Technology - How to Manage Classroom Folders

Classroom shares are a great way to increase productivity by introducing real-world group collaboration methods to students while reducing waste paper by allowing students to hand in digital versions of their homework and projects. It is important to manage your classroom share carefully to avoid abuse and data loss.

Please remember to be very careful when setting the permissions on your classroom folders.  The Technology Department is not responsible for lost data, and managing them is up to you.  They are not backed up!

Classroom Shares are located on your Y: Drive.  Both teachers and students can find the Y: drive in My Computer.  It is the one marked "XXXClassrooms on " where XXX is your building abbreviation.

You should never change the permissions of the folder with your name on it, this is your folder, and if you change these permissions here, you may lock yourself out, or cause yourself problems in the long run.  Make your permission changes to the folders you create inside your folder.

To create a folder inside your classroom folder:

Double click on the folder with your name on it inside the Y: drive, and then right click in the empty space and choose New -> Folder.  Give the folder a meaningful name like "Drop Box", "Templates", or "Student Work".

To change the permissions on the folder you have created:

Right click on the folder and select Properties.  Then click on the Security tab.  On the security tab there is a white box that has the names of all the users and groups that have permissions on the folder. 

There are some of these that should never be changed.  These are: Administrators, XXX Users (where XXX is your school Abbreviation) Field Techs, your name, and SYSTEM.  Your building tech is included on this list as well.

From here you can add individual users or groups.  To do this:

• Click the add button. 
  • This will pop up the Add Users window where you can choose to add the users to the folder. 
• Type in user names, or student ID numbers separated by semi-colons and then click Check names. 
• Once you have clicked check names, the students should show up with their full name, and staff members should have their entire email address.  Your window will now look like this.
• You can also add one or both of the following groups XXX Students and XXX Staff. 
• XXX Students includes all of the students at your school
• XXX Staff includes all of the staff members in your school
• Or you may choose to add permissions for your users one at a time.
• Types of Folders:
• If you want them to be able to just drop completed work, they should have permission to List folder contents and to write.  It will look like this.
• If you want them to be able to run PowerPoint presentations , or open templates or examples, then they should have Read and Execute, List Folder Contents, and Read.  It will look like this.
• If you want them top be able to create and work on projects in a folder, then you need to add a special user to the folder.  This user is Creator Owner, and you can set it up by following these pictures.
• In a project folder, the XXX Users and XXX students should only have permission to List Folder Contents and Write.  It will look like this.

Things to keep in mind

If you give all of the users permissions to modify files, then they can be used to cheat, because they can open up another user's file and then copy it.  Final work should only be turned in in a drop box type folder.

Never use the check boxes in the deny column.  It does not work in the way that you expect.  If you check it for XXX Users, then you will also be denied access.