webtool – iLearn Technology

SnipSnip.It: Share the best parts of online video

April 25, 2011Kelly Tenkely2 Comments3587 views

What it is: I don’t know about you, but I am constantly finding great videos online to share with my students. The problem: I usually only want a small portion of the whole video. I use SnipSnip.It to crop the video down to only the parts I want to share with students. SnipSnip.It is easy to use, just copy and paste a YouTube url, choose the start and end point and click “snip”. Easy! After snipping your video you can embed the shortened video on a website or blog or share the shortened video with a link. The other benefit: all of the YouTube extras (a.k.a. distractions) are eliminated in the SnipSnip.It version. Not. Too. Shabby.

How to integrate SnipSnip.It into the classroom: If you happen to be in a school or district that has not blocked YouTube, you are going to find SnipSnip.It very handy! This is a great way to crop videos to share with students either by URL or embedding the shortened video into a class blog or website. Even if your school doesn’t have access to YouTube, this may be a great way to try out the Fisch Flip and encourage your students to watch the snipped videos at home in preparation for class the next day.

Tips: This service is so easy that I have no fancy schmancy tips; I’ll just leave you with this: stay classy!

Please leave a comment and share how you are using SnipSnip.It in your classroom!

Corkboard: Classroom Collaboration

December 30, 2010Kelly Tenkely19 Comments5441 views

What it is: Corkboard is a neat little collaboration tool that I learned about on Twitter yesterday thanks to @Grade1. Corkboard reminds me a lot of Wallwisher (which has been a little unreliable lately). Best of all, it is literally a one step set up process. Just type in the web address: http://corboard.me and it automatically creates a unique url for your corkboard. Click to add a sticky note on the corkboard. Give students or other teachers the unique url so that they can add a sticky note. Easy! Sticky notes can be as big or small as you like. Click and hold down on a sticky note to move it around the corkboard.

How to integrate Corkboard into the classroom: Corkboard provides an easy to use platform for students to brainstorm, collaborate, and share ideas. Students can use Corkboard to brainstorm ideas for writing, research, and collaborating on group projects. Ask students to add their thoughts to any conversation on history, literature, science, phonics, or vocabulary corkboard. Students could practice spelling by typing out their spelling words along with a sentence or synonyms on sticky notes. Students can share a board to discuss a book they are reading together, predictions for a class science experiment, and to share what they are learning in any subject or lecture. You could create a new corkboard each week where you post homework, resources, to-do items, etc. for your students. Students can add sticky notes to the board about what they are learning throughout the week. These Corkboards can be added to a Weblist.me so that there is a record of the whole year.

Tips: Looking for other alternatives to Wallwisher? Check out: Edistorm or Stixy. Each has a little different features!

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Corkboard in your classroom.