Chromebook App Hub: Take it for a Test Drive!

Another G Suite resource for Chromebooks that might have snuck by you at the end of the school year is the Chromebook App Hub.  Released in June, the Hub is a super digital resource for educators and administrators to find ideas, discover resources, and explore implementing them in the classroom.

The best place in the hub to get started is on the 'Ideas" page which offers filtering by ideas, age range, subject, and learning goal.  Using these filters makes it easy to zero in on tools that meet your needs as an educator.

Here's an example.  A Middle School Librarian collaborating with language arts teachers might select Media Literacy from the ideas category, Ages 11-13,  English Language Arts from the subject filter, and 'Research and Information Literacy' as a learning goal.  These four filters yield over 30 apps and learning ideas to explore including creating vision boards, digital learning journals, mapping novels, and lots more.

The Hub is so much more than just a list of cool digital tools because it provides educators with examples of HOW the tools can be used to meet their learning goals.

Here are the first 12 results from Hub example discussed above. The Hub has potential to be the go-to resource for  educators using Chromebooks.

Take the Hub for a test drive and be sure to share with educators and students using Chromebooks!

Copyright Friendly Images with G Suite Add-Ons

Pixabay.com is a popular website for copyright friendly images.  If you've used it before you know it's a go-to source for finding images...but there's a little work involved:  1) open Pixabay.com in a separate Chrome tab; 2) Enter your keywords in the search box; 3) Click on an image to select;        4) Click the free download button; 5) Click Download; 6) Click the 'I'm not a robot' box; 7) download the image to your device; 8) upload the image to your project.  That's a lot of clicking for one image, especially for younger students who are developing their keyboarding skills.

But there's an easier way!  Pixabay is available as a Google Add-on. Open Google Docs, Click on Add-Ons >Get Add-ons > Enter Pixabay in the Search Box and Select it to make it an Add-On.  Now it will always be in your Add-On list.

Need a maple tree photo now?

1) Click on Add-ons and select Pixabay

2) Enter keywords in the Pixabay search box.

3) Select an image and it pops into your doc along with the image link URL.

And we'll call that DONE!