Educational institutions are finding it harder and harder to provide fast server storage in the classroom, and make files available at home.  With the recent advancements in mobile devices, the need arises for these devices to access the files as well.  The answer?  Is it opening up your server to the internet or Google Apps?  No, it's leveraging Dropbox in an extraordinary way.

Advantages:

• Fast file transfers inside the district
• Keep your local backup
• Minimize internet bandwidth
• Unlimited cloud backup and versioning
• Files accessible outside of the district
• Students/Staff can install Dropbox on their home computer for seamless syncing
• Mobile App support
• $795/yr/Tb

 The first step is to contact Dropbox, and get Dropbox for teams.  Dropbox may offer better K12 pricing than the $795 posted on their website.  Create a Dropbox account for each server you need (don't forget to leverage referrals for additional storage of non-server accounts).  Install Dropbox on each server, and put the Dropbox folder where you normally put your server shares.  Move student's home folder share point inside Dropbox and re-configure the share point for the new location. As an example:

\Shared Items\Dropbox\Students\

This is best to be done on a Friday night, so your server has the entire weekend to upload everything to Dropbox.  Be sure to disable upload throttling in the Dropbox preferences.

Unfortunately, there is no easy solution for what comes next.  If your server structure is setup properly, you will only have to do this once for each kid as they progress through your school.  Your students will need to provide you with their Dropbox account e-mail.  For example, John Smith setup his Dropbox account using This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Following Dropbox's instructions for folder sharing, Find John's student home folder in Students\Class of 2020\jsmith20 and share it to his This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. account.

Rinse, lather and repeat for the next few hundred students, as they request it.

Follow the same procedure for the staff server.

Warnings:

• Unless they pay more, or leverage the referral program, students and staff will only be able to sync 2 Gb of space
• Would not install Dropbox on student workstations, but would recommend it for teachers workstations
• Initial upload will take time
• Would advise against this method if using roaming profiles
• Use discretion when sharing common folders