School Web Lockers Meets K-12 Schools Storage Requirements

As another new school year begins, many K-12 students across the U.S. will find a new generation of web-based storage and file sharing ‘lockers’ ready to be put to the test. Although this technology cannot be stashed away in a backpack like the trendy tools that traditionally welcome in the school year, it can perhaps have a greater impact on student efficiency. That’s because web-based storage lockers solve the critical data sharing challenges that students and teachers face by delivering anytime-anywhere access to important school-related files.

Driving the web storage trend is School Web Lockers, a provider of cost-effective, Internet-based collaboration and storage products, serving hundreds of K-12 schools and school districts throughout the U.S. Over the summer, more than 23 new school districts, along with eight individual schools, adopted the company’s technology in preparation for the 2008-2009 school year, including multiple districts in the states of Texas, Pennsylvania and Colorado.

For Half Hollow Hills School District, in Dix Hills, NY, which began using School Web Lockers late last year, the service has already proven its value. "Before School Web Lockers, our students and teachers had to save files to servers that they could not access from home. They were using flash drives and burning CDs to transport information to and from school," said Ellen Robertson, Coordinator of Instructional Computing. "Now they just upload files to their web lockers for easy anytime access — from any computer, at home or at school, or even on vacation. Although that is by far the best aspect of School Web Lockers, the pricing is also very competitive."

Offering unlimited storage capacity for as little as $1 per student, the School Web Lockers service is priced at a fraction of the cost of storage area networks (SANs) and other systems that would be required to support the large student and teacher populations in most schools and school districts. With many SANs priced as high as $50,000 or more today, more schools are turning to web-based storage as a cost-effective alternative, particularly when the costs of hiring a salaried employee to manage and maintain the SAN are also considered.

"The web-based storage trend is definitely sweeping the country, with K-12 schools from every corner of the U.S. making good use of the summer break to adopt our storage lockers," said Kelly Agrelius, manager of marketing and sales for School Web Lockers. "We saw a spike in sales this summer, indicating that schools are feeling the pressure to solve the growing file sharing challenges that their students and teachers face."

File sharing with School Web Lockers is not only more convenient, but it is also safer and more secure than allowing students to use portable devices such as USB drives or compact disks, which can threaten the security of district networks.

School Web Lockers provides each school or school district it serves with a secure, password-protected web site. Students, teachers and administrators alike are then given access to their own digital drop box, or web locker, which is available via password from the web site. Use of the system is easy: users can create work on one computer, and then stash files in their web locker for completion later — either on the same computer, or on another one at home or elsewhere.

A ‘green’ alternative, School Web Lockers also eliminates the need for paper: teachers and students simply upload and exchange files or assignments electronically.