school didn’t have that strict no-email policy.

If you want to add email to your teaching arsenal, talk to your administrators about Gaggle. Gaggle is a free email program tailored for teachers and students, and is perfect for schools who don’t want to spend big bucks to add server space, administer accounts, deal with spam and cyber bullying, and all the other headaches that come with student email.

You can monitor all messages and keep an eye out for inappropriate messages, cyber bullying and the like. You can also give Gaggle a list of blocked words, so if your students have a penchant for saying “doo-doo head,” you can block those messages. You can also revoke email privileges for students who abuse the system. Best of all, you can control all incoming messages, so you don’t have to worry about angry calls from parents because Little Johnny received a great business offer from a Nigerian banker.

Gaggle is ad-supported, but you can upgrade to (that is, pay for) a subscription service that’s ad-free. But it’s not like students haven’t seen commercials, so Gaggle is a good way to get your class online for free. -BILL FERRIS

This utility means you’re never more than two clicks away from peace of mind. If you’re a Windows user, Backup to Email sends a backup copy of important files to your email address. The best part? Rather than logging on to your email, filling out your address, adding an attachment, then giving up because of the hassle and swearing you’ll do a full-scale backup “over the weekend,” Backup to Email takes about three seconds, and works for any file type. It splits large files so your inbox won’t be overwhelmed by one behemoth attachment.

Remember: a failure to plan is a plan for failure. And a hard drive failure can drive you to smack your head against a hard surface. This is a fast solution that beats burning a bunch of fragile CDs, and is infinitely better than “I’ll back up my files tomorrow.” –BILL FERRIS

Backup to Email

Everybody hates email forwards. If you work at a school, every day you get bombarded with schmaltz like, “Little Joey will get money for his new lung if you just keep forwarding this email!” And the ever-popular, “Respond to this exciting investment opportunity!” Or spam like, “Whoever took all the dry-erase markers from the supply closet, please return them or face disciplinary action.” Worst of all, you can’t even read the content half the time because of those stupid formatting marks (>>) getting in the way.

That said, there are times when you might have useful information to forward to others. Do your e-pen-pal a favor and take out all the formatting with emailSTRIPPER. It’s a freeware program, which is good since it only does one thing. It does that thing well, though, and your emails will definitely be easier to read. Also, emailSTRIPPER fights formatting in the flyweight division, weighing in at a measly 171 KB–smaller than a lot of the emails you’ll be cleaning up.

All in all, emailSTRIPPER is a classy program, and you won’t have to wonder where to put the dollar bill. –BILL FERRIS

emailSTRIPPER