Edvertisement: Chrome Apps and Extensions

Google Chrome is the world's most used browser for many reasons, and two of those reasons are Apps and Extensions. So what are they?

Apps

Apps are in-browser applications. That means that they are build in the web infrastructure (HTML 5, java etc), but more and more are becoming usable off-line. They are comparable to phone apps, programs that run within the Chrome.

An example of the Chrome App is the Biodigital Human which is a 3D anitomical model in which lets you explore all the body systems. You can turn systems on and off, zoom in, turn labels on and off. Look at the video below to see what I mean.

Extensions

Extensions are little add-ons which make Chrome easier to use. They may provide you with short cuts to web services you use, or spell and grammar check you on-line typing. Again there are is an huge range, so your best bet is to go look at them.

Using in the Classroom

Apps and extensions are so diverse, that the classroom opportunities they present are astounding. I would suggest that if you are looking for tool for you class, to go to the Chrome Web Store and search for that type of tool. You will most likely find something to meet you needs.

To give you a taste, I've included links to some apps and extensions that you might find useful for teaching:

Apps

• 3D Functions Plotter  an on line application to plotting two-variable real functions and integral and derivatives calculations.
• 3D Solar System Simulator is what it says it is
• Ancient History Encyclopaedia a website that provides free peer-reviewed ancient history information
• Biodigital Human a 3D anatomical model
• Cal Concentration a handy calculator for preparing solutions and buffer
• ChemReference: Periodic Table a powerful periodic table and chemistry reference tool.
• Chords Free ear training application
• Geograbra is free dynamic mathematics software for all levels of education 
• Lucidchart for Education diagramming software
• Planetarium An interactive sky map for exploring the stars and planets
• Ray Optics Simulation simulates reflection and refraction of light
• TimeMaps: World History Atlas easily navigate to any time and place in history. 
• Timer is a simple timer with countdown and count up features

Extensions

• 1 Click Timer is a quick countdown timer
• Adblocker blocks ads from appearing on pages in Chrome
• Awesome Screenshot captures a whole page or any portion for annotation and sharing
• Clearly makes blog posts, articles and webpages clean and easy to read
• Creative Commons Flickr Search searches Flickr for images and videos licensed under a Creative Commons license.
• Diigo Web Collector bookmarks, archives, screenshots & markups webpages
• Extension Defender provides malware protection for Chrome extensions
• Google Dictionary lets you view definitions easily as you browse the web.  
• Grammarly for Chrome a grammar and spell checker for the web
• Hola Better Internet lets you access websites which are block via countries
• Print Friendly & PDF removes ads, navigation and junk before printing of saving to pdf
• Read&Write for Google Text-to-Speech engine for Google Chrome 
• Save to Google Drive saves web content to your Google Drive
• Search by Image allows you to initiate a Google search using any image on the web

How do I get started?

The two thing that you will need to use Chrome's Apps and Extensions is to have installed Google Chrome onto you computer, and to have a Google Account. 

Once you have done that, go to the Chrome web store, and then adding apps and extensions is as simple as one click. If you want more information, watch the playlist below.

Edvertisement: Google Earth

Using in Class

Google Earth has an extensive array of classroom applications. It can be used for everything from exploring the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, and teaching geologic map interpretation, through mapping global energy consumption or glacial change, to mapping journeys from literature or exploring "All Quite on the Western Front".

Basically, if your subject involves the world, then there is probably a way that Google Earth can enhance your teaching, and the tour feature would be fantastic for multimodal presentations.

How to get started

Google Earth is a desktop application, which you will need to install on your computer. You will need to download it form this site.

Once you have installed the program you will need to know how to use it. The playlist below has six videos which introduce you to Google Earth.

Resources

Now, armed with your new understanding of Google Earth, it's time to look at applying it to your classroom. I think the best place to start is the Google Earth Section of the Science Education Resource Center website. Beyond that there are countless other websites and resources, below I have collated a sample of some of them, but if you really want to explore, just search for Google Earth Lessons.

• Google Earth Tour Builder
• Google Earth for Educators
• Google Earth for Educators: 50 Exciting Ideas for the Classroom
• Google Earth Lessons

Google Educator Certification Training (session 2)

Welcome to the second session of the Google Educator Certification training. For those who were not here last week, the plan is for these to be support sessions where we, a a group, work towards becoming Google Educators. The idea is for use to work through the training offered at the Google for Education site.

Initially we are working through the basics videos on six Google tools. Last week, we covered Docs and Drive, Search, and Sites.

This week we will look at:

• Calendar
• Chrome
• Gmail

Don't forget, that as we work through these tools, we're trying to keep a record of ideas for their classroom application using this document, and links to all websites we discus will be kept on the Tuesday Arvo Sessions Diigo group. There is a permanent link to both of these resources in the blog sidebar.

Google Educator Certification Training

This is the first session of the Google Educator Certification training. These sessions are designed so, as a group, we can support each other as we work to become Google Educators. We will be working through the training provided by Google on their Google for Education site.

The first couple of sessions will be used to familiarise ourselves with various Google tools, and to discuss their us in the classroom.

Today we will focus on the Basics Tutorials for:

• Docs and Drive
• Search
• Sites

To keep a record of these discussions, and to assist fellow staff members who could not attend the training, we'll fill out this document.

In addition, any links that we have discussed during these sessions will be available at the Tuesday Arvo Sessions Diigo group.

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Using Diigo in Class

There are so many classroom applications for Diigo, mostly because it has so many features and these features can be used to create a myriad of classroom experiences.

Bookmarking

The core feature of Diigo is it's ability to bookmark websites and centralise these in the cloud. This means that your bookmarks are available from any device with Internet access.  Put simply, Diigo is the best way to gather and organise your online resources. All the sites you have bookmarked are added to your Diigo Account, along with a description and any tags you add. The description and tags are used for searching in your account.

This video shows you basics of using Diigo.

To see an example of using Diigo in class, check out my Lesson: Researching Sacred Stories post.

Annotating

Diigo goes beyond merely bookmarking a site. Diigo, also enables you to highlight web pages, and comment on them. These highlights and comments are also collated into you account where you can view them. This way you can view all the notes you have collected from each website.

Groups

Groups are a powerful organising and collaboration tool. Groups can be private or public to allow for many users to collaboratively build a library of online resources. There are different levels of collaboration, allowing you to decide the level of participation for different group members.

Lists

Lists are Diigo's tool for displaying your bookmarks. You can send bookmarks to a list that you can then share to different platforms. Lists are only only for display purposes, but are a simple way to embed an up-datable sources of bookmarks.

Educators Account

Diigo also offers a free educator account. This account gives you access to a teacher console where you can create accounts for your students and allocated them to groups.

Mobile Apps

Finally Diigo has apps for both Android and iOS. This means that you, or students can use Diigo's features on your phones or tablets.

Getting Started

To get started with Diigo, go to the website an create an account. You can use Google, Facebook, Twitter or Yahoo accounts, or create an account using your email address. Once you have created your account, then it is time to start bookmarking.

The easiest way to bookmark in Diigo is to install either Diigolet, or the Diigo Extension in your browser. The tools can be found here. There is a tool available for every browser.

Introduction to Google Apps

Links

Google Apps Resources

Planning Sheet

Introductory Video Tutorials

Collaborative Research Tools

Collaborative research allows the class to assist each other in finding sources. It also make life a little easier on the teacher, as you now have 30 people scouring the web looking for resources instead of one. Not that this makes you redundant. Students will still need to be show the best way to search, and how to critique their sources. Here I have included a number of eLearning tools which can facilitate collaborative research.

Diigo

Diigo is the first tool I turn to for collaborative research. It is one of the kings of social book-marking and offers some fantastic features. Diigo can be accessed using Google, Facebook, Twitter or Yahoo accounts, or you can create you own Diigo account. It also offers free educators accounts, which allow you to automatically set up student accounts and classes.

When I use Diigo, I create a Library for that topic and then add my students to that library (made easier by the education accounts). Students then research the topic and add bookmarks to the library.

Diigo also allows for students to highlight text on a website, and add annotations. These highlights and annotations are also added to the library. All members of the library can access the bookmarks, highlights and annotations. In addition they can add comments, and 'like' bookmarks. The highlighter is especially useful as it supports note-taking methods.

Diigo offers browser tools that make this process almost painless. It also offers many other features such as tag clouds, library searches, screen captures, read-it-later services, and web-based notes.

I love Diigo, but the amount of time needed for set-up and familiarisation means that it is best suited for long reseach tasks.

Pros: Many features; extensive collaboration; highlighting supports note taking techniques, tagging
Cons: A bit of set-up is required; students require accounts; familiarisation required

Pearltrees

Pearltrees is an interesting take on social book-marking. When you bookmark in Pearltrees you place those bookmarks in within a tree diagram. This allows you to categorise your bookmarks as you go along.

The nature of Pearltrees puts it somewhere between brainstorming and researching. These features, combined with it's collaboration ability, provides many classroom opportunities. For example, a new pearl could be created and shared with the class for a brainstorming storming session. Students can then assess the brainstorming results to distil a group of topics to research. Then the students can then research the topics adding the bookmarks to the Pearltree.

You can access Pearltrees with a Google, Facebook, or Twitter account, or you can create a Pearltrees account. Pearltrees has a browser tool (Pearler) that makes it easier to add pearls to your tree. Pearls are really easy to move around and copy.

Peartrees looks great and really helps students visualise relationships. It could work well for general research and for tasks where categorising is important.

Pros: Visually appealing; collaborative; categorising
Cons: A bit of set-up is required; students require accounts; familiarisation required; no highlighting

Padlet

Padlet (formerly Wallwisher) may be the least powerful of these tools, but it makes up for that in it's ease of use and speed of set-up. Padlet is essentially an online post-it board where people can add virtual post-it notes.

It is brilliant for a quick brainstorm, but it's ability to post URLs (web links) to it means that it can also be used to research. When you add a URL to the wall, Padlet embeds the relevant info from that page and adds it to the post-it.

Padlet doesn't have any of the more powerful features, and the wall can get quite crowded, so it's really not suited for any serious research. Never-the-less, you can go from having nothing to have student collaboratively posting research on-line in less than an minute. Just go to padlet, click create wall, type a title, and give the students the URL for the page.

Padlet doesn't require you to have an account to create or use walls, although having an account makes sure you never loose your walls. Log in using your Google account, or create a Padlet account. The best thing is, students will not need an account, you just give them the URL.

Padlet is a gem for quick research, or to expand on that 'techable moment'.

Pros: Realtime collaborative; quick; no accounts required
Cons: Few features; gets crowded

Lesson: Researching Sacred Stories

Details

Subject: Religion and Ethics
Grade: 11
Tools: Diigo
Focus Question: What are some examples of sacred stories?

The Lesson

The class is ready to prepare for their assessment. The students will be rewriting a sacred story into a modern day equivalent. The first step of that process is finding a story to rewrite, and that is the purpose of this lesson.

Previously we have used Diigo, so all the students have an account. If you haven't used Diigo, students can sign in using Facebook, Twitter, Google, or Yahoo accounts, or just create a stand alone Diigo account. Diigo also offers teacher accounts which assist in managing your class groups.

I created a Diigo group called Sacred Stories and provided the students with the URL. Once I approved their application the students then started book marking examples of sacred stories they found on the web.

Some of the sites bookmarked were a little off the mark. These sites were analysing sacred stories, or talking about the importance of sacred stories, rather than the stories themselves. To address this, I 'liked' all the stories that would be appropriate for the assignment.

Follow Up

The students now have to choose a story from all the 'liked' bookmarks to rewrite.

Tools: Infographic Tools

Information graphics or infographics are graphic visual representations of information, data or knowledge intended to present complex information quickly and clearly. They can improve cognition by utilizing graphics to enhance the human visual system’s ability to see patterns and trends. Inforgraphics can be especially useful for topics which have a great deal of data.

Below is a selection of three tools you and your students can use to make infographics.

Easel.ly

Easel.ly is very aptly named, as it is a simple way to create infographics. It is more focused on graphic design than it is on data analysis. It is the perfect tool for students to create the equivalent of an on-line poster. There is a wide range shapes, objects and themes, as well as the capacity to upload your own images.

Students will require and account, so you will need to allocate some time to set these up.

Using easel.y is equivalent to drawing on a piece of paper. It won't generate anything for you. If you want to put a graph in, then you will have to draw the graph yourself. You can produce quite impressive inforgraphics, but you have to do every bit yourself.

When you are finished you can share the link or embed the infographic in a website.

Easel.ly is a nice easy way to introduce infographics into your class and is especially useful if you don't have to do any number crunching.

Pros: Easy to use, sharing and embedding, templates

Cons: No graph creation, students need accounts

Venngage

Venngage is like the big brother of easlel.ly. The interface is a little more complex, but this site is really about crunching numbers. The emphasis on data is evident in their slogan "Data meets design".

Venngage offers the usual range of shapes, objects, backgrounds and you can upload images, or import from the web. There is limited pre-created themes, although the user can save their own designs as themes. There are a limited number of maps you can use (although, not if you're in Tasmania).

The big place that Venngage stands out is in it's presentation of data. It has two features to express data; pictographs and charts.

The pictographs allows you to easily click and drag the image you want repeated. Then you merely need to double click and choose the number of row, number of columns, and how many units are full.

The chart feature has a wide range of options, from the trusty bar and pie charts through to bullet and tree charts. There is a wide range of them, The best part about the charts is the ease of getting data into them. Upload an excel sheet, choose the worksheet and then drag and drop the data onto the chart.

This tool is powerful enough to provide a wide range of analysis on pretty much any topic. If you have data, you will be able to create an infographic to express it.

Pros: Can represent any data, charts, pictographs
Cons: Limited templates, students need accounts, slightly complex interface

Thinglink

Thinglink is not actually an infographic creation tool, but it's capacity to turn static infographics into interactive ones rates it a mention here.

Basically,Thinglink allows you to place markers on an image. The viewer then interacts with these markers by hovering their mouse over them. The markers can contain text, or can be web links. The web links options allows the image to become very media rich indeed.

Thinglink is very simple to use and produces an interactive image that you can link to, or embed. Students will have to sign-up to create images. Images can be set so they can be modified by anyone, which allows for collaboration, but you can restrict access.

Thinglink allows students to create media rich, interactive infographics, which could be a nice change to PowerPoint for multi-modal presentations.

Pros: Simple, interactive, media rich, collaborative
Cons: Can't restrict collaboration, students need accounts.

Useful Links

• Infographic lesson plans 
• an easelly infographic 
• a thinglink example