As I do every year, Im taking today as a break from releasing new article and will be republishing some of the most popular posts of the year. Heres one from April.

This post originally appeared on FreeTech4Teachers.com. If you see it elsewhere, it has actually been utilized without approval.

Bitly is a handy URL shortener that Ive utilized for many years. As a registered user I can create customized, shortened URLs that individuals can really spell. I utilize these whenever I need to share a link to a Canva or Google Slides presentation because the default URLs provided by those services are constantly long and incoherent..

Heres a video overview of how to see whats behind a TinyURL without in fact clicking the link.

If you want to attempt this with a TinyURL, tinyurl.com/emkns9a8 will lead you to the page for the Practical Ed Tech Virtual Summer Camp, however adding a “+” at the end of that TinyURL will take you to the page where you can see the original link without clicking on it.

There is a simple method to quickly determine whats behind a Bitly URL without really clicking on the link. The technique is to merely add a “+” to the end of any Bitly URL. When you add the “+” the URL will redirect to Bitly rather of to whatever the initial URL was.
You can attempt this trick with a URL that I recently shortened. Bit.ly/ THWTAPRIL will lead you straight to a copy of the slides that I utilized in my recent Intro to Teaching History With Technology webinar. Bit.ly/ THWTAPRIL+ will lead you to the Bitly page where you can see my initial presentation URL and see when I produced the reduced URL..
View this short video to see how you can utilize the “+” trick to find out whats hidden behind a Bitly link..

Bitly is a helpful URL shortener that Ive used for many years. There is an easy method to rapidly determine whats behind a Bitly URL without actually clicking on the link. The trick is to just add a “+” to the end of any Bitly URL. When you include the “+” the URL will redirect to Bitly instead of to whatever the original URL was.

Applications for Education.
Building great digital citizenship and cyber security abilities is something that all of us should be helping our students do. Showing them little pointers like this one to avoid clicking suspicious links is among the methods that we can help our trainees build their digital citizenship and cyber security abilities.