10 Student-Tested Chrome Extensions
New students, new teachers, new materials, a freshly cleaned and arranged classroom, and new technological resources for the kids are all hallmarks of the beginning of a new academic year. Each year, after I have spent some time getting to know my students, I take a day to install various extensions to the Google Chrome browser accounts of my students. This is because my students spend the majority of their time using the computer with the Google Chrome browser.
Some students add a greater number of extensions than others, and each child has a unique combination of extensions tied to their account to meet the specific requirements of their own personal educational goals. It usually takes some time for students to feel comfortable using their extensions, and it also takes us some time to experiment and become accustomed to the tools before we can use them effectively.
These are the top 10 extensions that my kids enjoy the most and utilise the most frequently throughout the course of the school year.
10 CHROME EXTENSIONS THAT STUDENTS WILL REALLY USE
Free definitions from Google Dictionary: Reading articles in content area classrooms can be difficult at times, particularly when students are confronted with vocabulary that are unfamiliar to them. This extension provides a much simpler alternative that does not interfere with the normal workflow of a student. Instead of opening a new tab and searching for these words, a student may simply use this extension instead. When a student double-clicks on a word in a text, a little pop-up window appears with a definition of the term, and the student can also hear the correct pronunciation of the word.
The student can also initiate a comprehensive Google search for the phrase directly from the pop-up, which will further their comprehension of the term by exposing them to it in a number of settings.
Dualless is a productivity addon that is consistently voted as a favourite among my students. It is available for free. A user is able to divide their screen into two halves so that they can operate in both tabs at the same time. If a student needs to watch a video review of a course, for instance, they can open and see it in one tab while simultaneously taking notes in Google Docs. This enables them to multitask effectively.
Students do not have to settle for a 50-50 split while using Dualless because the programme is incredibly simple to operate and allows them to customise the proportions of both sides. They can choose to divide the screen either horizontally or vertically depending on their preferences.
Grammarly for Google Chrome (completely free, with some paid add-ons available): Every year, my students check their grammar using this widely used grammar checker, although they utilise the free version. Grammarly will begin checking the user’s work for errors in grammar and spelling the moment a small green icon appears anywhere in Chrome where the user is typing. If there is a mistake, it will be emphasised in red, and the student will be able to see what kind of mistake they made so that they may fix it.
In addition, Grammarly keeps track of the errors that students make the most frequently over the course of a given week, gives the students the list, and provides writing statistics as well as potential improvement areas. I ask my students to forward these emails to me so that I may provide them individualised grammar practise that is based on the specific requirements of their writing.
This addition is our go-to assistance in the classroom, as many of my students are fans of voice typing, and VoiceIn Voice Typing (which is free) is one of the best voice typing extensions available. It can be used in any part of Chrome; all the learner needs to do is move their cursor to the spot where they want to start typing, activate the extension, and then begin talking. After they have finished speaking, the addon will place the text where the cursor was previously located. Students have the option of adding the punctuation themselves or dictating it first. Over 120 different languages can be used with the plugin.
Free version of Noisli: A lot of my pupils want to listen to music while they are working, but some find that it is a distraction for them. These students will thrive in Noisli’s environment. They can do some trials to determine which types of background noise, such as those of a forest, a café, or the sound of rain, are most conducive to their feeling productive. Students have the capability of adding various sounds to a single track, and they are able to customise unique combinations for a variety of independent activities, such as participating in Writer’s Workshop or taking an exam.
Auto Highlight is an excellent tool for pupils who require more assistance with reading and it is completely free to use. When turned on, the extension conducts a search throughout the text and draws attention to one or two particularly noteworthy passages. Although the student can use the extension two more times on a single webpage, only one or two phrases will be added to the document each time the extension is used. Students are forced to give careful consideration to how best to make use of the tool because they are unable to simply highlight every text.
Although not all of my students utilise it, those who do report that it has helped them enhance their ability to concentrate and comprehend the material being studied. This tool is useful for longer, subject-specific literature.
Download AlphaText for free: Students have access to a wide selection of personalization options for their browsers thanks to the AlphaText accessibility extension, which is an all-in-one solution for improving accessibility. They have the ability to change the colour of the screen’s background as well as the colour of the text, the size of the font, and the type of typeface for the best viewing experience. The ability to modify the line spacing within this extension, moving from single to 1.5 or double line spacing, which can make an article simpler to read, is one of the capabilities that is my students’ favourite within this extension.
Mercury Reader is a free programme that was formerly known as Readability. It enables students to hide distracting features in online articles by removing advertisements, comment sections, and any other content that is unrelated to the article. However, it does not remove features that are helpful to the article, such as photographs and other images.
This tool also contains accessibility features, such as the capability to adjust the text size and the font, as well as the option to choose between a light or dark background.
Diigo is a digital sticky notes and highlighting application that is available for free with optional paid upgrades. While there are a variety of digital sticky notes and highlighting programmes available, the ones I use with my students prefer Diigo. In order for students to be able to save their work, they need to first register an account.
When a student chooses to focus on a particular portion of a text, they have the option to underline it, add a post-it note to it with their thoughts, and conduct a web search for further information. When a student returns to a page that they have marked in Diigo, the highlights and comments that they made are still present. All of the comments and highlights that a student creates are collected and stored within their Diigo account. When students are working on a group project together, they are able to exchange their thoughts and highlights with one another, which is a beneficial way to collect the knowledge that is necessary to finish a task.
Visor is a free application that many of the middle school students I teach are interested in adopting as an alternative to the traditional method of marking their place in a book with a bookmark as they read digital literature. Visor grants them the capacity to do that. It darkens the remainder of the page, allowing the student to concentrate on one line of text at a time while keeping the other lines of text visible. Students who have trouble reading without missing lines or words and without losing their position can get assistance from this tool.
When adding Chrome extensions to a student’s account, the most important thing to keep in mind is to add just the ones that the student actually need. When you add too many, it can slow down your browser, and there’s no purpose in adding a tool that the student won’t use and doesn’t require to begin with. In the classroom, I attempt to limit my pupils to no more than five different tools that they will find to be most beneficial to their learning.