Our play of the week this week is all about extensions. Extensions modify the way that you use google chrome and can help personalize your browsing experience. There are thousands and thousands of chrome extensions that can be found in the Chrome Web Store. Below are a few that other teachers have highlighted that you might want to check out.
Mercury Reader simplifies webpages for both reading and printing. Extra photos and ads are removed so there is just clean text on a page. This extension also allows you to adjust the contrast as well as font size of the page.
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| Before Mercury Reader |
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| After Mercury Reader |
If you use Pocket, Evernote or Google Keep there are extensions for each of them to help save web pages and articles that you want to use later on. Both Evernote and Google Keep were featured in previous plays of the week. Click the links to learn more about both of these great tools.
This extension works exactly as advertised. Save photos and articles from the web directly to your google drive when this extension is enabled.
Using QR codes in your classroom? When you find a website you want to make a qr code for, you could copy and paste the link into a qr code generator...or you could use this extension. While viewing a page you can click the QR Code Extension and a qr code will appear on your screen. You can edit the qr code, another device could scan the code or you could screen grab the image to insert it into a document to be printed.
If you’ve ever shown a YouTube video in class you know that sometimes the ads and other videos can be distracting or inappropriate. When the ad blocker for YouTube extension is enabled you only see the video.
If you find yourself with lots and lots of tabs open all the time this extension might become your favorite. It condenses all your tabs into a nice list on one tab. You can open the tabs individually as you need them or open them all back up at once.
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| Multiple tabs across the top of your browser. |
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| Now all the tabs are in one place! |
As you find yourself downloading and using extensions you might notice that your toolbar is getting a little crowded. It is also possible that your browsing experience could slow down from having too many extensions running. Extensity allows you to quickly enable and disable your extensions.
Now that you have your extensions where do you find them?
Your extensions can be found and managed in the chrome menu found by clicking on the three dots to the right of the address bar, then more tools, then extensions. From there you can see all the extensions that you currently have installed and manage them. You can also click “get more extensions” at the bottom of the page to continue to customize your chrome experience. Be aware that teachers can add extensions but students cannot. It is also a good idea to read the reviews and permissions for an extension before adding one.
What extensions are you using? Do you think any would be worth highlighting in a future play of the week? Let us know!
If you need help utilizing any of the extensions mentioned here just ask your ITRT for assistance!
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