FILENAME CONVENTIONS

Any teacher collecting digital files from students (or staff pooling/sharing files) will have endured the lack of order when 30 files come together with 30 different filenames! The disorder and inability to know what, who or when the file was created or created by is a frustration easily fixed.

Teaching about filename organisation is the new age equivalent of having your desk tray organised (usually by book size and crayon/pencil case size!). Below are some pointers to keep those pesky files is order. A simple conventions checklist to teach students (and staff!) to help their organisation and your sanity when you get to dropbox, wikis, shared server folders etc.

• Filename examples:
• T2W1-MyTermGoals-nanhea17.pages
• T2W2-LetterToMrNankivell-21HN.pdf
• Folder examples:
• T2W1-MyTermGoals
• A-English
• B-Mathematics

• Don't use spaces. Although computer searches are pretty good, some don't like spaces or it doesn't read them as well, if you're organised anyway you probably won't use it!
• Don't use underscores (the _ symbol). It is difficult to see quickly with hyperlinked filenames.
• Put the date at the front (a code that works for me - T1 = Term 1, W5 = Week 5). If you need to use dates, use year-month-date as it will sort all 2011 together, then all 2012 together underneath.
• Use letters or numbers to order folders that you don't want sorted by alphabetical order (see e.g.).
• Use the students name/code/logon at the end so it is ordered by class list (see e.g.).
• Use hyphen to denote parts of the filename (see e.g.).
• Train the students to use the EXACT filename you want, if it's not correct, don't accept it.
• When having students download a scafold or digital sheet, use the correct file title with a hyphen at the end for students to 'Save As...' only having to add their name/code/logon.
• Use colours on folder to aid visual clarity (available in Finder on the Mac).

EXAMPLES

Image A: No guidance for students = filenames all over the place. Who belongs to which file? What is it? When was it done?

Image B: An essay about Australia completed sometime in Term 1. Students are given a code based on their position on the class list (surname alphabetical). E.g. 04FD is Fred Dennis. He uses this code for all his files.

Image C: An iMovie TV Report complete in Term 2, Week 5. Students use their school computer logon to denote their file. E.g. the last file was created by Robert Zander. In this case the 15 stands their graduating year, obviously meaning these students are currently in Year 9 (in 2012).

PS Installing DropBox and then signing up to http://dropitto.me allows students to visit your site and 'drop' files through that site straight that are downloaded straight into your dropbox folder. Easy!