Dropbox is my New Best Friend!

I absolutely love Dropbox.  It is a great way to share documents between different computers.  I use it to store word documents of evaluation reports I haven't yet entered into the online system, sample IEP goals and objectives, test descriptions and so much more.   I can't even express how wonderful it has been not to have to worry about emailing the most recent copy of a document to myself to work on at home, all I have to do is save the the file in the dropbox instead of in a regular folder on the computer.  I can then open it up on my home computer without any extra effort.  It has taken one extra step out of working at home and it has made many things much easier. 


It has been a great way to share materials, resources and collaborative documents with the other SLPs I work with.  When I find a new material, write a new generic test description or have a great picture of a student I put them in a shared folder in the dropbox and the share is automatic.  It's also a great place to keep a running list of new referrals and evaluations so we can all have, see and update the same document and not keep replacing shared copies.  

I have a separate account set up on the iPad using the hotmail account I also set up for ipad exclusive use (no chances of student access to my email, please and thank you!).  I then shared all the PDF therapy materials books and other resources to the iPad dropbox account.  By opening the dropbox app on the iPad a wealth of resources are literally at my finger tips.  

1. Open the book you want.

2. Turn the iPad vertically for a full screen view.

It's a great way to have all the sounds in an articulation book or other materials with you while traveling.  No planning ahead/printing pages from the book for each student necessary.  Putting books in the iPad instead of your travel bag is a great way to save paper and your back. 

It's also a great way to view PDFs or word documents you created or download from online in therapy.  I love it for word lists I've created.

Sometimes I just Stutter - PDF of a book about stuttering for ages 7-10 that's free for download on www.stutteringhelp.org

I can't express how much I love my dropbox and I really do use it all the time.  For the security conscious among us, I was cleared by our school "tech guy" that it was secure enough to store student information.  You get so much space on dropbox for free and by inviting others you get additional free space. 
Signing up for Dropbox by following this link will net me more free space and I will be VERY appreciative.

EDIT!

Since posting this I found another use for dropbox on the Ipad.  Pinterest is always showing me some great conversation pictures to use in therapy.  I didn't really want to format all the pictures to similar sizes and do the print, cut out, laminate cut out sequence.  I instead found a way to use all of those great conversation/description pictures on the iPad.  I created a folder on my main dropbox account and shared it with the Ipad.  Then I'm able to open all the pictures on the iPad and have easy access during therapy sessions!