Alice Keeler and Matt Miller, Gurus.

I'm amazed by the ever improving functionality of the chrome browser and google apps because of the flood of add-ons and extensions. I've written about them a lot. Their only downside is the sheer volume of them. It is hard to stay current and to always know what are the best of these. Also, my bar next to my omnibox is getting very very crowded with chrome extensions. Yes, I quibble, but this does get to my point that this is all a little bit unwieldy. Still, the positives overwhelm my quibbles.

To stay current, no one is more useful than Matt Miller's Ditch that Textbook blog and Alice Keeler's blog. Alice is more of a "how to" guru for all things Google while Matt challenges the status quo in education. That's not quite fair to either of them for Matt shares plenty of "how to's" and implicit in every Alice Keeler post is the idea that there is a better way to do things.

Seriously, follow these two bloggers. Recently, like the Wonder Twins, they combined forces to create a very useful chrome extension of which I post the video below. Alice and Matt help me stay on top of this flood of information. I once heard that staying current with tech is like drinking from a fire hydrant.  These two help me stay current and more importantly help me see how tools such as these can transform education.

Chrome Extensions and Add-Ons I Like or Why Chromebooks Rock

Back when the Chromebook was just coming out, many people thought the google apps for school were just not robust enough in comparison to the Apple operating system and Windows. I remember teachers and parents complaining that Microsoft's Office Suite was far superior to its Google counterparts. In the face of some of these complaints and concerns,  my school eventually chose the iPad over the Chromebook.  At the time, a solid case could be made. However, in the four years since that decision , many of the arguments against Chromebooks no longer can be made. I am not alone in feeling this way. 

Google has made vast improvements. One of the ways they have made these improvements is an ever increasing array of extensions and add-ons. This mass array of free software (not so on iPad) in my mind gives Chromebooks the edge in addition to the reasons cited above in the article. I use these free apps and extensions all the time.


Here are some of the extensions I use the most:

•  EdPuzzle. EdPuzzle lets me quickly edit YouTube videos for class. I can even embed questions for students to answer.

• Snagit. A simple screenshot capture tool. I use this so often.

•  Draftback. This one is a game changer. This basically takes a movie of a paper being in written. Imagine meeting with a students and replaying at a slightly faster speed them writing their papers? There are powerful learning and teaching moments in doing that. Its very viewing promotes metacognition in the student.

•  Flip It. Works in conjunction with Flipboard. I can easy and quickly add articles I like into any Flipboard magazine.

•  The QR Code Extension. It instantly lets me make a QR code of any webpage I'm on.

Google "best chrome extensions" and you'll be amazed at the seemingly endless amount of functionality you can add to your Chrome experience.

     Add-ons, on the other hand, add functionality within a particular google app such as sheets or docs. Below is a screenshot of my add-ons in google docs. Admittedly, it is blurry, but you can see how to access add-ons. It is right there in the menu bar.

  Within docs,  I really like Mindmeister. It is a great mapping tool for writing.  My list also includes EasyBib, Easy Accents (great when trying to type in a different language) and ProWriting Aid. 

   Within sheets, Doctopus is a great tool for editing student work. I've also used the SiteMaestro add-on to share google site a common but individualized google site with students. 

   I've shifted from being slightly in favor of iPads as the best tool for students to overwhelmingly feeling that Chromebooks are the best tool. Add-ons and Extensions are a significant reason why I feel that way.  

Tech Tip- Google Add-ons and Extensions

Extensions are Chrome browser based. Extensions are small programs that add useful functionality to the browser. I have too many. I can't even see all of them in my menu bar. (Note to self: delete the ones you thought would be cool but don't use.) But some I find quite essential and use them regularly. They make my teaching job easier and my classroom more dynamic.

My favorite is The QR Code Extension. By simply clicking on it, I make a qr code of the current page I am viewing. 

Other favorites I click often are an add on for flipboard, a tag cloud generator, and the save to google drive add on.

Explore the vast array of extensions As you can see, everyone seems to have their own list of favorites. 

Within the google apps for school, add ons are small programs that add functionality to my use sheets, docs and forms. I use grammar check add-ons for docs and add on I've found most useful is the sitemaestro add on in sheets. I used this today to send out personalized google sites to 62 students.