Favorite Tech Tools of 2017

As I reflect on 2017, I wanted to share the top 30 technology tools I've used, trained on, or recommended to teachers this year. 

1. Answer Garden: quickly gather data in the form of a word cloud
2. Canva: create images, posters, and presentations
3. Classroom Screen: all your must-have tools are located in one place online
4. Go Noodle: free brain breaks all in one spot
5. Google Chrome and its extensions: log in to save all your bookmarks and preferences (click here to see a list of my favorite extensions)
6. Google Custom Search: create a custom internet search with pre-approved websites
7. Google Drive and all its components: I cannot say enough good things about Docs, Slides, Sheets, and Forms...the possibilities are endless!
8. Google Earth Voyages: fantastic for virtual field trips or to just add a little extra "oomph" to your lesson
9. Google Hangouts: Conduct meetings even when you're not in the same room! I love the "share my screen" feature, which allows me to let teachers see what my screen looks like as I walk them through a project
10. Google Voice: gives you an extra phone number that connects to your existing mobile number. Great for making parent phone calls or texts without revealing your personal phone number. 
11. Instant Classroom: upload your class roster and generate seating charts, groups, and more. 
12. Kerem Erkan QR Code Generator: there is no shortage of QR code generators online, but this one is my favorite because you can create codes to plain text, maps, text messages, and more. 
13. Online Stopwatch: counts up or down, includes fun animations (if you want to use them), and gives your students a visual as to how much time is left 
14. Padlet: virtual corkboard that can be used for exit tickets, question parking lots, backchannel tool, and more. The addition of a column layout was HUGE this year
15. Pic Collage: create posters, collages, and other projects by layering images and text
16. Plickers: a digital assessment tool that only requires one device (the teacher's!)
17. Poll Everywhere: use the "clickable image" feature to assess very young students or those that struggle with reading 
18. Popplet: create online brainstorm webs that include pictures, drawings, and text
19. Quizizz: a fun game that provides practice for students and assessment data for teachers
20. Reflector Teacher: mirror your mobile device on your computer screen, record movements on your mobile device, and all students to project as well
21. Remind: communicate with a large group via text or email without revealing your personal information. I regularly recommend this just for the scheduling feature
22. SafeShare.tv: crop YouTube videos while filtering ads and video recommendations
23. Screencast-o-Matic: create videos of your computer screen
24. Seesaw: ePortfolio tool geared toward young learners. The Activities feature has been a game-changer this year
25. Shadow Puppet Edu: create slideshows with music or narration 
26. Sign Up Genius: I used this when I taught Science Lab to gather volunteers for stations during Science Night. Since then, I've seen it used for potluck lunches, field trip volunteers, and mystery reading guest sign-ups. 
27. Socrative: a digital assignment tool where any amount of planning will work
28. Symbaloo: Out of all the ways to share links with students, this one is probably the easiest and most universal. 
29. TweetDeck: schedule your tweets in advance and keep up with Twitter chats more easily
30. Wifi Mouse: an iOS app that works over Wifi to connect to your computer and act as a mouse, letting you control your computer screen from anywhere in the room

Are there any tools you'd add to my list? 

Safe Search Sites for Kids

As a teacher, I want my students to ask questions and then work to find the answers themselves. I will always be there to guide and support my students to find the answers they need, but I think the process of searching, filtering sources, and deciding which information is best is more valuable than the actual answer.

That said, I would never direct students to just search in Google for their answer. I am of the belief that kids are only young once and that they are exposed to enough "adult content" at an early age via various forms of media; I want to let my students "be little" for as long as possible! And I'm always surprised when I search for something seemingly innocent and receive some...not so innocent results. 😳

The happy medium I've found is to guide students to search on "kid friendly" search engines. Our district subscribes to a number of these...if you work in my district, check with your campus librarian to see exactly which databases are available to you. 

However, if you're looking for something free that can be used at any time, here are some kid-friendly search engines I like:

• KidRex.org
• Kiddle.co
• KidsClick.org
• FactMonster.com
• SafeSearchKids.com
• SweetSearch.com
• DibDabDoo.com
• KidzSearch.com
• Kidtopia.info
• Custom Google Search - Create your own! Use Google's powerful, tried-and-true search methods combined with parameters to search only the websites you specify. For instance, I have a custom Google search already created with all of the above-mentioned kid-friendly search sites. You can access my custom Google search by clicking here. If you'd like help creating your own Custom Google Search, click here for directions. 

Be aware that none of these safe-searches are going to catch 100% of the icky stuff, so I still recommend being present and aware of what children are looking for online. 

Once you have these links, there are several ways you can get them onto student devices. Click here to read about 8 ways to quickly share links with students. 

Google Voice: an Extra {Free} Phone Number

I've written before about Google Voice, but updates from Google and a new school year means I probably need to write a new post! 

What is Google Voice?

In a nutshell, Google Voice allows you to call and/or text anyone from an extra, specially-designated phone number from Google...all the while, concealing your actual phone number from the recipient.

Here are some more handy features of Google Voice:

• Call/text anyone through a browser on your computer
• Call/text anyone through a mobile device connected to the Internet {without revealing your "real" phone number}
• Call contacts that are already entered into your regular cell phone's address book {no need to enter information twice!}
• Automatically transcribes voicemails and puts them in your Google Voice inbox
• Listen to voicemails as they're being left
• Screen calls if the need arises
• Option to set "do not disturb" time {think of it like setting office hours}
• Block specific callers
• Ability to change the number 1 time {for a $10 fee} if the number gets into the wrong hands

Why would I use Google Voice?

You may be wondering why you even need an extra phone number. Think about those moments when you need to call a student's parent(s). Sometimes that parent's phone number is in a different area code, and you may not have the ability to make long-distance phone calls from your district desk phone. ...Or sometimes you have a lot of parent phone calls you need to make {like at the beginning of the school year when you make contact with each guardian to introduce yourself and say how excited you are about teaching their student this year}, but you don't necessarily want to be at school until 6 or 7 pm making phone calls. 

Google Voice gives you the ability to contact parents via call or text message right from your own cell phone, so you can contact anyone you want from the comfort of your own home -- without the risk of revealing your personal information to parents. {I know some teachers have no problem giving their personal cell phone number to parents, but I am a pretty private person, so revealing my cell number is outside my personal comfort zone.}

I'm interested. How do I start?

I created a fairly in-depth Google Doc with directions that can take you through all things Google Voice related. {It even has a Table of Contents where you can click the subject you're interested in learning about and jump directly to that section!} Click here to view the document.

How to Create a Custom Google Search for Students

It's scary to even consider asking a child to conduct a normal Google search because you never know what will pop up! And although it's important to teach students how to use the library's search engines, sometimes those databases don't have everything your students need. So what's a teacher to do? 

Answer: create a Google Custom Search.

What Is a Google Custom Search?

Users who are logged in to their Google account can go to this webpage and create a search engine that looks like a regular Google search, but it really only allows visitors to search websites of your choice. 

So, for instance, you could set up a Custom Search that allows students to only access kid-friendly websites. Once you give them that search link, you can rest assured that only appropriate content will appear.

How to Create a Custom Google Search:

1. Log in to your Google account. {If you don't already have a Google account, go to this webpage and create one. You don't even have to use a Gmail address -- you could use an e-mail that you already have and link that to your new Google account, if you want!} 

2. Click here to go to the Custom Search home page. 

3. Click "Add" on the top, left of the page (under "Edit search engines"). 

4. The only portion you really have to fill out is the "sites to search" box. As you click in the blank box under "sites to search," a new text box will automatically appear underneath the first one, which allows you to add as many kid-friendly sites as you want to this Custom Search. The name of your search engine is automatically populated, but you can change it if you want. Add advanced options if you wish, although it's not necessary. When finished, click the blue "create" button at the bottom of the page.

5. After you click "create," you'll see a page that looks like this:

Click "Public URL." A new window will open on your browser, and it should have the name of your Custom Search at the top. Keep in mind that although it looks like a regular Google search, it's the custom one you just created. :) Mine looks like this {click the picture to view the page in your browser...or click here}:

When students search, they should type their words into the text box underneath the title {notice how it says "Google Custom Search" in that box}. 

The search results will only come from the website(s) you specified when you created the Custom Search. So, for instance, if you conduct a search in my Kid-Friendly Custom Google Web Search, you'll only get results from these websites:

As the creator, I can edit or delete this Custom Search at any time. 

Teachers can AirDrop this to newer student iPads and have students save the website to the home screen for quick access all year long. {Read about 8 ways to quickly share links with students if you have older iPads without AirDrop or teach in a BYOD class.} 

Chrome Extension for the Extension Junkie

Now that you've learned about all kinds of great Chrome extensions, you've probably installed several. In fact, you may have installed so many that your browser is starting to run slowly {because there is such a thing as too many extensions. Strange, I know. It's kind-of like the concept of "too much ice cream"}. Fortunately, there's an extension for that.

I know it seems counter-intuitive to install an extension to control your extensions, but can you expect anything less from a Chrome extension junkie? {How many times can I say "extension" in one sentence? Also: read this article if you're a browser tabaholic.} 

With Extensity, you can disable extensions {instead of uninstalling them completely} until you're ready to use them. I find it much faster to enable an extension than to go to the Google web store, remember the name of/search for the extension I want, and install it!

Install the Extension

Click here to view the Extensity Chrome extension page. To install it, click the blue "add to Chrome" button in the top, right corner of the pop-up box.

To Use

Click the Extensity icon to reveal all the extensions you currently have installed:

The ones that appear grayed out are ones that I disabled. I can enable or disable an extension by clicking on its name in the drop-down list. I can also turn all my enabled extensions off by clicking the light bulb at the very top of the drop down menu.

That's really all there is to it!

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Chrome Extensions: Browser Tabaholics Unite

I'm a big fan of browser tabs because they allow me to run multiple websites simultaneously without having to click back and forth between windows. 

What's a Browser Tab?

This picture shows two tabs I have open {my Twitter page and this blog}:

How to Open a New Tab

Make sure you're in a web browser {I prefer Chrome}. Up by where you type in a web address, find and click the small square on the very right, as shown below:

You'll see "New Tab" to the right, like this:

From there, you can type in any web address or go to any bookmarked link you'd like. It's just like having multiple windows open, but it's easier to click back and forth between multiple pages now. 

How to Deal with Multiple Tabs

Once you know the trick for creating multiple browser tabs, you'll probably use it all the time. And then you'll become a tabaholic like I am, and your web browser will look like this on a normal day: 

Having that many tabs open at a time is bound to slow your computer down a bit, but there are a couple tricks you can use to help. 

1. Use the OneTab Chrome Extension. 

This thing is awesome. After you install it, you'll see a funnel-like icon appear with the rest of your extensions:

Whenever you find yourself with too many tabs open, just click the OneTab funnel icon. Every tab you have open will be condensed into one, like this:

Click any of the titles of the webpages to open them again, or click "restore all" at the top of the page to open them all back up again. Rename the collection of tabs for convenience; you can see that I named the one above "Winter Blog Post" because it was a collection of resources for this post. 

Notice there is a menu under the time stamp. One of the options in that menu is the ability to share share all the links in a collection as a web page -- this is really handy for sharing several links with students if you didn't want to use, say, Symbaloo for that. Clicking "share as web page" generates a QR code that anyone can scan from a mobile device. Try it:

In that menu of options is the word "more." Click on it to reveal...well, more options. :) 

I can name the tab group this way {this is how I titled mine "Winter Blog Post"}, lock or star the tab group, and get to the OneTab help section this way. The help section goes into more detail about what each of these options does, but here's a synopsis:

• Naming a tab group helps with organization and productivity -- it also allows you to send specific open tabs directly to that group without collecting all open links at once. 
• Locking a collection helps eliminate the possibility to accidentally deleting it. It also allows you to restore any link and still keep the link in your tab group. 
• Starring a tab group makes that collection always appear at the top of your list {similar to pinning a tweet on Twitter}. 

2. Use The Great Suspender Chrome Extension. 

Maybe you're the type that opens articles or blog posts with the intention of reviewing them...and then you get caught up in other things and delay browsing those pages for a few days. If so, you can at least suspend those pages -- i.e. let your computer run faster -- until you get a chance to deal with them. 

After you install the extension, you should see a tab like this:

You don't have to do anything else, but I like to customize the extension just a bit. Click here {after you install the extension} to customize. Here's a peek at the options and what I use:

Once a tab suspends, it looks like this:

All you have to do to see the actual page content is click anywhere in the blue portion of the screen. {You can also whitelist that particular website by clicking the link at the very top of the screen, which means that it will no longer suspend automatically.} 

While not mandatory, extensions like these can help make your computer run a little faster if you're addicted to browser tabs. 

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Chrome Extension: Page Eraser

Have you ever wanted to show your class a cool picture or article on a web page, but you couldn't because there was something else on that page that you didn't necessarily want them to see? {We could be talking about inappropriate sidebar ads, or we could just be talking about how you want to show the top part of an article before you show the bottom -- this doesn't just have to be ad-related.} There's a handy {and free} Chrome extension that might help solve that problem! 

Install the Extension

1. Make sure you have a Google account. {If you have a Gmail, YouTube, or Blogger account, you have a Google account. It's possible to connect an existing e-mail -- like your school e-mail -- to a Google account; ask me about that if you're interested in learning more! I definitely recommend separating personal from professional, so if you only have a personal Google account, I'd make another one specifically for school.}

2. Launch Google Chrome {download it here if you don't already have it}.

3. Sign in to your Google account on Chrome. {Click the small silhouette of a person in the top, right corner to sign in for the first time.}

4. Click here to view the PageEraser extension page. To install it, click the blue "add to Chrome" button in the top, right corner of the pop-up box.

To Use

1. Go to the web page of your choice. For the purposes of this demonstration, I'll use this CNN article about pizza wars. :) When I first visit it, the page looks like this:

2. Let's say that I don't want students to see the title because I want them to create their own title for this piece. I need to click on the PageEraser icon, which typically appears in the top, right of the browser and looks like this:

After I click the PageEraser icon, there's a green "on" button that appears on top of the icon so I know it's ready to use. I can click the title(s) of the article to make them disappear and then click the PageEraser icon to turn the eraser off so I can function normally on the page again. My new page looks like this:

The eraser doesn't work on videos, but it does work on text, pictures, and links. Here's what the page looks like after I erased the sidebars:

The most recent update of this extension allows it to remember what you erased, even when you refresh the page or restart your browser, which means you can plan ahead by erasing unwanted parts of the page before the day of your lesson.

To Restore a Page

To get rid of "erasings" {is that a word? I'm making it a word.} right-click on the Page Eraser icon and click "options." Select the check mark next to the page you just erased, and click "remove selected erasers," as shown below:

Then just go back to the original link and refresh the page.

Other Options

There are a couple of other options you can customize in Page Eraser. To get to them, right-click on the Page Eraser icon and click "options." Customize these features how you wish:

and click "save settings."

Ideas for Use

• Hide unwanted ads or flash banners that AdBlockPlus doesn't catch.
• Erase titles for an article so students can create their own title.
• Hide captions of a photograph so students can create their own caption.
• Erase photos in an article so students can tell you what they visualize as they read the article.
• Find an online activity that isn't quite perfect for your students? Hide the parts you need students to skip. 
• Don't want students to skip ahead in a web activity? Only show the first couple of steps. 
• Want to show a photo or video from a popular Facebook page, but don't like all the commentary? Hide it! 
• Want to show a YouTube clip but the top comment is inappropriate? Erase it! 

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Chrome Extension: Link Shortener & QR Code Creator

By now, I'm sure we've all heard of link shortening services like Bitly, TinyURL, and Google's Link Shortener. We've also all heard about QR codes {check out my blog articles about QR codes by clicking here}. ...But what you may not know is that there's a free Chrome extension that will help you shorten a URL and create a QR code for it all with one click! It's called goo.gl URL Shortener.

Install the Extension

1. Make sure you have a Google account. {If you have a Gmail, YouTube, or Blogger account, you have a Google account. It's possible to connect an existing e-mail -- like your school e-mail -- to a Google account; ask me about that if you're interested in learning more! I definitely recommend separating personal from professional, so if you only have a personal Google account, I'd make another one specifically for school.}

2. Launch Google Chrome {download it here if you don't already have it}.

3. Sign in to your Google account on Chrome. {Click the small silhouette of a person in the top, right corner to sign in for the first time.}

4. Click here to view the goo.gl URL Shortener extension page. To install it, click the blue "add to Chrome" button in the top, right corner of the pop-up box.

To Use

1. Go to the web page of your choice. For the purposes of this demonstration, I'll use the contact page of this blog. :)

2. Click the goo.gl URL Shortener icon. It's typically in the top, right of your Chrome browser, and it looks like this:

3. A pop-up box will appear that says "shortening." Then you'll see a pop-up right under the shortener icon that looks something like this: 

4. If you'd like to copy the link, just click the word "copy." Similarly, if you'd like the QR code, click "QR code." The code will appear like this:

Right-click on the code and click "save image as..." to save it somewhere on your computer. The code saves as an image file, so you can insert it into almost any other file or poster you want. {You probably won't use this feature, but the "details" button gives you analytics about the link.}

From there, you can insert the QR code into a flipchart or PowerPoint or just display the link on the board for students to enter on their devices. {Click here to read about 8 ways to share links with students.}

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Chrome Extension: Print Friendly & PDF

Do any of these situations apply to you?

• You're given the task of reading an article online. You prefer physical paper, so you print the article before reading. 
• You print web articles for your students to read and/or analyze. 
• You share article links with students and/or parents. 
• You want to read an article online but find the font too small or large. 
• You have a student with a vision impairment who needs text enlarged.

If so, you'll enjoy today's post about a free Chrome extension called Print Friendly & PDF. 

Install the Extension

1. Make sure you have a Google account. {If you have a Gmail, YouTube, or Blogger account, you have a Google account. It's possible to connect an existing e-mail -- like your school e-mail -- to a Google account; ask me about that if you're interested in learning more! I definitely recommend separating personal from professional, so if you only have a personal Google account, I'd make another one specifically for school.}

2. Launch Google Chrome {download it here if you don't already have it}.

3. Sign in to your Google account on Chrome. {Click the small silhouette of a person in the top, right corner to sign in for the first time.}

4. Click here to view the Print Friendly extension page. To install it, click the blue "add to Chrome" button in the top, right corner of the pop-up box.

The Print Friendly icon will appear in the upper, right portion of your Google Chrome browser and, n most cases, will look like the first option in the list below:

You can change your icon to any of the options seen in the screenshot below by right-clicking the icon in your browser and clicking "options."

To Use

1. Open the article of your choice in Google Chrome. For demonstration purposes, I'm using this CNN article about pizza wars. :) 

2. Click the Print Friendly icon. When I clicked it while viewing the above-mentioned pizza article, I got a pop-up that looks like this:

3. Remove all images from the article in one click by using the "remove images" button at the top of the pop-up. {This is particularly useful if you're trying to conserve ink and/or if you're doing some type of project that requires the students not see the images.}

4. Increase or decrease the text size from 70% to 130% if needed:

text size is at 70%

text size is at 130%

 5. Print, turn the page into a PDF, or e-mail the article as-is:

For those with a vision impairment, it's easy to enlarge the text and either print or e-mail to the student as a PDF. I also love the idea of removing images from an article, and then asking students to draw the images they see in their brain while reading. 

If you're trying to go paperless with your class, don't worry about the printing part. You could always doctor the article however you want it, save it as a PDF, upload it to a cloud service like Dropbox or Google Drive, and use a service like Symbaloo to share the link {click here to read about 8 ways to share links with students}. 

It's a great way to save some paper or just remove unwanted portions before sharing an article with students. 

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Chrome Extension: Tab Scissors and Tab Glue

Have you ever been working on the Internet and needed to view two pages simultaneously? {The most obvious teacher situation that comes to mind would be when you have students submit work via a paperless channel such as Seesaw, Google Drive, or Dropbox, and then you need to transfer their grades over to the digital grade book, but there are lots of other instances where this might come in handy!} It can be annoying to keep clicking back and forth! You could open a new window and spend precious time trying to size them exactly right... or you could let free Chrome extensions {Tab Scissors and Tab Glue} do the work for you.

Install the Extensions

1. Make sure you have a Google account. {If you have a Gmail, YouTube, or Blogger account, you have a Google account. It's possible to connect an existing e-mail -- like your school e-mail -- to a Google account; ask me about that if you're interested in learning more! I definitely recommend separating personal from professional, so if you only have a personal Google account, I'd make another one specifically for school.}

2. Launch Google Chrome {download it here if you don't already have it}.

3. Sign in to your Google account on Chrome. {Click the small silhouette of a person in the top, right corner to sign in for the first time.}

4. Click here to view the Tab Scissors extension page. To install it, click the blue "add to Chrome" button in the top, right corner of the pop-up box.

5. Important: you must add the Glue extension, too! Click here to view the Tab Glue extension page. Install it the same way you installed the Tab Scissors extension.

To Use

1. You can have more, but you must have at least two tabs open in Chrome, as shown below:

{One tab is automatically opened when you launch your Chrome browser. To open a new tab right next to it, click the small square on the very right, as shown below.}

2. Click any tab except the first one. In the screenshots above, I knew that my second tab was selected because it a) was lighter than the other tab, b) appeared in front of the other tab, and c) I could see this technology blog on the screen. :)

3. Click the Tab Scissors to make a "cut" between the tabs:

{Your scissors and glue icons should appear somewhere in the top, right of your Chrome browser.}

4. The screen will split automatically, like this:

By default, it will split your screen right down the middle. If you want to change the size of either window, just hover in the middle until you get a double-sized arrow pointer. Then click and drag the window size to whatever you need.

If I'd had more than 2 tabs open, the split would occur right before the tab I had selected. For instance, let's say I had my Twitter page, technology blog, and Pinterest page all open in different tabs. If my technology blog was selected and showing on the screen when I clicked the Tab Scissors, my screen would be split with my Twitter page on the left and my tech blog and Pinterest page on the right.

5. When you're ready to go back to multiple tabs in one screen again, click the Tab Glue to paste them back together:

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Chrome Extension: Turn Off the Lights

If you show clips from places like YouTube or Vimeo in class, the Turn Off the Lights Chrome extension helps you go from this display:

I love Kid President! Here's the link to the video shown above, titled "20 Things We Should Say More Often."

to this display:

notice the entire screen is blacked out instead of just the background behind the video... and I have a lovely mint green glow around the vid

Basically, this extension helps you hide ads and other video suggestions by fading the background so students can really focus on the video. {Oh, yeah: it's free, too!}

Install the Turn Off the Lights Extension

1. Make sure you have a Google account. {If you have a Gmail, YouTube, or Blogger account, you have a Google account. It's possible to connect an existing e-mail -- like your school e-mail -- to a Google account; ask me about that if you're interested in learning more! I definitely recommend separating personal from professional, so if you only have a personal Google account, I'd make another one specifically for school.}

2. Launch Google Chrome {download it here if you don't already have it}.

3. Sign in to your Google account on Chrome. {Click the small silhouette of a person in the top, right corner to sign in for the first time.}

4. Click here to view the Turn Off the Lights extension. To install it, click the blue "add to Chrome" button in the top, right corner of the pop-up box. 

Quick Start Guide

When you're about to play a video, the light bulb icon will appear in your omnibox {the place where you type the URL to a website}:

Just click the light bulb to activate the Turn Off the Lights extension. When you're finished playing the video, click the light bulb icon again to turn off the TOTL features. 

Here is the welcome guide. Click "let's discover its amazing features" to walk through the welcome guide and view all the abilities and customization options. 

Note: if the light bulb icon does not appear in your omnibox, you are probably not viewing a video that is compatible with TOTL.

Customization Ideas

There are lots of ways you can customize Turn Off the Lights {the welcome guide shows you the basic options in more detail}. I utilize a few basic options that just make my viewing experience a little better. Below is how I customize -- not a complete list! {Click here to customize the extension on your browser or right-click the light bulb in the omnibox and click "options"}:

In the "basics" tab:

1. I like to turn the opacity to 100. You can click the black square next to "color" to change what color your background is, if you want. If you prefer a picture instead of just a plain color, click either "background image" or "dynamic background." The dynamic backgrounds move; they're cool, but I find them a little distracting. The background images are nice, though -- my favorite is the red curtain that looks like you're in a movie theater. :)

Change the opacity, color, and/or image behind the video with these options

with a movie theater curtain in the background

2. Click "automatically dim the background when you click the play button and vice versa" to...well... that one is pretty self-explanatory. :) You can still turn the lights back on at any point in the video, but I like that this provides a little automaticity. I specifically don't check "brighten the background again when the video has ended" because I light being able to decide when the lights come back on. All teachers know that blacking out the screen is a quick way to get students' attention! 

3. Scroll all the way to the bottom of that screen and click "automatically set the YouTube player to the larger size," as seen below. I like this option because it not only automatically makes the video a bit bigger, but I think it centers the video on the screen, too. 

In the "visual effects" tab:

1. Change the glowing color that appears as an outline on the video {click "show you the atmosphere lighting effect of the current playing video" to activate this option...then adjust the color(s) to your liking by clicking on the colored squares below that}. You can see my mint green outline in the screenshots above. 

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*Edit: I received this tweet from the Turn Out the Lights company and thought I'd pass the information along!

Thanks for your review! See no TOTL lamp button? Just refresh the page and the icon is back :-) https://t.co/fYlccWKbYt

— Turn Off the Lights (@TurnOfftheLight) January 5, 2016