It would be hard for any teacher or parent to argue with the claim that back packs are overloaded these days with textbooks, notebooks, folders and other homework. Sad to say, but that’s job security for the chiropractors of the world. That’s exactly why it’s time to “adjust” the trend. The good news is flash drive technology is offering a powerful solution that both lightens the heavyweight load found in back packs as well as decreases the digital divide affecting students not fortunate enough to access web-based content on a home computer.
Schools are leveraging flash drive technology in creative ways. One of the newest and most novel tactics is to preload flash drives with class materials, handouts, resource hyperlinks and even digital textbooks. With day to day content preloaded on the flash drive, students and teachers have standardized, organized information at their fingertips, helping enhance the education process. Of course, the most optimum environment for the classroom is to host class materials on a website, but the problem with that scenario is not all students have equal or in some cases any access to the internet outside of school. In fact, several students still are without a “personal” computer at home. By preloading materials on a flash drive, students can still gain critical access to digital content at a neutral location such as a local library or a friend’s house. Once again, a web-enabled would offer similar benefits, but flash drive-based content assures access in the event only a computer is available to the student. 
Some schools are even using branded flash drives as a fund raiser for their schools. By customizing a bulk amount of flash drives with the school colors and/or logo, they offer the drives to students, faculty, parents and the community as a functional fund raising product. It’s deemed functional because an increasing number of people are looking to flash drive technology as a way to either transfer or back up/store data at work and home. With school branded flash drives, they can now achieve this while showing support for the school.
Teachers are also putting flash drive technology to work in support of helping them achieve a more organized flow of incoming assignments. With homework existing on a preloaded flash drive, students can, for example, work on a Word document within the flash drive. Once they are finished, the student saves the homework and turns in the flash drive to the teacher. CFgear has several patent pending programs that allow the finished assignments to be automatically uploaded to a teacher’s digital folder or this may be achieved manually as well.
Whatever the desired approach, flash drive technology offers powerful solutions at a surprisingly low investment level. The promising news is that school teachers across the globe are taking the lead on utilizing technologies such as preloaded flash drives to ensure “equal access” to all as well as a lightened, more organized load of information resting on the backs of our youth.
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