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Edu On Air: HACK THE CLASSROOM! (Hands on w/ Add-ons)

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bit.ly/hacktheclass HACK YOUR CLASSROOM! Allow the technology to help you be more efficient and effective in your teaching! Let me show you how with Google Add Ons for Docs, Sheets, and Forms! We'll get Hands On with Add Ons. We'll walk through examples and simulations that put these Add Ons to work.

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Note Anywhere is a Chrome extension that lets you add a sticky note to just about any webpage that you have open in your browser. With the extension installed you can simply click its icon in your browser and start writing notes on the page. As I demonstrate in the video embedded below, Note Anywhere could be a good tool to use to remind yourself of things that you want to say to students when you share a webpage with them.

H/T to Lifehacker.

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Note Anywhere is a Chrome extension that lets you add a sticky note to just about any webpage that you have open in your browser. With the extension installed you can simply click its icon in your browser and start writing notes on the page.

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Joo Zoo for Grading

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JoeZoo Express is a Google Documents Add-on that I have been raving about since I first tried it earlier this year. The JoeZoo Express Add-on can save you a ton of time when you are grading or editing your students' writing in Google Documents. The way that JoeZoo Express does that is by providing you with the ability to store canned comments to insert directly in your students' work. Not only that, JoeZoo Express includes an option for linking to tutorials that can help your students improve their writing. Watch my short video embedded below to see how JoeZoo Express make your grading process much more efficient.

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How JoeZoo Express Can Save You Tons of Time Grading in Google Documents

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JoeZoo Express is a Google Documents Add-on that I have been raving about since I first tried it earlier this year. The JoeZoo Express Add-on can save you a ton of time when you are grading or editing your students' writing in Google Documents.

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Last year I published a free PDF handout that highlights great Add-ons for Google Docs, Forms, and Sheets. The handout also included a few of my favorite Chrome extensions. A year passed and it was time to update that handout for the 2016-17 school year. The updated version of that handout is now available to download here or view as embedded below.

The handout highlights my favorite Chrome extensions as well as my favorite Add-ons for Google Docs, Forms, and Sheets. Please feel free to email it or print it and share it with your colleagues.

Please note that the file is hosted on Box.com. If your school blocks Box.com you won't be able to see the document on your school's network.

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Great Google Drive Add-ons for Teachers - An Updated Handout

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Last year I published a free PDF handout that highlights great Add-ons for Google Docs, Forms, and Sheets. The handout also included a few of my favorite Chrome extensions. A year passed and it was time to update that handout for the 2016-17 school year.

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How to Use the Lesson Plan Add-on for Google Docs - YouTube

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How to Use the Lesson Plan Add-on for Google Docs - YouTube

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How to Use the Lesson Plan Add-on for Google Docs

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How to Use the Lesson Plan Add-on for Google Docs

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How to Enable Google Drive Desktop Notifications - YouTube

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How to Enable Google Drive Desktop Notifications - YouTube

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Teacher Evalucation Walkthrough Google Form

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How to Enable Google Drive Desktop Notifications

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How to Enable Google Drive Desktop Notifications

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Alice Keeler Chrome Extensions for Teachers - Teacher Tech

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Alice Keeler Chrome Extensions for Teachers - Teacher Tech

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Alice Keeler Chrome Extensions for Teachers - Teacher Tech

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I have been publishing several blog posts on Chrome extensions for teachers. I thought it might be helpful to link to them all in one place. 4 Chrome Extensions for Teachers - September 2015 4 Chrome Extensions for Teachers - May 2015 4 Chrome Extensions for Teachers - March 2015 4 Chrome Extensions for Teachers ...

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App of the Week Spotlight Annotator - YouTube

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App of the Week Spotlight Annotator - YouTube

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Highlight main ideas and key details within your google doc with the add-on Spotlight Annotator

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Educational Technology and Mobile Learning: 3 Great Chrome Extensions to Enhance Your Reading Experience

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Educational Technology and Mobile Learning: 3 Great Chrome Extensions to Enhance Your Reading Experience

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Educational Technology and Mobile Learning

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March 15, 2016
While the net provides us with endless reading opportunities, online reading does not come with no price and in most cases the price is our attention and focus. Web pages are full of ads and flash animations that can greatly affect the quality of your reading especially when it comes to reading lengthy articles that require sustained concentration. But there is a technocure to this. If you use Chrome browser, the extensions below will definitely help you enhance your online reading experience. They provide you with a comfortable reading experience by removing all the web noise and digital clutter that surrounds readable materials leaving you only with the naked text to read and enjoy.

1- Readability

Readability is an excellent Chrome extension that allows you to read the web in a more comfortable and clutter-free environment. Once activated, Readability turns web pages into 'reading mode' with no surrounding distractions. You can customize the reading view, change background templates and type size the way you like. It also allows you to save your articles to read later and if you use Kindle Amazon, Readability enables you to easily send your reading materials to your Kindle.

2- EasyReader

This is another good Chrome extension that provides an online comfortable reading experience. It brings forward the readable content and removes all the surrounding clutter. You can also customize the colour, size and fonts of your articles.You can even change the page background and use a selected image instead.

Read Mode, as its name suggests, turns your Chrome into a pleasant reading mode with no ads or flash animations. The way it works is simple: install the extension, click on the glass icon in the address and you will have your webpage turned into a nice-to-read black and white page. Click on the glass icon again to deactivate the extension.

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3 Great Chrome Extensions to Enhance Your Reading Experience

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March 15, 2016 While the net provides us with endless reading opportunities, online reading does not come with no price and in most cases the price is our attention and focus. Web pages are full of ads and flash animations that can greatly affect the quality of your reading especially when it comes to reading lengthy articles that require sustained concentration.

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Google Docs Quick Create - Chrome Web Store

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Google Docs Quick Create - Chrome Web Store

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Create new Documents for Google Drive from your browser bar.

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Shortcuts for Google™ - Chrome Web Store

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Shortcuts for Google™ - Chrome Web Store

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Choose from 500+ Google™ shortcuts to show up as buttons in a space-saving popup.

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Cite This For Me: Web Citer - Chrome Web Store

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Cite This For Me: Web Citer - Chrome Web Store

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Automatically create website citations in the APA, MLA, Chicago, or Harvard referencing styles at the click of a button.

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Kami (formerly Notable PDF) - Chrome Web Store

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Kami (formerly Notable PDF) - Chrome Web Store

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Best PDF and Document Annotation and Markup Tool. Works with Google Drive and Google Classroom

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GAFE Force Copy - Curt Schleibaum & ETH - Chrome Web Store

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GAFE Force Copy - Curt Schleibaum & ETH - Chrome Web Store

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Force Copy Extenstion

Automatically creates a force copy link for google drive apps

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Automatically produces a force copy link for docs, sheets, and slides.

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Vocabulary in Context - Chrome Web Store

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Vocabulary in Context - Chrome Web Store

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Vocabulary in Context

This Chrome extension allows readers to collect words from articles as they read. The word and its context is saved to a separate page, where readers have access to quick links to Google images, a dictionary, and a thesaurus to improve comprehension.

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Save vocabulary in its context and review them later. A highly efficient tool to improve vocabulary when learning foreign language.

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Online speech recognition - SpeechPad - Chrome Web Store

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Online speech recognition - SpeechPad - Chrome Web Store

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Speech to text on any web site and in Windows and Linux applications

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**Only works on top of web pages, so first load a webpage like www.google.com then click the CT in the extensions bar**

CraftyText is a simple app. It allows you to enter text, which then shows up big in the center of the screen. It works on top of your favorite website. Note: no data are transmitted to the developers. The permissions requested are due to the fact that it works on top of whatever website you're browsing.

**UPDATED!** Added a Display button next to the Shorten button.

You can now shorten URL's easily with CraftyText! Paste the URL into the CraftyText window, click Shorten, and wait a moment and watch the magic!

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This extension allows the user's text to be displayed on screen on top of a web page in large type

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Tab Cloud allows you to save any window session and restore it at a later date or on another computer. Effectively allowing you to sync open tabs between multiple computers.

To use you simply click the TabCloud icon on the menu, you will then see your current open windows and previously saved windows, you can save open windows, or restore saved ones. You can also delete previously saved windows.

Additional features:
 - Middle (or ctrl) clicking any tab icon opens just that tab.
 - Clicking on an open tab icon jumps to that tab in a browser.
 - Dragging a tab icon allows you to move tabs between windows, including to and from saved windows that are not currently open.
 - Secure login using your Google account, with the option to logout on the TabCloud menu.
 - Click on any windows name to rename at any time.

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Save and restore window sessions over time and across multiple computers.

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Increases readability of web pages by changing fonts, contrast and adding a reading ruler

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This extension displays the color palette details for the Google logo.

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A simple popup to undo closed tabs, just that and a bit more.

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a slick and reliable timer app for Google Chrome

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Mercury Reader - Clear away the clutter from all of your articles. Instantly.

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Lifehacker Pack for Chrome: Our List of the Essential Extensions

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Lifehacker Pack for Chrome: Our List of the Essential Extensions

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Google's Chrome browser is packed full of an incredible amount of extensions that add all sorts of functionality. It's tough to sift through the store to find what's useful though, so let us save you some time with this collection of our favorite Chrome extensions.

The Lifehacker Pack is a yearly snapshot of our favorite, must-have applications for our favorite platforms. To download the pack in its entirety, head to our Collection on the Chrome Web Store!
Productivity

Bookmarking services are a great way to save the articles you want to read. For Chrome, you can download an extension to instantly save any article you come across to your service of choice, and they'll sync up across all your devices. Which you chose is really up to you, since they each have their own strengths, and they're all pretty great in their own rights.

Feedly is the big front-runner for post-Google Reader RSS readers. If it ended up being your choice, then the Feedly extension is a great way to provide yourself instant access to your feeds right inside Chrome. It's not required anymore, but it's still good to keep around.

If you're using either Any.Do or Wunderlist for your to-dos, then both of them offer fantastic Chrome extensions that sync across all your devices. This means you'll never forget what you have to do no matter where you're working. Wunderlist also now has real-time syncing across devices and shareable to-do lists, while Any.do now makes it easier to manage household or team projects. When it comes to staying on top of your tasks, you can't go wrong with either of these.

If you're an Evernote user, you should definitely use the Evernote Web Clipper. It lets you save articles, pages, or just sections of a page to your notes so you don't have copy anything or write anything down. Then you can add your own notes to the things you save, organize everything into specific projects, and more. If you're a OneNote user, however, Microsoft serves up a web clipper of their own that's pretty comparable to Evernote's.

There are plenty of web sites out there that want to suck away your time. From social networks to your favorites blogs, it's easy to lose track of your day. StayFocusd blocks those time-sinking web sites so you can get work done.

The web is a chaotic and messy place filled with toolbars, notifications, and tons of clutter. If you want to get rid of all that, Minimalist for Everything is an extension that slims down the web to make it simpler to use. Minimalist for Everything can do all kinds of things, from getting rid of Google's navigation bar to making Gmail less cluttered.

Lazarus is a lifesaver for anyone who fills out a lot of forms online, or who writes in their browser. When you're typing in a form, Lazarus saves what you're doing. If your browser crashes, Lazarus saves a backup. It's simple, but it can seriously rescue your day.

Gmail's a great web app, but the problem is that it only works when you're online. Gmail Offline allows you to continue using Gmail even when you don't have an internet connection. When you connect again, the emails you compose will get sent off just like they would in a desktop app.

Ambient sounds can help you fight off distractions and stay productive. Noisli, a web app that allows you to create your own background noise, is now a Chrome extension that doesn't take up an extra tab to use anymore. Noisli lets you create your own combination of sounds and will let you set up a timer as a way to track your work.

Pushbullet makes it easy to bridge the gap between your desktop and mobile OSes. You can push text, links, files, maps and more from your computer directly to your phone or tablet. You can also push data from your phone to your Chrome browser, and Pushbullet makes use of Chrome's great notification system.

Security

Lastpass is still one of our favorite password managers because it's free and easy to set up. With it, you'll never have to remember a password again, and all your passwords will be synced up across your various devices. The nice thing is that you can do all kinds of cool things with Lastpass, so you'll never get bored of it. It should be noted that LastPass was breached by hackers last year, but no encrypted user data was stolen and we still recommend it.

HTTPS is one of the simplest ways to make browsing the web more secure, and HTTPS Everywhere is an extension that makes it so you don't even have to think about it. With it, you'll always visit the encrypted, secure version of a site whenever you type in the URL.

AdBlock Plus is usually just seen as a tool to block annoying ads on web sites, but it's a lot more than that. It'll also protect your privacy across the web, block other sections you want to hide (like YouTube comments), and even block malware. Sure, it's also an ad blocker, but it's so much more. If you want a leaner alternative that doesn't eat up as much memory and potentially slow your system down, uBlock Origin can provide just as much safety and privacy protection as AdBlock Plus.

Disconnect's main purpose is simple: it blocks third-party tracking cookies. This means Disconnect blocks advertisers and social networks from tracking your browsing habits. On top of that, Disconnect has all kinds of tricks up its sleeves, including the ability to block people from hacking into your personal info. Even better, Disconnects new privacy icons make it even easier to tell if a site's legit.

SecureGmail is very simple: click on a button, and the email you're about to send through Gmail is encrypted. The only way to decrypt it is if the recipient has a password. It's not perfect by any means, but as a quick and simple way to protect your private messages it does the trick.

Utilities

Flix Plus is Lifehacker's own made-inhouse extension for tweaking Netflix.com. You can filter recommendations, remove spoilers for movies and TV shows, use keyboard shortcuts, view ratings from Rotten Tomatoes and IMDB, and so much more. We also make sure Flix Plus stays up to date when Netflix rolls out updates of their own, so you can always have best possible movie-watching experience in a browser.

Having a bunch of tabs open in your browser is a resource hog, and if you're not careful you can slow your system to crawl. The Great Suspender takes care of this problem by automatically suspending tabs you're not using so they don't use up CPU. It's certainly not the only tool to wrangle in your tab usage, but it's one of the most useful.

When you're shopping online you can almost always score a couple discount codes for a small percentage off a sale or free shipping. The problem is that you usually have to hunt those codes down and paste them in at checkout. Honey removes that requirement, and automatically applies discount codes for you so you don't even have to think about it. Now you can earn cash back too, and a built-in feature that finds better prices on Amazon.

With thousands of stores to choose from, finding the best deal online is no easy task. To simplify this process, we like InvisibleHand, an extension that automatically combs through a ton of online stores when you're shopping to find the best deal for you. It's a simple and automatic way to save money while you're shopping.

Region blocking makes it difficult for a lot of people to watch cool videos. The TunnelBear VPN extension lets you route your internet traffic from whatever country you like so you can stream blocked content from anywhere. You get 500MB of free data every month, but there is an unlimited plan for $4.99/month. We no longer recommend Hola Better Internet, after the discovery that they sell your bandwidth to basically run a botnet for hire.

If you're a big Facebook user, then you owe it to yourself to give Social Fixer a try. It's our pick for the best way to make Facebook better because you can do all kinds of things with it, including getting rid of obnoxious political posts, track people who unfriend you, and plenty more. It's not as powerful as it used to be, but it's still a worthwhile extension to keep around.

YouTube can be pretty annoying sometimes, but if you want to fix some of the most common problems with it, Magic Actions is the easiest way to do it. You can set up auto-HD, stop autoplay, create a cinema mode, and more.

Computer hardware is expensive, so you always want to ensure you're buying at the best price. The Hover Hound extension compares hardware prices at Newegg with Tiger Direct and Amazon with just a hover of your mouse cursor. You can also view price history and see when prices were at their highest and lowest at each seller. Hover Hound is a must for anyone who is regularly buying hardware.
Illustration by Nick Criscuolo.

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Lifehacker Pack for Chrome: Our List of the Essential Extensions

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Google's Chrome browser is packed full of an incredible amount of extensions that add all sorts of functionality. It's tough to sift through the store to find what's useful though, so let us save you some time with this collection of our favorite Chrome extensions.

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EasyBib Bibliography Creator - Google Docs add-on

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EasyBib Bibliography Creator - Google Docs add-on

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EasyBib Bibliography Creator - Google Docs add-on

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The easiest automatic bibliography citation generator is now on Google Docs! Format in MLA, APA, Harvard, and over 7K more styles!

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Ari Copy of CUE Maximize Internet Use - Google Slides

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Ari Copy of CUE Maximize Internet Use - Google Slides

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Papier – A Chrome extension worth checking out | Technology in the Classroom

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Papier – A Chrome extension worth checking out | Technology in the Classroom

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We've talked about Chrome extensions before on the podcast (you should subscribe by the way) and even written about them here.

So let's add one more to the pile: Papier. When you open a new tab, you will see a blank canvas where you can type out notes. You can use bold, italics, strikeout and underline as well so making some emphasis on notes is a breeze. You can do these through global shortcut keys. You can't change color, type or size of the font but then again this all you're doing here is taking notes. Maybe a reminder to pick up milk, call a parent or some cool factoid you want to share with your students. It's quite handy.

You do have some options though. In the bottom left hand corner there are options where you can change some text. You can also change it from day mode to night mode depending on what you prefer and you have the option to print or export the notes. Another really handy feature is the character count. In their video you see them add emojis. They are just utilizing the built in emojis on a Mac laptop which you can bring up by hitting ctrl + command + space.

What's neat about this, if you close the tab, even close Chrome and reopen it, your notes will still be there! Of course if you reset Chrome it will probably disappear, but when I cleared the browisng data my note was still there!

So if you need a way to organize all those thoughts and remidners everyday in class, give Papier a try.

About Patrick Cauley

I teach middle school technology and love to play around with tech and teach students and colleagues alike. You can read my blog at www.itbabble.com

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Papier - A Chrome extension worth checking out

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We've talked about Chrome extensions before on the podcast (you should subscribe by the way) and even written about them here. So let's add one more to the pile: Papier. When you open a new tab, you will see a blank canvas where you can type out notes.

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6 Chrome Extensions Great for Students and Teachers - Daily Genius

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6 Chrome Extensions Great for Students and Teachers - Daily Genius

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With Chromebooks gaining popularity in classrooms, many folks have offered guides on how to use some popular software like Microsoft Word and Office 365 on these otherwise seemingly stripped down machines. Though they may seem basic, Chromebooks and Chrome (as a browser for those not using Chromebooks) are probably more robust than you think. The Chromium project is an open source project for the browser and OS. Having open source code allows developers to make Chrome extensions for the browser that add features and enhance what your browser can do .

Chrome extensions run the gamut from games, gags, and pretty pictures to things that enhance your productivity, and make magic happen in one click. We've talked before about extensions that make thinking more visible, and others to generally enhance your browsing experience. The vast majority of extensions are free, and you can find them in the Chrome Web Store. We've collected 6 more that we think are worth taking the time to check out if you're a teacher or student. Do you have a favorite that we haven't included? Share with the Daily Genius community by leaving a comment below, dropping us a line on Twitter, or heading over to the Daily Genius Facebook Page and leaving us a note there.

6 Chrome Extensions Great for Students and Teachers

Readability

Readability aims to simplify your online reading by turning the content from the page into a simplified, clearer reading view. This can be particularly useful for students who are easily distracted by "all that other stuff" happening on the web. For all of us, it is easier on the eyes, and free of ads. It offers the option to save material to read later, and you can send things to your Kindle, too. This one also comes as a mobile app.

Google Dictionary

One of the perks of having your students read "real life" content is that they're exposed to different language use than they may otherwise be; the downside is that may force them to spend more time looking up words they aren't familiar with. The Google Dictionary chrome extension makes a handy little dictionary icon next to the browser's URL field. When you come across a word you're unfamiliar with, simply highlight the word and click the dictionary icon. Easy peasy!

Sidenotes

Sidenotes is a note-taking extension that opens up a basic notebook in the sidebar of a webpage, allowing you to jot down notes on the side (as the name so aptly implies). All of your data can be backed up to Dropbox for you to access anywhere

Stay Focusd

Stay Focusd aims to well, help you stay focused by limiting the amount of time you spend on certain websites. If you know that you're prone to going down a black hole of Reddit postings and emerge an hour later, you can set up a filter to block you out of that site after a certain amount of time, for a certain amount of time. You can block certain sites, all sites except those you whitelist, or certain content. Think of it as a helper for your time management problem.

Note Anywhere

Note Anywhere is a simple sticky note extension that allows you to leave a note on any webpage. When you return to that page, you'll see the note. This is great for lesson planning ideas, or for anyone doing research.

Grammarly

Whatever word processing software you use likely has a spell checker, and likely your email. But you aren't always writing using those tools, and spell check leaves it at just that. Enter: Grammarly. Wherever you're writing online, it follows you around, ensuring your grammar is up to snuff and not making you look bad.

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6 Chrome Extensions Great for Students and Teachers - Daily Genius

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With Chromebooks gaining popularity in classrooms, many folks have offered guides on how to use some popular software like Microsoft Word and Office 365 on these otherwise seemingly stripped down machines. Though they may seem basic, Chromebooks and Chrome (as a browser for those not using Chromebooks) are probably more robust than you think.

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Pocket: An Easy & Quick Bookmarking Tool that’s Free | Technology in the Classroom

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Pocket: An Easy & Quick Bookmarking Tool that’s Free | Technology in the Classroom

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I love Pocket! It's a Chrome extension, and it's something that I actually use. Yes, you have to sign up first, but that's pretty painless. And it's free. There is a premium version, but it seems unnecessary. Everything that I use is available on the free version.
Why Do I think it's useful?
I use this to quickly save articles, videos and whatever else to read later. I find this particularly helpful when I'm scanning through Twitter, Flipboard or my favourite blogs. If I see anything that seems interesting I simply 'pocket' it to go through later. Create tags that are easy to remember, these can as silly or as practical as you want, whatever will help you remember it.
How do you use it?
To access all the cool stuff you've saved click on the cute little pocket to the right of the address bar (I used Chrome browser).

When you get started you have "My List" where you find everything that you've 'pocketed' for later. You end up with what looks like a Pinterest board, it's really visually appealing, and you can scroll through everything you've saved.

The search feature is excellent. I've always preferred to use search features in my email or spotlight on my Mac to find everything so I find this makes it very easy to find anything I now have time to read/watch. I'm really bad about not making folders to organize stuff properly (I know, not very librarian-like), so I heavily depend on good search functions.
Here's what what Pocket looked like when I made this blog (I am constantly removing things as I finish reading them and adding new content, it changes almost daily): Automatically syncs! Yay!
It automatically syncs to your phone, other computers and tablets. You can view articles offline, excellent for commuting on the metro or bus. This is particularly time saving when you use multiple devices like me. My work laptop and home laptop are now seamlessly connected. No more links saved to my bookmarks on one laptop, which inevitably I forget which one I saved it to and then waste a lot of time hunting around.
Looking for more time saving extensions/apps?
Check out what else there is under the category "productivity". Tons of great products out there, though it's easy to waste more time looking through these and testing them than actually saving time by using them...

Kendra Perkins
http://www.theinspiredlibrarian.com http://www.about.me/kendraperkins
About kendraperkins

I'm Coordinator for the Shanghai Librarian's Network in Shanghai, a community of over 100 librarian professionals from more than 20 schools. I'm Head Librarian at an international school in Shanghai & Extended Essay Co-Coordinator. I'm currently completing my ALA accredited Masters in Library and Information Studies at the University of Alberta while trying to keep up with the latest apps & tech.

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Pocket: An Easy & Quick Bookmarking Tool that's Free

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I love Pocket! It's a Chrome extension, and it's something that I actually use. Yes, you have to sign up first, but that's pretty painless. And it's free. There is a premium version, but it seems unnecessary. Everything that I use is available on the free version. Why Do I think it's useful?

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#TOSAChat Gets Googley with Google Add-ons and Chrome extensions!

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#TOSAChat Gets Googley with Google Add-ons and Chrome extensions!

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GAFE Summit - Roseville - Technology Training

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GAFE Summit - Roseville - Technology Training

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GAFE Summit - Roseville - Technology Training

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The purpose of this site is to provide help with using Google Apps in the classroom.

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App of the Week Autotext Expander - YouTube

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App of the Week Autotext Expander - YouTube

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Display expanded text with abbreviated text using the Google Chrome extension Autotext Expander. This extension will all you to enter commonly used text, titles, or even paragraphs just by typing a few short characters that you set.

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6 Google Chrome Extensions Every Teacher Should Know about ~ Educational Technology and Mobile Learning

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6 Google Chrome Extensions Every Teacher Should Know about ~ Educational Technology and Mobile Learning

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Educational Technology and Mobile Learning

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February 9, 2016
If you are a heavy user of Google products you might find these Chrome extensions very helpful. We have selected for you some of the most popular educational extensions created by Google and shared in Chrome web store. Some of the things you can do with these add-ons as a teacher include: save web content directly to your Google Drive, easily share URLs and resources with your students in Google Classroom, search for scholarly articles as you navigate the net, view and edit Office files in Google Drive, quickly share resources via Gmail, and initiate image-based searches.

1- Google Scholar Button

'This extension adds a browser button for easy access to Google Scholar from any web page. Click the Scholar button to:Find full text on the web or in your university library; Transfer your query from web search to Scholar; Format references in widely used citation styles. Press the quote button in the popup to see a formatted reference and copy it into the paper you're writing...'

2- Share to Classroom

'Web Page Sender allows users of Google Classroom (https://classroom.google.com/) to collaborate in realtime. Teachers can "fling" or share urls with students, and students can fling urls to teachers.'

3- Save to Google Drive

'This extension allow you to save web content directly to Google Drive through a browser action or context menu. You can save documents, images, and HTML5 audio and video all by right clicking and selecting 'Save to Google Drive'. You can save the currently viewed page using the 'Save to Google Drive' browser action.'

4- Office Editing for Docs, Sheets & Slides

'View and edit Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint files - without needing Office installed on your computer. Once the extension is installed, Office files that you drag into Chrome, open in Gmail, Google Drive and more will be opened in Docs, Sheets and Slides for viewing and editing.'

5- Send from Gmail

'This extension will open a Compose window in Gmail when you click any email address on a webpage. It also provides a button that will create a Gmail message when clicked, using the page title as the subject and selected page text and link address as the message.'

6- Search by Image

'Search by Image is a Chrome extension that allows you to initiate a Google search using any image on the web. By the Google Images team.'

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6 Google Chrome Extensions Every Teacher Should Know about

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February 9, 2016 If you are a heavy user of Google products you might find these Chrome extensions very helpful. We have selected for you some of the most popular educational extensions created by Google and shared in Chrome web store.

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Educational Technology and Mobile Learning: Two Interesting Google Drive Tools for Generating Word Clouds

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Educational Technology and Mobile Learning: Two Interesting Google Drive Tools for Generating Word Clouds

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Educational Technology and Mobile Learning

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February 7, 2016
Word cloud generators are great tools to use for a variety of educational purposes in your class. For instance, students can use them to identify main themes in a passage, generate a quick overview or summary of a text, help with word choice or vocabulary when writing, brainstorm ideas around a given topic and many more. There are several web tools and mobile apps you can use in your class to create word clouds, this chart we have previously published features some of the popular titles to use in this regard. In today's post, we are adding two very good tools that are integrated with Google Drive. Check them out below and share with us your feedback. Enjoy

1- Drive Word Cloud

'Create your own word cloud from any text or Google Drive file to visualize word frequency.This is a tool for generating word clouds from text or Google Drive file that you provide. You can tweak your clouds with different fonts, layouts, and more. You can also create image from word cloud. You can print them out, or save them to your computer to share with your friends.'

2- Word Cloud Generator

'Use this add-on to quickly assess what your emerging theme is, how to best categorize your document, or if it is someone's else's document - find out the theme of the document without reading it. The #1 Word Cloud add-on for Google Docs just got tricked out. Loads of new features including control over number of words, prettifying the cloud, dropping words and including a word count table in the document.'

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Two Interesting Google Drive Tools for Generating Word Clouds

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February 7, 2016 Word cloud generators are great tools to use for a variety of educational purposes in your class. For instance, students can use them to identify main themes in a passage, generate a quick overview or summary of a text, help with word choice or vocabulary when writing, brainstorm ideas around a given topic and many more.

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Free Technology for Teachers: My Three Favorite Classroom Timer Tools

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Free Technology for Teachers: My Three Favorite Classroom Timer Tools

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One of the challenges of teaching in a high school or middle school that uses block scheduling is many students struggle to focus for 80 minute, 90 minute, or longer blocks of time. I always try to break up blocks like this into shorter segments with breaks. To prevent breaks from running too long, I always use a timer. I also use timers to time break-out activities. Whenever it is possible to do so, I like to display the timer countdown on a projector or whiteboard so that all of the students can see it. These are the three timer tools that recommend more than any others.

Task Timer is a free Chrome app that you can use to time multiple tasks or events at the same time. The app works online and or offline in the Chrome web browser. After installing the app you can create a set of tasks that you want to time. You can run multiple timers at once or run them individually. The timer functions on a countdown basis. A chime sounds when time has expired on each timer.

Russel Tarr's Classtools Countdown Timer has two slick features. You can create and set multiple timers on the same page. This means that if you had students sharing in rapid succession you wouldn't have to reset the timer for each student, you simply move onto using the next timer on the page. The second feature of note in the Classtools Countdown Timer is the option to add music to your timers. You can have your countdown timers set to music. Mission Impossible, The Apprentice, and Countdown are the standard music options. You can add other music by using the YouTube search tool built into the timer.

A third timer option is to simply type into Google search "set timer" followed by an amount of time and a countdown timer is displayed. An alarm beeps when time is up. You can make the timer appear full screen without advertisements by clicking a little box icon to the right of the timer. You can see this feature in action in the video below.

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One of the challenges of teaching in a high school or middle school that uses block scheduling is many students struggle to focus for 80 minute, 90 minute, or longer blocks of time. I always try to break up blocks like this into shorter segments with breaks.

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Free Technology for Teachers: Click to Spin - A Fun and Free Random Name Picker

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Free Technology for Teachers: Click to Spin - A Fun and Free Random Name Picker

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Random Name Picker is new free tool from Russel Tarr at Classtools.net. The Random Name Picker lets you input names and spin a virtual wheel to have a name randomly selected from the list. After a name is selected you can remove it from the wheel so that it is not selected again.

Random Name Picker is free to use and does not require a registration on Classtools.net. You can save your lists by assigning passwords to them. You can re-use your saved lists. The Random Name Picker wheel can be embedded into your blog or website. The Random Name Picker was written in HTML5 so that it will run in the browser of your iPad.

Applications for Education
At one point or another every teacher has asked for volunteers and not had any hands raised. In that situation using the Random Name Picker could be a fun way to select the order in which students will present to classmates.Or for those times when all of your students raise their hands for something fun like being the line leaders, the Random Name Picker is a convenient tool to have at your disposal.

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Click to Spin - A Fun and Free Random Name Picker

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Random Name Picker is new free tool from Russel Tarr at Classtools.net. The Random Name Picker lets you input names and spin a virtual wheel to have a name randomly selected from the list. After a name is selected you can remove it from the wheel so that it is not selected again.

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Amazing Goolge Docs Add-on: SAS Writing Reviser - YouTube

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Amazing Goolge Docs Add-on: SAS Writing Reviser - YouTube

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Amazing Google Docs Add-on: SAS Writing Reviser

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Learn how (and why) to use the amazing SAS Writing Reviser to make your writing the very best it can be. Who doesn't need a totally non-judgemental writing reviser from Time to time?