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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