Watching Videos Does Not Have to be a Passive Activity (TurboNote)

For this post I wanted to switch things up a little bit and focus on a specific tool. In an effort to get posts to come out a little more frequently I hope to sprinkle in more tool and resource specific posts/tips with my more traditional posts that relate a passion of mine, fishing, with my other passion, educational technology. I hope that you enjoy and can use these tools in your practice.

The use of videos in class is nothing new to teachers or students. But, watching a video shouldn’t be a passive activity. There are different tools and resources out there that take the viewing of videos to the next level. I have talked with my teachers about using EdPuzzle or playposit (fka eduCanon) to insert questions, comments and other interactives to any given video. This practice allowed the teachers to gain some insight into what they students were getting out of the videos and through the data collection process had easy checks for understanding. Another tool that students can use in conjunction with their viewing of videos is something called TurboNote. If you were a user of Videonot.es, (currently the site is down), you will recognize the function and features of this resource.

TurboNote enables the user to save notes in a virtual note pad or sticky’s that are timestamped according to the moment in the video you are currently watching. There are many video sites that are supported including, YouTube, Vimeo, Netflix, Khan Academy and many others. In addition to the recording of notes into the notepad the ability exists to be able to share your notes with anyone else. Those that receive shared notes can see the timestamped entries along with the video. This is a great tool for students to use to help them study and even for teachers to use to gauge students comprehension of content within any video. This quick demo of TurboNote highlights its use.