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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