Chrome Extensions

Google Chrome Extensions are small software programs that modify the browsing experience. When installed, they appear to the right of the Chrome Omnibar.

Chrome extensions are found in the Chrome Web Store.  Please refer to spreadsheet at the bottom of this page for a growing list of recommended Chrome Extensions for Teachers and Students.  Here are some top recommendations:

• Extensity: Quicky enable and disable Chrome Extensions 
• Nimbus: Screenshots with robust annotation tools
• Screencastify: Create quick and easy screencasts of anything you do on the web
• Grammarly: Corrects your grammar in nearly all web applications (Google Docs is one exception) 
• Google Docs Quick Create: Create new Google Documents without opening Google Drive
• Bitly URL shortener: Create short, customized URL's
• Google Classroom: Open Classroom, create assignments from websites, push content to student devices
• Emoji Keyboard: Works in Google Docs
• Awesome New Tab Page: Manage you Digital Life in one page with visual bookmarks
• Poll Everywhere for Google Slides: Insert a variety of interactive polls into Google Slides
• Kami PDF Viewer: View, annotate, and share PDF's
• Save to Keep:  Save web content to Google Keep; open in Docs, Slides, and Gmail (soon!)
• Anyone Can View: Change Google Doc sharing permissions without accessing Share button in document.

Here is a crowd-sourced list of Chrome Extensions for Teachers and Students.  Please feel free to add your favorite extensions to the list!

Chrome Extensions for Teachers and Students

More Chrome Extensions

Most of us do most of our digital work on the web these days, and Google Chrome is the heavy lifter. Chrome extensions add functionality and save me a few hundred mouse clicks a day.  I've recently added 3 extensions to my favorites list:

Unsplash Instant  displays a beautiful high-resolution photo each time you open a new tab, which is free to download and use however you want.  The images make great desktop wallpaper as well as gmail and calendar themes. (Just showing off my almost "inbox zero" 😁).

Make GIF Video Capture allows you to create GIF animations from any HTML5 video inside of your Chrome browser.  It adds an additional button to in the YouTube video player.  GIFs are images that can be inserted into gmails and google docs.

Anyone Can View is a Chrome Extension from Alice Keeler that allows you to change the share settings in an open Google Doc, Sheet, Slide, or Drawing to Anyone Can View and automatically copies the sharing URL to the clipboard. 

Text Rotation Comes to Google Sheets

Now you can easily rotate text in Google Sheets cells.  Here is where the new tool resides in the Sheets toolbar:

You can choose a variety of rotation angles, pictured here, or create custom angles.

Photos for Class

Photos for Class is a safe place for students to search for age-appropriate images licensed by Creative Commons for public use. In addition, downloaded images automatically cite the author and the image license terms.

Elementary Math Interactive Apps for Chromebooks

   

The Math Learning Center has some wonderful free math interactive apps with downloadable versions for specific operating systems and devices. There are Chrome apps for Fractions, Geoboard, Math Vocabulary Cards, Money Pieces, Number Frames, Number Line, Number Pieces, Number Rack, and Pattern Shapes.  These can be pinned to a Chromebook Shelf for easy student access.

Utah Teachers: Win a Free Osprey Pixel Daypack!

WHAT’S IN YOUR BACKPACK?

Written by Michael Hakkarinen on September 23, 2016. Posted in #UCET17, #ucet4success, Grants & Contests

Or more importantly, do you have a nice backpack? 
No? Would you like one?
If so, keep reading!

This year UCET has teamed up with Steph Davis and Osprey Packs to give away one "Pixel Daypack" each month starting in October 2016. To win, all you have to do is tell us "What's In Your Backpack" on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.

Post a picture of you and/or your students using Instructional Technology to enhance learning. Use the hashtag #ucet4success with your post. We will scour the web each month and select the best image that captures the spirit of UCET and award the educator who posted it a free Osprey Pixel Daypack and two tickets to next year's UCET Conference. From now until March that's six opportunities to snag one of these awesome packs.  You'll be the coolest educator carting around your edtech gear at #ucet17!

To learn more about the Osprey Pixel visit the official Osprey Packs website.  

To learn more about Steph Davis, our keynote speaker on Friday, March 17th, check out her website StephDavis.co

MICHAEL HAKKARINEN

Become a Google Certified Educator

These certifications prove your expertise as a Google for Education user in the classroom!  Each certification includes an online training course, practice reviews, and a 180-minute certification test. The certifications can be used on blogs, websites, social media profiles, email signatures, and professional resumes.

For more information, visit the Google Training Center.