My friend and fellow ed tech blogger Adam Bellow has relaunched his start-up company eduClipper. Some of you may remember that Adam launched a private beta of the service last year. Well after a big investment from some venture capital firms and ten months of testing and revising features eduClipper is better than ever. In fact, I think it’s what teachers wish Pinterest could be. Last week Adam and I spent an hour talking about the new eduClipper in it’s current state and where it is going in the future. Let’s take a look at what will make eduClipper a very popular service amongst educators.
The thing that is obvious when you visit eduClipper is that it is a visual bookmarking tool. You can use the eduClipper bookmarklet to add “clips” (bookmarks) to your eduClipper boards. But eduClipper is much more than a visual bookmarking service. You can add PowerPoint, PDF, and image files to your boards. You can also add links to videos to your boards. You can play the videos without leaving your eduClipper board. And those of us who have Google Drive embedded into our professional lives will be happy to know that we can add Google Drive files to our eduClipper boards.
The best part of eduClipper, and why I think that teachers will love it, is that you can create class boards to share with your students and they can share boards with you. As a teacher you can create classes in your eduClipper account. When you create a class you will be given an access code that your students can use to join your class. Alternatively, you can directly add students to your class boards through your eduClipper account. As the teacher you have complete control over the content that is shared and the comments written on each board.
Applications for Education
eduClipper has the potential to be a great service for teachers and students. I envision eduClipper being used in a couple of ways. First, I see it being used like Diigo but with a visual element. You can bookmark sites, share files, and discuss them but with a very visual aspect to it that doesn’t force you out of your account to preview what a resource is all about.
I can also see eduClipper being used by teachers and students to create digital packets of study materials organized around a particular theme or topic.
Full disclosure: I do not have a financial interest in eduClipper, but I have served as an adviser to eduClipper for the last fourteen months.