How to create a Public link

 

This tutorial is aimed at helping teachers who do not have a server where they can upload files - whether they're images, audio, html files or other types of files - for their students to see and/or carry out interactive exercises.

 

This problem came up during a training workshop last July. Trainees had created wikis in Wikispaces (a very user-friendly platform) and at a certain point were creating Hot Potatoes exercises with image and sound files that they would upload to their wikis. It should be said at this point that when you create an exercise of this type in HotPot, you need to place all the files associated to it in the same folder. This is where the problem started, because Wikispaces doesn't allow for the creation of folders. (PBworks does.)

 

How can we solve this problem? Dropbox, a file storage service.

 

A very practical things about this tool is that "Any file you save to Dropbox also instantly saves to your computers, phones, and the Dropbox website" (Dropbox features). And "Everything in your Dropbox folder automatically syncs to the web and to any other computer with Dropbox installed" (How do I add files to my Dropbox?). This is what "syncing" is all about.

 

To have access to this Dropbox, you need to create an account. Then download Dropbox. Finally, doubleclick the application to install it. By default, it's installed in "My Documents". (You can change this setting locally, in your computer Dropbox, under Preferences >Advanced > Dropbox Location). A quickstart icon is also placed in the Task Bar.

 

To be able to insert and share links, as in the case of the HotPot exercises mentioned above, you need to create a public link. The procedure is very simple and identical whether you do it locally in your computer or online in your account page.

 

• Open your Dropbox folder in your computer (or online)
• Drag and drop your HotPot folder to the "Public" folder. (It's the only folder that will give you a public link)
• Select the HotPot folder to see all the files inside
• Rightclick on the .html file of the exercise, select "Dropbox" and then "Copy public link". (You won't see the URL until you paste it somehwere.)
• In Wikispaces (or anywhere else), give your exercise a name and create a link to it by pasting the public link you just got.

 

It's vacation time! is an example that I created very quickly with images from the Web.

 

The same procedure applies to single files. Just drag and drop the file in the Public folder to get a public link.