An order is now being processed for an upgrade to the edubuzz server. This will mainly provide :
- more disk space, mainly needed for storage of uploaded files such as images, audio and video
- more memory capacity, to handle increasing numbers of users
Disk space on the current server is being used up at an ever-increasing rate.
There’s an ongoing education job to be done in reminding people not to upload huge, high-resolution image files just to illustrate blog posts. This is all part of the process of learning about using the web in the classroom, though, and perhaps to be expected at this stage.
It’s not unusual to find image files of 2MB embedded in blog posts, even though these will take over 5 minutes to load on a typical dial-up connection. This is something we maybe should have spent time on in training sessions, where we’ve tried to concentrate on using the tools, and have probably tended to avoid discussion of file size issues. We’re not alone, though: it’s clear from discussion forums that other WordPress sites have the same problem.
If you’re reading this and wondering how to avoid the problem, our advice is to avoid creating a big image in the first place. You can do this by setting your camera to take a low-resolution image. For class web use, a JPEG (.jpg) image file will usually be around 20KB to 50KB, depending on what it contains. About 400 to 500 pixels wide is adequate.
If you’ve already taken a large image, web sites like www.resize2mail.com offer a free, easy-to-use resizing service. You just browse to the image on your computer, upload it, choose the size you want, and download the resized file.
Hi David
I was interested to read your post on image files taking up too much space on the server. This is something which did not occur to me and that training for this is probably a good idea. Does matter for sites like Rockyou and Bubbleshare or is it just for uploading photographs?
Jess Gilmour
When we create slideshows etc on Bubbleshare or RockYou the image files themselves aren’t uploaded to the edubuzz server, so there’s no storage overhead there.
The same is true for the Flickr photo-sharing website, which is why it can be an atractive place to store photos. A number of eduBuzz users use Flickr as a place to store their photos, and then link to the images stored there in their blog posts. (There’s a Plugin which makes this easy to do.)
There are downsides too, though. If you’re viewing such a site in a workplace where access to Flickr is blocked then the images aren’t visible.