Is dropbox allowed for student to access

[genesis]

Hi

 

One of the staff have come asking if the students can access dropbox.

Please advice, is it safe ?

Any help will be much appreciated.

 

Many thanks

[pcstru]

I think it might help to know what they are asking to use it for and how? Here we block it because we offer staff and students adequate storage options and we don't want to encourage use of personal storage for school work or data, both from the POV of DR/backup and Data Protection.

[Marci]

Technically, that should be a decision to be made by your Data Protection Policy makers after weighing up the necessary risks...

 

• https://www.gov.uk/guidance/public-sector-use-of-the-public-cloud
  
• https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/581224/Cloud_services_software_department_advice-22.pdf
  

Edited January 17, 2017 by Marci

[strawberry]

Why is it blocked in the first place? . Does it present a child protection issue? Does it have productivity issues?, Does it fit in with T+L policy?

[dgrinnell27]

We dont allow it, however we have OneDrive for staff and student storage as part of our O365 package.

 

But even before OneDrive we still didn't permit it, I dont think a lot of colleges/Schools do.

[unixman_again]

We too have OneDrive as part of O365 but getting staff to use it is difficult - they've heard of Dropbox so that's what they use. Students use OneDrive more but there is a hidden problem. When they send work to a teacher, often the teacher can't access it because the student has shared it as a link rather than a copy.

 

The graphics teachers (Macs) insist Dropbox is the way to go. I don't know how well OneDrive works in Safari or the Mac version of Chrome, which we have on the graphics Macs. We don't mind students using Dropbox but we would rather they used the web interface rather than the app. The app seems to cripple the network and it makes the Mac run very slow too.

[dgrinnell27]

We too have OneDrive as part of O365 but getting staff to use it is difficult - they've heard of Dropbox so that's what they use. Students use OneDrive more but there is a hidden problem. When they send work to a teacher, often the teacher can't access it because the student has shared it as a link rather than a copy.

 

The graphics teachers (Macs) insist Dropbox is the way to go. I don't know how well OneDrive works in Safari or the Mac version of Chrome, which we have on the graphics Macs. We don't mind students using Dropbox but we would rather they used the web interface rather than the app. The app seems to cripple the network and it makes the Mac run very slow too.

 

OneDrive is definitely not 100% bug free that for sure You cant upload folders for example.

 

Our mac users use the onedrive via safari and chrome and both work well, we don't hear of any issues, except yesterday where a powerpoint wouldnt open online....But this turned out to be the fact the powerpoint was 1GB in size!!!!

 

We tend not to use the APP too.

 

Overall it works well and our staff do use it but like you mentioned its a struggle as they still use network storage, however this year ill be migrating everoyne to OneDrive anyway and we wont have home folders on a network storage so they will have to get used to it

[Areku]

One thing i would worry about with drop box (personal student accounts i presume?). is that of prevent.

surely monitoring files (and the content/names of said files), could be needed?

 

for instance, I've had to deal with several prevent cases (we're one of those schools) where access to the students and staffs file has been required.

can you do that with drop box? with out the users co-operation?

 

i know with one drive, I've been told an administrator can access, but do you get the same level with dropbox?

[robjduk]

I block dropbox here. We offer both google docs and onedrive and block on the grounds we dont want them using personal accounts to access files where we have viable systems available.