Thanks to Computing Services, Ball State University students have lost one more excuse for not turning in their homework.
Aside from the Web site space and Ball State e-mail accounts, Computing Services is adding yet another online service — iLockers. A solution to technical failures, broken printers, non-functioning disks and lost files, iLockers will provide safe, reliable and easily accessible storage space on the server to anyone with a Ball State username.
The iLockers provide Ball State students, faculty and staff with two gigabytes of convenient storage that can be used for both school and personal purposes. Since the space has already been allocated, everyone with a username is guaranteed the full two gigabytes.
“There are some students on campus that don’t have computers,” April Metcalf, Ball State senior and Computing Services employee, said, “but it’s more common for students to just use the lab computers for the programs because they don’t have them on their own computers.”
Since the ilockers are accessible from any computer, working on projects or traveling between computer labs is no longer an inconvenience, and these easy-to-use iLockers eliminate having to carry jump drives or other portable storage devices around campus.
More importantly, the space is on a safe server, so students do not have to worry about any of their documents being lost or becoming corrupt, as is commonly experienced with floppy disks, CDs and flash drives.
“Students should know that their documents are protected” Chris Trost, Ball State senior and HelpDesk worker, said. “Even when the server goes down, the files are not lost. They won’t be accessible while the server is down, but they will still remain on the secure Web server.”
According to Trost, accounts may be terminated if there is any unauthorized activity. Although the students are free to store anything on their iLocker space, accounts will be monitored in order to prevent any illegal file sharing. However, with only two gigabytes of storage, such activity is not likely to become a concern.
Future plans for iLocker use include more user-friendly settings and a downloadable application for students to use on their own computers.
Loren Malm, assistant director of Computing Services, believes that iLockers will only become easier to use in the future with what is now being offered.
“We are really trying to associate the new e-printing with the iLockers,” Malm said. “Students can save paper and store their documents to their iLockers.”
“Since iLockers are still in the introductory stages, it’s hard to know what will happen in the future as far as providing more storage space,” Trost said.
Directions for creating an iLocker can be found at the University Computing Services page. For more information about iLockers, creating an account or for technical support, visit the website at www.bsu.edu/web/ucs/ilocker/.
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