All school servers in our District have common drive areas where teachers can place files. Students have limited access to a student common drive area but can only read information that is provided by teachers on that drive area. One of the frustrations encountered with so many persons using a common area is the accidental removal of a file from a common area, usually while trying to copy that file. This Technology Tip of the Week will address that issue.
Tip #25: Common Drive Etiquette - Where's My File?
DEFINITIONS:
Drag and Drop: The method of moving an object from one location to another using a mouse.
Cut and Paste: Similar to Drag and Drop but usually done from an edit menu. The object is literally removed from view (Cut), placed somewhere in memory (on the Windows ClipBoard) and placed somewhere else (Paste).
Copy and Paste: The method of making a duplicate of an object. The duplicate is placed onto the Windows ClipBoard and can be placed at a later time.
The COMMON Drives - a Rough Analogy: As mentioned, every building's server has at least one common drive for teachers and one for students. In a way, common areas are like school bulletin boards that are locked behind glass cases. One such bulletin board may be in the faculty room - off limits to students while another is in a corridor, viewable by anyone who passes by. All teachers have a key to the enclosures and can freely post an item to or remove an item from any bulletin board. The organization of the bulletin boards is completely up to the teachers who use them. If someone removes an item from the bulletin board, it is gone until returned.
All teachers have all rights to both common areas. Students, however, can read the information through the glass enclosure but cannot remove anything from the bulletin board. Therefore, students cannot alter information on the student common drive. Moreover, students cannot "see" the teacher's common drive at all just as they cannot see the faculty room bulletin board.
Moving An Object: If you wish to move a file, window, folder icon or such in the Windows environment, the method of choice is Drag and Drop as described in the definitions area above, although you can use the more mechanical method of Cut and Paste. Both work equally well. An edit menu from the Teachers' Common Drive showing Cut, Copy and Paste is shown in the figure below.
Remember: If you move something, it will no longer reside where it once was, unless you move (or copy) it back again.
Courtesy and the Common Drives: Because so many faculty use the common drives for their classes, departmental information and as shared resources among colleagues, it is always best to err on the side of courtesy when using any information on those drives. Here are a few of suggestions:
Whenever possible, use (or make) a folder to organize what you plan to place on the common drive. Be sure to label the folder in a meaningful way - Ex: A folder labeled My Stuff is not as understandable as: Jones Bio Lab Data. For making a folder see Technology Tip of the Week #12.
Alert other faculty who may benefit from your information. Let them know the names of the folder, any file(s), and in which common drive area they are located. Typically, the Teachers' Common Drive area is Drive J.
If you plan to set up information for your students, remember that they can only see the Student Common Drive - Drive K.
When in doubt, copy a file from a common drive area unless you own the file and know that it is all right to delete it. Using Drag and Drop, Cut and Paste or Delete will remove the file permanently!
Always keep a backup copy of an important file in your personal home (H) drive area. If you notice that something of importance belonging to you is missing from the common drive, you can quickly restore that file using Copy and Paste.
Special thanks to Mrs. Ellen Botto this week's tip suggestion.
