Occasionally Digital Resources will be supplied with a Professional development Seminar or Workshop. The smallest volume we have supplied (when digital resources are available) is about 20 megabytes and the largest has been over 1.2 gigabytes. We have a number of ways to deliver these to you.
Smaller amounts of resources.
We deliver these in three ways.
1) If you bring a laptop, flash drive or blank CD we transfer the resources directly to you on the day. If you have a laptop/netbook we will use a USB Flash Drive to transfer the files to you.
2) If you supply a MSN Passport User ID we will grant you access to the resources via our online file storage on Skydrive. If you use Hotmail or other MSN services your Passport ID is the email address you sign in with. If you would like to use this method but don't have a passport account you can sign up for one here.
3) We are also prepared to email them to you. However, due to the file sizes many people's ISP or work computer prevent them from downloading files of that size. Please don't ask for this method UNLESS YOU ARE ABSOLUTELY SURE YOUR ISP, MAILING PROGRAM AND COMPUTER WILL ALLOW YOU TO DOWNLOAD THE FILE.
Wherever possible the files will be supplied individually so you can avoid downloading resources you have no use for. However, PD resources are hosted on Skydrive for a limited time so if you want it all you have to make sure you grab it before it disappears.
Large amounts of Resources.
Occasionally we have amounts of resources that we just can't expect everyone to be able to download. Either they have a limited data allowance or their connection would take an excessive amount of time to download everything. The largest volume of digital resources we have ever supplied is 1.2 gigabytes. For some people this is over 2 months of data allowance or would take others an excessive number of hours to download.
In these cases we supply the digital resources via a USB flash drive contained in your "goodie bag" which is supplied free as part of the seminar or workshop.
We recommend you get yourself a USB flash drive!
A flash drive is a device for storing files and other data and usually plugs into a USB port on your computer, laptop or netbook. It uses a special kind of memory that does not require a battery to store data (called "flash memory" hence the name "flash drive"). It's the same kind of memory that you find in cards for your digital camera/video camera and other portable devices like MP3 players or iPods.
These drives come with many names although in the last couple of years it's become more standardized to "USB drive" or "USB flash drive".
You will be able to find these just about everywhere now. Stationary stores like OfficeWorks, computer stores like Harvey Norman or Joyce Mayne, department stores like Target or K-Mart and even in Supermarkets.
So you know what the sort of thing you are after looks like:
We are not recommending or endorsing OfficeWorks, it's just a convenient page to show you a variety of drives.
We recommend a 4 gigabyte flash drive for most people which, these days, is usually the smallest you will find in most stores. There is no need to buy anything fantastic, 4 gigabytes will hold thousands of documents and it takes most people quite a long time to fill one up. You can pick up a 4 gigabyte USB flash drive at the supermarket or department store for $7 to $10.
They DO fail over time and we recommend you replace them every 3 or 4 years just for safety's sake.
Melinda Lichnovsky-Klock
Wodonga CRT Support Network Coordinator.
