This post originally appeared on FreeTech4Teachers.com. It has actually been used without approval if you see it somewhere else. Sites that routinely take my (Richard Byrnes) work include CloudComputin, TodayHeadline, and 711Web.

Applications for Education.
Building good digital citizenship and cyber security abilities is something that everybody should be helping our trainees do. Showing them little pointers like this one to avoid clicking on suspicious links is one of the methods that we can help our students develop their digital citizenship and cyber safety skills.

Bitly is a handy URL shortener that Ive utilized for numerous years. As a signed up user I can create custom-made, reduced URLs that individuals can in fact spell. I utilize these whenever I require to share a link to a Canva or Google Slides presentation since the default URLs offered by those services are always long and incoherent..

Bitly is a convenient URL shortener that Ive used for lots of years. There is a simple way to quickly identify whats behind a Bitly URL without really clicking on the link. When you include the “+” the URL will redirect to Bitly instead of to whatever the initial URL was.

Sadly, not all Bitly users are using them for good reasons. Some people utilize them to hide wicked links. There is an easy method to quickly identify whats behind a Bitly URL without really clicking on the link. The trick is to simply 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. That will then show you the Bitly page on which the shortened URL is hosted and will show you what the original link was..
You can attempt this technique with a URL that I recently shortened. Bit.ly/ THWTAPRIL will lead you directly 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 developed the shortened URL..
Watch this short video to see how you can use the “+” technique to discover whats hidden behind a Bitly link..