Let’s talk Sni.ps! Copying and pasting has become on the web what chewing and swallowing is at mealtime (or snack time or nibbles time or whatever else you call it to make yourself feel better 😉 ) The thing is, now that we’ve learned how to transfer copied content to other places, it’s time to start doing a better job of acknowledging our sources. Giving credit where credit is due is one thing, not only because it’s nice for an author to feel appreciated, but also because the audience may want to explore further content by the same author, and without accreditation or proper acknowledgment, the connection is lost.
And we’re all about the global connection. Whether we want to be or not, the inter connectivity of all things in all (connected) places in this world impacts all of us, from students doing real-time group projects with classmates scattered across the globe, or grandmothers being sent a stack of photos from grandchildren who simply uploaded files onto a site and had the middleman print, snip and ship then to the desired location. It’s all about the connection.
So, how do we ensure that we keep that connection going? Well, we have to take it a step further – copy and paste turns into sni.p and paste. And what does sni.p mean? It means copy + gather source information + collect some programming code that tells the computer accessing your sni.p how to connect to its source.
What I’ll do now is use sni.ps to copy an excerpt below of the blog entry I read that introduced me to sni.ps:
Sni.ps Attribution Tool at EdTechPost
The premise is simple enough – the service provides a bookmarklet that, when clicked, creates an overlay of whatever page you were looking at. This overlay allows you to then select content on that page, for which it generates ‘embed code’ to paste on your own site. Doing so will reproduce the content along with an annotated attribution link back to the original source.
It’s awesome (and it’s free), but don’t just take my word for it, or anyone else’s word for it. Try it out yourself.
Personally, I think I’ll be making quite a bit of use out of it when it comes to sharing videos, flash content, and any other sort of rich media that I can see value in sharing. What about you?
Now, since you’re reading a blog about all things virtually scholastic, let’s spend a moment reflecting on how this tool impacts educational technology? Well, if you still insist that your students submit their assignments in hardcopy only, then I suppose it doesn’t affect you a bit. If, on the other hand, you provide your students with the facilities and the processes to submit and share work electronically, then you’ve just discovered a great way for them to learn more about the importance of copyright acknowledgment in a web 2.0+ world.
Connectedness also means networked which blends into online social behaviors which impact how students learn which…should probably also impact how you teach…shouldn’t it?
3 Responses
January 27th, 2009 at 9:15 pm
Hi Katherine,
Thanks so much for trying out SNI.PS and making such a thoughtful post about it. If you can think of ways to improve the service for learning and educational uses, we are all ears. Please let us know.
Thanks,
David
January 28th, 2009 at 9:01 am
Hi David ~ my pleasure!
How to gear sni.ps to the educational market….well, perhaps some more targeted information for teachers and students (perhaps a subsection of your site’s ‘Tutorial’ section) would definitely help arouse interest in the ed community. For example, Animoto provides its educational user with details on how to setup access for classes, shows case studies, etc. Essentially having information (both conceptual ideas and technical help) will help educators start to see the potential. From the state of your site now, it requires a bit of imagination to stretch the tool into the educational arena.
The greatest strength I see of the use of sni.ps in education is its emphasis on citation and referencing. Teachers and librarians often have a tough time getting the message across to students that plagiarism is not the way to go. It would be great if you had some info on your site about what attributes are included in the sni.p code and how this information supports referencing on the web. You could spin it as ‘a way to reference digital content with one click’.
April 10th, 2009 at 4:54 pm
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