Chrome Extensions #1: Google Chrome extensions that are useful for students

Which browser do you use? Have you tried Google Chrome? I have three browsers installed on my computer (Chrome, Internet Explorer and Firefox) and I must say that Google Chrome is fast become my firm favourite. Recently I have been exploring free Chrome extensions and have been amazed at what is on offer. These could be very useful for the students we teach.

What is a Chrome extension?

Chrome extensions are extra features and functionality that you can choose to add to your browser from the Chrome Web Store. Generally I don’t go to the web store to choose as it is quite overwhelming – I go for recommended ones by other teachers. All the ones I have added to date are free and by recommendation . The extensions generally sit in the top corner of your browser and you click on one when you want to add it.

Extensions on the top right corner of  my browser

1. Dictionary extension

If you ask Google for ‘Google Dictionary’ it will take you straight to the Chrome web store add-on page. 

This is what it looks like in the Chrome Web Store

This tool can be so useful when students are researching as whenever they double click on a word the meaning is displayed as shown below.

2. Speakit! (Text to Speech)

This is a great extension that converts text to speech. All that you do once it is installed is highlight the text that you wish to have read to you, press the Speakit icon and listen. This is also useful for students when they are reading more difficult passages for example. 

This is what it looks like in the Chrome Web Store

3. Speech to text

This is an extension which allows you to click on a microphone and speak. The application types the words that are spoken. This extension could be useful for students who struggle with writing, although it does require editing as no punctuation is supplied.

This is what it looks like in the Chrome Web Store

Basically you click on the icon and a window appears. Click on the microphone in the right hand corner of the top bar and speak. The typed words appear. One then clicks  Add to textbox and the words are transferred to the main section below.  From here they can be edited and placed into paragraphs.

4. Scratchpad

Scratchpad is a simple note-taking app that works offline and online. It can be seamlessly integrated with Google Docs and keeps your notes up to date. There is no saving and no sending. It just works!

This is Scratchpad in the Chrome Web store

As you are browsing, and you open Scratchpad extension a little box appears on the left for you to make notes. This saves automatically in Google Docs. This is very useful for students who are browsing for information as they don't have to open a separate document for their notes.

This is how it sits on your web page.

These are just four very useful extensions to get started on. Just give them a try. I honestly think the Google Chrome browser is amazing!

Further reading on even more useful extensions 

http://followmolly.blogspot.com/2012/01/life-after-internet-explorer-welcome-to.html
http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2012/01/10-useful-chrome-web-apps-and.html 

Use Storify.com to capture a tweetchat

Today sees the start of a series called “30 days of Web Tools” where I plan to either focus on a single Web Tool that could interest teachers, or on a collection of Web Tools.  Recently I discovered this amazing tool called Storify where you can turn an event into an interesting media story and I wrote a blogpost about it yesterday showing my first attempt - Using Storify.com to summarise a tweetchat from #edchatsa. Today I would like to focus on using Storify to document all the tweets in a tweetchat. As my example I am going to use the tweets from our #edchatsa discussion last night on the topic 'What can be done in South Africa to enhance the status of the teaching profession?'

Other tweet capturing tools I have tried

Using Twitter as a hashtag at an event is very common these days, and generally one wants to capture the tweets before they disappear into cyberspace after a few days. I haven’t been very successful in finding just the right tool I want to use for capturing hashtag tweets. What I am looking for is a tool that:

• captures all the tweets
• puts them into chronological order
• allows embedding
• can be made into a PDF 

1. Tweetdoc

Tweetdoc could be a great tweet capture tool if only it worked for me! More often than not I just haven’t been successful with creating a PDF with Tweetdoc. 

2. Archivist

I have The Archivist installed on my computer and I sometimes use it as an online application. It captures all the tweets beautifully, but as far as I can see you have to use the application to read them.

 

Using Storify to capture tweets 

Storify seems to fulfill my requirements mentioned above.  It captures all the tweets, you can change them to chronological order, it allows different kinds of embedding and one can create a PDF document by sending your Storify document to Google Docs using a Chrome extension called 'Send to Google Docs'.  I would like to show you the process of doing all this.

 

First, as mentioned yesterday,join Storify, log in and click on Create a story. A window for writing in opens. Write the title of the chat in the first box and a description of the event in the second box.
 

Next, in the section on the right hand side click on the Twitter icon and enter the hashtag. Soon all the tweets will appear starting with the most recent tweets, 20 tweets at a time. 

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After that choose Add them all

Continue doing this until all the tweets for the discussion have been added.

Now you want to put the tweets into chronological order from the beginning to the end. Choose the relevant arrow at the top of the page.

Finally publish your tweet summary. At the top of the page choose Save now and then Publish.The final published document appears.

 

If you would like to take a look at the final tweet summary that was created, please open this link: http://storify.com/fibeal/what-can-be-done-in-south-africa-to-enhance-the-st

Exporting your document as a PDF

Storify gives you a number of options for exporting your new document – to a blog, share, embed.. but it doesn’t mention creating a PDF! So the way I create a PDF is as follows:

1.   On your Chrome toolbar add a free extension from the Chrome webstore called ‘Send  to Google Docs’.

2.   Click on that extension icon to send the Storify document to Google Docs.

3.   Once in Google Docs choose ‘Download the original’ which it then does as a PDF.

Relevance to education 

This could be a great way for teachers to capture a Professional Development event. If one member of staff is attending a Conference they could use this to capture the conference tweets and share them with other members of staff. Storify could also be used to capture a lesson especially if you have a twitter hashtag that you use for your class.

Use Storify.com to summarise a tweetchat

Submitted by Fiona Beal
#edchatsa is the hashtag for our weekly twitter chat for South African teachers on topics of educational interest. These chats take place on a Monday evening from 8:30pm – 9:30pm. This blogpost aims to show you how I went about summarising a chat using Storify.com

Today curating is the buzz word with many amazing sites available to do just that. Storify is a form of curating – one can gather tweets, comments, videos, images and other media from all around the Web and put them into one post. Basically it is a way of creating stories using social media. I thought I would try out Storify today to see how it all works. I decided to use it to summarise our last #edchatsa talk on 25th June 2012 from 8:30 – 9:30pm, namely: 

‘How can we ensure fair assessment in collaborative learning when not every child contributes equally?’

At first it took a while to get my head around Storify, and then suddenly I realised how very easy it actually is!

Step 1: Open Storify.com and join

Once you have joined you click on Create story. A lovely big screen for writing opens up.

Step 2: Find your media

On the right hand side of the big screen is another section that contains the place to find your media.

 

Since I was keen to summarise a Twitter chat I asked for the Twitter hashtag #edchatsa and then searched for the date and the time I wanted to refer to

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Step 3: Plan the structure of your story

There are different blocks to use in Storify, so in my case I decided on:

• A heading
• Putting the story in context
• An opening summary
• How the discussion progressed with relevant headings
• Actual notable tweets that shed light on the discussion
• Some of the sites and links provided in the chat
• Possibly plan of action ideas
• Embed a final summary of tweets made in a different Storify document from earliest to latest as the last entry on the document

From here on it was a case of writing and then dragging across tweets from the #edchatsa hashtag I had opened in the right hand section of Storify.

Step 4: Create and publish your story

A lovely story emerged! Take a look...

If you would like to see the finished result please open this link.

http://storify.com/fibeal/how-can-we-ensure-fair-assessment-in-collaborative

If you would like to read all the tweets separately here is the link:
http://storify.com/fibeal/tweet-summary-edchatsa-25-june-fair-assessment-of