Bit.ly Bundles Simplify Sharing Links with Students
Bit.ly Bundles are about to simplify the way you share links with students and colleagues. Take any collection of links you want to pass along, and with Bit.ly Bundles you can share just one short web address. You’ll no longer need to pass out links individually.
I originally found link bundling in a post about LinkBun.ch from Jane’s Pick of the Day. Imagine my surprise when less than an hour later the same capability miraculously appeared on my Bit.ly Pro page. I’m a Bit.ly addict, so that’s the tool I’m reviewing here today.
Lifehacker has explained the tool and talked about how it can be handy to the general user. To demonstrate who I might use it, I created a bundle of links to the sites where I publish most of my personal work—links to Twitter, Facebook, and the blogs I work on.
Bit.ly Bundles took the collection of six different links and simplified them into a single URL that I can easily share at a conference, in email, or even Tweet out to my followers:
[blackbirdpie url="http://twitter.com/#!/newsfromtengrrl/status/5737279511330816"]
Even better than just collecting the links on a single page, Bit.ly Bundles let you control how the links appear on the collection’s page. You can edit the titles and add descriptions or explanations to the links in your bundle. If a link in a bundle changes, or you want to add or delete it, you can edit the collection later. People who visit the bundle can add comments as well.
In educational settings, Bit.ly Bundles take care of two challenges:
- They let people see the target links before they click. The service allows for link shortening with transparency. There are no surprises behind the shortened URLs.
- They take care of the need to point to multiple texts without blasting a series of URLs or having to create an intermediary page.
It’s a smooth tool that makes sharing links much easier. Just pass out one address, and you’re done!
Not yet convinced? I brainstormed some uses to demonstrate the possibilities for using Bit.ly Bundles in the classroom. Create a Bit.ly Bundle to
- gather a collection of articles on a current event for students to read.
- point to a reading and to related discussion and criticism.
- link to resources for a writing assignment (e.g., tip sheets, guidelines).
- make sets for students you can use in feedback or tutoring (for instance, a collection on adding descriptive details).
- share background information on an author or piece of literature.
- collect information on campus or community resources for a project (e.g., the Writing Center, the reference desk, office hours).
- distribute URLs to class projects.
And that’s just a beginning. Essentially any time you need to share more than one address, you can use Bit.ly Bundles to simplify the task.
Since you can edit the Bundles, they’re useful for collections you use in more than one class or more than one term. Collect your links in a bundle, and publish that URL in each course. The URL you share remains the same every semester. You simply return to the Bundle each term to make any updates.
To build community resources, like a student-assembled collection of links, I’d still recommend a social bookmarking tool like Delicious or Diigo, but for the collections that you create and find yourself reusing, Bit.ly Bundles are going to make sharing links a whole lot easier for teachers.
