This week, I wanted to look at some tools that can help you streamline
your Internet efforts.
In a recent post, I mentioned the tool
tinyurl.com,
which shortens URL addresses to something more manageable. It's handy
for taming a monster address that you might get from a site like
Amazon, into something that can easily be copied or remembered, but
also, helps alleviate the problem that email clients have with
long addresses: often the link will get "broken." Tinyurl.com is just one option in a whole host of these "shortening" sites:
Go2.me: This site not only shortens more than tinyurl.com, but allows for readers to leave comments or feedback.
Linkasa: The powerful difference with Linkasa is that it can
provide a preview for your readers to see what the site is before they
click into it.
SnipUrl: Among other features, SnipUrl lets you see others' links created.
urlPass: This tool offers a great widget to install
on your own web page to offer the shortner to your readers.
MooUrl: Allows you to add a "personal touch" by replacing
the randomly generated address with a word you would remember (as long
as it's available).
A few other sites to check out are: 1link.in and LinkBunch. These options allow you to add
multiple
links in order to get one (tiny) link. When the user clicks on the
compiled link, all the pages are opened in his/her browser in separate
windows. This allows you to hand students a bundle of pages that you
want them to use in research, for instance. Every time they click on
the shortened link, all of the resources you want them to examine will
open up.
The last site to make things a bit shorter for you is Eyejot. This site is primarily used to send small
video messages but has a great "bookmarklet" that will let you attach
video to a site that you want to send to someone. You can click here to see an example of a video
comment I created on my own professional site. When the receiver clicks
on the Eyejot link (that they received in an email, or via Twitter, for
instance), it takes him/her to a page with an added frame at the top,
which contains the video. After listening to the video message, the
reader can close that extra frame to get it out of the way, or click on
the sender's name to go to Eyejot to leave a response. How does it make
things more manageable? Well, you'll save a hunk of time by leaving a
little video-voice message rather than
writing down
your reasons for sharing the link. This would be an engaging way to
share links with students, for instance, and to provide directions on
how you want them to use a particular resource, or which parts of the
web page you'd like them to focus on. Rather than reading this entire
article, for example, I could have provided you with only the links
mentioned above (connected to my Eyejot account) with my video
explanations to each site instead of written. This will certainly be
more effective with many students/learners.
Eyejot has 3 levels of accounts: Free, Pro ($29.95 a year), and Pro+
($99.95 a year). Free confines you to 60 second messages, which is
great for a quick introduction to the site. You may want to upgrade to
Pro or Pro+ if you're needing a longer message (5 minutes maximum). All
accounts offer unlimited messages. Free accounts will keep your
messages around for a month while the paid accounts will never get rid
of them. So, if you are clicking on my above example more than a month
after my posting, you're out of luck because it's gone forever...
Keep these tools handy for reducing text and time!
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Bob
Sprankle has been a multi-age teacher in Wells, ME for 10 years and has
served as the school's Technology Integrator for the past two years.
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