Files

Each individual document is a file. A file may be a paper for school, or an individual web page. This can be thought of as a digital paper.

Folders/Directories

Sometimes called folders, directories help store your files in groups. This can be thought of as a the digital version of a real folder where you put all your papers/files.

Where are my files?

Every computer system uses the file system, so you may have files on the computer you're using now or on your phone, but the files we will use are stored in the cloud.

The Cloud

The cloud is a term to describe the practice of using a network of remote servers hosted on the Internet to store, manage, and process data, rather than a local server or a personal computer.

This all means that you can access the files on your computer, even upload/download them, but they are actually located on a server/computer somewhere else. In the case of Google Drive, they are probably located in one of Google's massive data centers.

How to get to Google Drive

• Click on the icon for an internet browser (Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Safari, Firefox)
• Type drive.google.com in the internet browser search bar and press enter
• Sign in to google or create an account. For help with this see the accounts page or your instructor.

Drive allows users a place to store files on Google servers

You can store:

• Documents
• Music
• Videos
• Images
• Spreadsheets
• Executable
• any other file formats

You can remove files, change file names, and copy files.

Additionally, you can upload files and download files from local machines

Key Terms

File - A digital paper to sore information.

Folder - A digital container for files.

Cloud - The practice of using a network of remote servers hosted on the Internet to store, manage, and process data, rather than a local server or a personal computer.

Sketching

It’s super helpful to sketch any ideas we have in our heads before we start actually building them. It’s an exercise that can save us a lot of time when we get to the coding part.

Maybe what’s in our heads just doesn’t look right once it’s on paper? Maybe some new problems and questions come up in our sketch? Maybe our design is just too busy? Many of these problems will show themselves in our sketches.