Extracting files from phones

[j_the_geek]

Lately (could sort of see this coming anyway), there seems to be an increasing amount of students/users who are taking pictures on their phones ... and quite rightly so.

 

The problem with they're getting is trying to get the photos off their phones (or devices), and onto the computers. Because of the type of environment we have setup here, the user's don't have rights to install software and/or drivers (USB mass storage devices can be installed though).

 

Just wondering if anyone has something similar or could suggest a solution?

 

Earlier, a student wanted to get pictures off an Andriod phone. After a quick search on the interwebs, I found that this particular phone is very hit and miss with connecting to a PC or Mac and allowing mass storage transfers. A work around would be if there was 1 or 2 photos to send, this student could email themselves ... but there were 19 photos, and down here you're very lucky to get faster than GPRS so sending via email would take a while.

Another problem with iOS devices is that they are sync'd with the main iTunes account (which most people have at home). So if someone were to connect their iOS device here, it could loose the association and wipe the device completely.

Windows Phone devices need Zune to transfer images and audio, which would mean we'd have to install Zune on every computer on-site.

 

And breathe

[Oaktech]

can you get yourselves a bluetooth dongle or two and have the students bluetooth you, or a teacher, the photos that can then be put wherever? We are starting to use bluetooth in the music dept to push required listening lists as an html document to phones that can then access the internet.

[sted]

open access nas box connect and allow them to connect phones to wifi at least on android i can copy files to windows boxes/nas boxes quite happily

[RabbieBurns]

we make3 them email themselves them to theeir school email

[RobFuller]

All our staff laptops have Bluetooth that’s the most universal way, but if the phone supports mass storage then that’s always quicker and the student can obviously do it themselves then.

[Oaktech]

we disable the bluetooth on the laptops the kids use as they have a habit of creating bluetooth pans which don't require admin rights to set up, and then viewing whatever they like on the internet and caning their data allowance. Whole big can of worms there!

[laptopsandspares]

Bluetooth is likely to be a problem for iOs devices as (at least the last time I looked), the devices only support about 2 of the many bluetooth standards. The one's used by apple headsets. Try and bluetooth anything off my iP4 and it won't/can't be seen or see any of the other devices in the house (laptop, other mobile and a dedicated bletooth dongle for my PC), a quick google told me the above.I can't even transfer files to my mac via bluetooth, it'll only allow the phone and mactop to talk if I set my phone up as a 3g access point and even then I can't transfer files. Some would argue iOs users deserve all they get As one, I can't really even argue )

[Sylv3r]

In good in theory, but remember this could be an easy way for the students to get all sort of *nasty* material onto the network. I am all for students using their own devices within school, in a managed environment. I would be against taking material of the students phones on their behalf... some of the images which end up on generally lads mobile phones is not the sort of thing you want appearing on your screen in your room. You need some sort of get out clause disclaimer if you were to be downloading content onto your network... also, if you plug a phone into your network and it goes bang or the phone is lost or stolen - will the parents be knocking on the door wanting the school to purchase a new phone? Make sure your mobile phone policy is water tight as it can be.

[CyberNerd]

with google apps it's as simple as 'share on picasa' once Students have linked their phones to their school account.

[j_the_geek]

We have some laptops for staff, but they're mainly used off-site. The laptops we do use have bluetooth disabled as it was creating problems with authenticating over wifi.

 

As mentioned iOS devices aren't the best with Bluetooth. I've just looked on my iPhone 4, and there's no option to send a picture to another device via Bluetooth.

 

Sending anything larger than a single picture isn't the best idea either due to lack of 3G on-site, and wifi only allows users to browse the web, so smartphone apps won't be able to communicate with the outside world.

 

The mass storage idea is a good'n, but I've yet to get this to work across all phones (even Andriod phones are hit and miss).

 

I guess maybe a intranet site/page where students could upload files from their device, and staff can access to download would be a nice idea