I read somewhere (The Content Trap) that content providers focused on something new should offer information in stages. The first stage involves alerting followers to what is now available. A later stage would involve a full description and analysis. This idea made some sense to me. Early on in the area I address most frequently (tech in education) there are those who want to be aware of new developments and may be willing to try them out. Think of them as the innovators and early adopters in that classic model of how changes move through a population. I have also learned that there are dangers in pushing new ideas too strongly. An interesting product I promoted heavily in a textbook once went away when the company behind the product was purchased by another company and the product that interested me turned out not to be of interest to the purchaser. The service I describe here as yet to reach release 1.0 and issues such as whether there will be a cost to the service (it is now free) and what this will be have yet to be provided.
I have written extensively about online services allowing what I describe as layering. What I mean by this is that an educator or designer can add learning prompts, questions, comments, etc. on top of web pages or video provided by another party. I see this as turning content into an educational resource. TurboNote is my newest find of this type. TurboNote offers an advantage over several services I have previously reviewed because it can be used to layer educational prompts on both web pages and video instead of one or the other.
TurboNote is a chrome extension that provides a couple of features I believe to be essential in an educational layering service. First, it allows the addition of prompts. The image shown here involves adding comments to a video. Click the note icon – the video stops and the post-it type window appears. Enter a comment that is saved. Click the stored note and you also return to the video timeline marking the spot associated with the note. The second priority is the opportunity to share the layered product with a specific group. This is difficult to see in the image, but there is a share icon generate a URL that is sent to those who you want to view the comments you have added.
More to come as this product matures.
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