mattbeighton Posted March 13, 2013 Posted March 13, 2013 Hi, I have built a site that I find very useful when teaching ICT based lessons where typing speed is not a key focus to let the children practice; i.e a topic lessons where you want them to get to the sites without spending 20 minutes typing long URLs. I don't want to post it and risk spamming, but could somebody point me in the direction of someone I can ask for permission to post, and a suggested forum. Cheers 1
mattbeighton Posted March 14, 2013 Author Posted March 14, 2013 Since there's no reply I'm going to try risking posting it! If it is considered spam, please delete it. Recently we have been doing a lot of topic/literacy lessons that need the children to find information from several websites. It's hard enough getting them to type one URL in at times, let alone 3 or 4; especially when the focus of the lesson isn't their typing skills. With that in mind, I went away and built http://www.sendurl.co.uk. As a teacher, if you click the create new session button it will generate you a code at the top. If you then send your class to http://www.sendurl.co.uk, they can enter the code into the text box, click the arrow button and they are locked in. You can then type/copy/paste any URL you want them to go to into the text box on your screen and within 30 seconds it will pop up on their laptop/netbook/computer with no need to type. You can keep adding as many URLs as you like and they will pop up one after the other. Hopefully some of you might find this useful, if you do could you let me know and more importantly let your friends know!
witch Posted March 14, 2013 Posted March 14, 2013 Sorry, didn't see your question. It seems like a good thing - and it is free - so I can't see a problem with it at all.
HarryMonkey Posted March 14, 2013 Posted March 14, 2013 Hi Matt, glad to see you've gone for some proper expert opinion at last.
JJanisch Posted March 14, 2013 Posted March 14, 2013 I've been sitting tight for a long while now, looks like it isn't working Quite a cool idea, something that could be expanded on and a real asset. Obviously services like TinyURL exist but the extent of the random generated letters and numbers would be far harder for students to type correctly than just going through the main web page. Also, the ability to group several addresses to one identifier is great. Nice job, Matt.
garethEds Posted March 14, 2013 Posted March 14, 2013 Good idea - but the colour green you have used hurts and the test is too bright to read on it. Maybe a darker font or a less bright green? Gareth
mattbeighton Posted March 14, 2013 Author Posted March 14, 2013 Good points cheers guys. Those that it isn't working for, could you be more specific? What did you do, how far did you get?
mattbeighton Posted March 14, 2013 Author Posted March 14, 2013 Hi Matt, glad to see you've gone for some proper expert opinion at last. Which one are you?
JJanisch Posted March 15, 2013 Posted March 15, 2013 Good points cheers guys. Those that it isn't working for, could you be more specific? What did you do, how far did you get? Added a couple URLs, tried to access the unique code and it sat on retrieving until I closed the tab. Probably way over 5-10 minutes.
JJanisch Posted March 15, 2013 Posted March 15, 2013 Just an update for you: The reason why it wasn't working for me was because Chrome was blocking the popup window. Because the window had not been launched, I presume your code was waiting for the action to be completed before moving on. By allowing popups the first window launched (followed with the link on the page), and so on. I'd suggest you don't launch the page automatically, it's bit intrusive and (as detailed) doesn't play well with most Popup Blockers. Instead, lone links on the page would be ideal.
JJonas Posted March 15, 2013 Posted March 15, 2013 isnt this just another bit.ly? or have I missed something
JJanisch Posted March 15, 2013 Posted March 15, 2013 isnt this just another bit.ly? or have I missed something I dont think the OP intends to rival short URL services, as he clearly explains it's more of a hub for sending several links to students in a classroom. Opposed to shorting the URLs and then writing them all down (Imagine having 10 websites to reference), and the mash of characters that services like bit.ly use for your forwarder (which no doubt students will get wrong, multiple times), you could provide one address that then links to several others. I don't like the design but can't deny the usefulness of this in some situations. 1
JJonas Posted March 15, 2013 Posted March 15, 2013 (edited) I like it. I see the point now. I take it if the teacher keeps adding url's to their session the students sessions will update to include the new url's Do the produced codes carry on working once the teacher has closed their browser? Edited March 15, 2013 by JJonas
JJanisch Posted March 15, 2013 Posted March 15, 2013 Yes by the looks of it. The info button on the left says that it will be active for 60 minutes, that would be regardless of the teacher closing their browser. You are given a new code every time you begin a session with no apparent way to continue adding to an existing session. OP, if you would like some help to develop this then I would be happy to contribute. I have a few ideas and like the concept, feel free to PM me.
JJonas Posted March 15, 2013 Posted March 15, 2013 Feature Request: A way to bulk add a batch of url's.
mattbeighton Posted March 16, 2013 Author Posted March 16, 2013 Just an update for you: The reason why it wasn't working for me was because Chrome was blocking the popup window. Because the window had not been launched, I presume your code was waiting for the action to be completed before moving on. By allowing popups the first window launched (followed with the link on the page), and so on. I'd suggest you don't launch the page automatically, it's bit intrusive and (as detailed) doesn't play well with most Popup Blockers. Instead, lone links on the page would be ideal. I've added links now for when the children inevitably close the windows and panic! I'm still unsure on whether I like the pop-ups or not, the main benefit of them (for me anyway) is that when I want them to move to a new website, I can just send it and it pops up at the front ready for them to use; the younger children in the school would struggle to find the home page and click a link without input. I also like the idea in the future of being able to remotely close windows when I want the children to move on; I've not figured out a good UX way of doing this though. isnt this just another bit.ly? or have I missed something I used to use bit.ly for this purpose but got fed up with having to get them to type several codes and on a couple of occasions the children mistyped the code with another valid code. The resulting website was, luckily, safe but I am under no illusions that there are some out there that could have been difficult to explain, even with a firewall in place! I like it. I see the point now. I take it if the teacher keeps adding url's to their session the students sessions will update to include the new url's Do the produced codes carry on working once the teacher has closed their browser? This is correct. Technically the code is generated against your IP address and won't generate a new one for 10 minutes, so you should be able to reopen your browser and click generate and it will just give you the same one that you can then keep adding to.
mattbeighton Posted March 16, 2013 Author Posted March 16, 2013 Feature Request: A way to bulk add a batch of url's. I like the idea, any idea how it could be done usefully? Do you think copy and paste them all to one large text box, maybe comma or semi-colon separated?
mattbeighton Posted March 16, 2013 Author Posted March 16, 2013 SJN Gah, first TB, then the ground and now here?! Stop stalking me!
JJonas Posted March 18, 2013 Posted March 18, 2013 I like the idea, any idea how it could be done usefully? Do you think copy and paste them all to one large text box, maybe comma or semi-colon separated? I was thinking of a copy and paste from a text file. Could you read the returns at the end of the URL? (show up as a backwards p in word if you turn on invisibles/non-printing characters) It would save time for the teacher if they could just paste a list they probably dont have time to paste them one by one.
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