Tuesday, May 26, 2015

Remove Other Video Distractions from YouTube Videos

We all love YouTube. It is a great resource for educational (and just fun cat) videos. The main complaint is that there are often too many other distractions on the screen. The other issue is the content of some of these linked videos. If you are trying to show an educational clip to a group of 1st graders, the last thing you need is a video on the right side showing something inappropriate. The fear of this happening is perhaps one of the main reasons YouTube is blocked in many districts. There are some extensions and sites that work ways around this. SafeShare.TV is one of my favorites. It is an easy and clean site that strips the screen of any videos other than the one you want to share. Here is all you need to do:

Remove Other Video Distractions from YouTube Videos

  1. Search for the YouTube video you want to show and copy the URL.
  2. Go to safeshare.tv.
  3. Paste in the link to the video and click “Generate Video Link”.


  1. Click “Take me to the safe view >>


  1. Now your video will play without all those videos waiting to be clicked on the side! All you will see is the video you want to show (like below)!





I hope this helps keep your students focused on what you want to show them!


If you want these directions in a document click here!


Thursday, May 21, 2015

Google Tone

Having a whole classroom of students get to a web site quickly can be troublesome, especially at the lower elementary levels. There are a few apps out there that allow users to send URLs to others easily. Many of us are familiar with Chirp. It is one of the most commonly used apps for this. It is great for sending a web link to a whole classroom of students on iPads/tablets/phones with just one click, but up until recently this was only useful on the tablets/phones. Chirp did just release their Chrome extension to do this as well. Google also developed a way to do this without the iPad/tablet or phone. They created an easy to use Google Chrome extension that allows teachers to send a URL to a whole class with the click of a button. It is called Google Tone. Once the extension is installed (on both teacher and student Chrome accounts) sending a URL is a simple as this:



     1. The teacher puts the site on their computer.
     2. The teacher clicks the Google Tone extension icon.

     3. A sound plays in the classroom (works best if over classroom speakers).
     4. The students get a notification that they can then click on.


     5. All students are now at the correct URL and ready to learn!

This works well. Give it a try and get the Google Tone Chrome extension Here


Below is a video of Google Tone in action:



If you want these steps in a document click Here!