Slashdrive- A student solution
Posted by Harvey on May 26, 2009 in Web 2.0
Whether for expository writing in MS word, or for some other electronic project, many students rely on the use of digital tools to create products for school that demonstrate their learning. With the District commitment to create secure school networks that are free from malicious or inappropriate content, one of the challenges facing Seattle students is ensuring that their learning is as mobile as they are, and can be easily moved between home and school. Because the means of access that allows the movement of electronic school work can also be used perniciously, students can find it is no easy feat to move work between home and school. As the district has no consistent solution for these digital students, they enterprisingly use a variety of means such as USB drives, Google docs, and any other means of access that can allow them the mobility that aligns with their style of learning.
A couple of West Seattle High School students have shown remarkable zeal in addressing the problem, and built a solution that provides a “digital locker” for students that allows easy access to their work whether at school, home, or anywhere else in the world with an Internet connection. SlashDrive.net is a cloud-computing solution created by students Jacob Miller and Brendan Peterson to help make learning mobile. Originally called upmypaper.com, this web application has evolved into a powerful resource that allows students to register and create an account that provides each user with server space to store digital artifacts. Brendan and Jacob demonstrated exceptional digital citizenship in recognizing the need students have for mobile school work, but balanced this need against the districts responsibility for providing a secure network. Sensitive to the challenges the district faces in protecting the information integrity of the network, Brendan and Jacob restrict file types to prevent students from bringing inappropriate or malicious content into the district network. With currently over 300 users, this handiwork of two exceptional students is clearly helping fill a need and demonstrates that the students themselves share a commitment to their own learning and are willing to take responsibility for it.