By: Hana Hoffman, Peak Associate
Hey friends. I hope I’m not the only person struggling with this, but I seriously can’t think of any more ways to keep folders and documents organized. Folders are supposed to make life EASIER, not harder. So, why are these shared drives so hard to navigate, and when will Dora The Explorer’s map come and help me find the locations of the drive I need to get to??? It would probably take less time for me to drive to California than to find my group’s second draft of the body section of our project.
When I need to find a document in the shared folder, I really don’t want to bother my group and ask them for the link for the fifth time. What if they think I’m a bad student? What if they get annoyed and unfollow me on Instagram?
The only way to avoid these interactions is by doing the impossible: finding it myself. You may be thinking: Why not just stay more organized from now on? Why don’t you star the email or bookmark the link? Honestly, I don’t want to hear it. I don’t even blame myself for not being able to find anything. First of all, why are we using so many different websites to collaborate on the project? There’s Google Docs, Microsoft Word Online, Google Jamboard . . . On top of that we’re using my groupmate’s physical notebook that we can’t even access because they keep forgetting to send us pictures of our notes from brainstorming in class.
Second of all, no one should expect someone to memorize where everything is, especially while managing multiple email addresses. I’ve got my SFU email, personal email, professional email, spam account email, work email, and fan account email. There are too many drives where links and folders could be sitting!
At the end of the day, I think the best solution would be for SFU to ban group projects from the curriculum. But since I know that’ll never happen, my other solution is to tell my group that I am old-fashioned and do not use modern technology for communication. This means I don’t have an email address, a social media account, or any means of contact other than the telephone at my house. As a result, the rest of the group is only left with two options: gather in-person to do the project with me, or collaborate online and finish the project without me. Either way, I’m cool with it. As long as I don’t have to dig deep to find files in the confusing and frustrating shared drive, I’m satisfied.
