I just wrote a post of my own about customising your web browser. This link here goes into far more eloquent detail than I could attempt to rehash. Lots of great tips about extensions & how to make them work for you.
Dear Web User: Please Upgrade Your Browser
Thursday, 12 March 2015
Customised Technology Part II - Your Browser
I wrote a post last week on some web-based tools to help you tie a digital learning environment together and provide some structure and continuity to the things you can do in your classroom with technology.
Today we're going to look at getting the web browser on your computer set up so that it works like your digital butler, not like a fast-food drive-thru attendant.
By that, I mean your browser should remember the things you like, where you like to store things, and how to get you where you need to go, rather than being there simply to serve you in quick grabs. Continuity, personalisation.
To get yourself started, I'd recommend picking a browser, and sticking with it. If you're using Windows, Firefox or Chrome are both fast, reliable, secure, and have active collections of extensions to give you some extra tricks. If you're using a Mac, Safari's an option for that list too. I've missed Internet Explorer from that list because it simply doesn't measure up.
Use the Bookmarks or Favourites Toolbar at the top of the browser! If you've got it always visible, it can be a simple quick launch to the things you might need to visit regularly. Things like your DoE Portal, YouTube, your online account spaces (if you're using something like Padlet, Canva, or an online bookmarking site like Bitly, Diigo, Delicious, or Annotary) all belong here, because you want to access them instantly and easily. They're your online spaces. Carve yourself a shortcut to them.
Buttons
Sometimes those shortcuts and links on your bookmarks toolbar can serve a functional purpose as well. The online bookmarking tools all have toolbar buttons to help you add websites to your collection with one click.
An incredibly useful one is Viewpure's "Purify" button. Drag it from Viewpure to your toolbar, open a video on YouTube then click the button. It'll show your video without ads or related videos.
Ultimately, your tech should work for you, rather than the other way around. Taking control & customising it helps you to really take the reins, turning it into a powerful digital assistant.
Today we're going to look at getting the web browser on your computer set up so that it works like your digital butler, not like a fast-food drive-thru attendant.
By that, I mean your browser should remember the things you like, where you like to store things, and how to get you where you need to go, rather than being there simply to serve you in quick grabs. Continuity, personalisation.
To get yourself started, I'd recommend picking a browser, and sticking with it. If you're using Windows, Firefox or Chrome are both fast, reliable, secure, and have active collections of extensions to give you some extra tricks. If you're using a Mac, Safari's an option for that list too. I've missed Internet Explorer from that list because it simply doesn't measure up.
Personalise It!
Bookmarks & ShortcutsUse the Bookmarks or Favourites Toolbar at the top of the browser! If you've got it always visible, it can be a simple quick launch to the things you might need to visit regularly. Things like your DoE Portal, YouTube, your online account spaces (if you're using something like Padlet, Canva, or an online bookmarking site like Bitly, Diigo, Delicious, or Annotary) all belong here, because you want to access them instantly and easily. They're your online spaces. Carve yourself a shortcut to them.
Buttons
Sometimes those shortcuts and links on your bookmarks toolbar can serve a functional purpose as well. The online bookmarking tools all have toolbar buttons to help you add websites to your collection with one click.
An incredibly useful one is Viewpure's "Purify" button. Drag it from Viewpure to your toolbar, open a video on YouTube then click the button. It'll show your video without ads or related videos.
Leave it OPEN
Always Online. A new tab is like clean window on the world, and you don't lose where you've been.Ultimately, your tech should work for you, rather than the other way around. Taking control & customising it helps you to really take the reins, turning it into a powerful digital assistant.
Launching a Class Blog
It sounds like a big deal, but it's not.
It sounds like it'll require a ton of new skills to learn, but it won't.
Every class I walk past is already doing a pile of things that could very easily move on to a class blog, meaning the habits & behaviours to support it already exist.
The key things to remember before you even begin to think about the tools & techniques are the simple ones that come naturally to us as educators.
People, and communication.
With that as our focus, where to begin? The platform's easy - both major blog platforms (Blogger and Wordpress) work more or less the same way, and they're free to join. If you've ever written text on a computer before, you've already learned the controls. We can catch up after school early in the term and lock it down in a few minutes. We'll look at organisation in a minute, but let's look at the more important part first.
It's a place where you can document classroom activity, and share ideas & resources with your students. It's also (and probably more importantly) somewhere to allow students to interact online. This is important because they are going to interact online anyway. If their first experience of it is lying about their age around Year 4 to create a Facebook account, we've all seen how well that usually turns out.
What if their first experience of it was documenting a science project in Kindy? A wise voice guiding how they word their posts together? An actual face-to-face conversation about how to choose photos to accompany the post? Photos that show what they'd created, rather than just what the kids themselves look like? Opportunities to share their own little voices, but in a supervised, moderated way that contributes to an online community that's very deliberately positive, constructive, and purposeful? How are those children going to approach independent online activity as they get older? Will they be as hot-headed and haphazard as the first group of kids I described?
This is where they need structure and guidance. Being social and interactive in electronic places is 99.9% ethics, critical thinking & social skills. What's left is the technology. Ignore it, it gets easier to use all the time. This post here by educator Kim Cofino when she was the Digital Literacies Facilitator at the International School of Bangkok is a brilliant starting point for some guidelines for blog use in schools - both for posting and commenting. Take it, share it, tip your hat to Kim, and modify it to best suit your school and your class.
The best place to begin is to decide on how you want the people around you to communicate. Pick something that you can do by habit. Maybe you'll post your class plan for the following day with relevant materials linked every afternoon so kids and parents can be prepared every day. Maybe you'll take some time at the end of every week to reflect on what you've learned as a class. Maybe you'll share & follow an important news story each week, and open it to discussion.
Also pick a project to document. Something that can evolve over time, and that will benefit from being visible. Growing something in science? Building something in Art? Shaping & forming narrative?
At the end of the day, what this can do for you is make the learning in your class visible, enable communication & collaboration, and save you time. The trick is using it to replace things you're already doing, rather than add them on top.
It sounds like it'll require a ton of new skills to learn, but it won't.
Every class I walk past is already doing a pile of things that could very easily move on to a class blog, meaning the habits & behaviours to support it already exist.
The key things to remember before you even begin to think about the tools & techniques are the simple ones that come naturally to us as educators.
People, and communication.
With that as our focus, where to begin? The platform's easy - both major blog platforms (Blogger and Wordpress) work more or less the same way, and they're free to join. If you've ever written text on a computer before, you've already learned the controls. We can catch up after school early in the term and lock it down in a few minutes. We'll look at organisation in a minute, but let's look at the more important part first.
People.
This blog can become the online extension of your classroom. It has the power to eliminate that single most frustrating conversation between children and their parents - "what did you do at school today?" "...nothing."It's a place where you can document classroom activity, and share ideas & resources with your students. It's also (and probably more importantly) somewhere to allow students to interact online. This is important because they are going to interact online anyway. If their first experience of it is lying about their age around Year 4 to create a Facebook account, we've all seen how well that usually turns out.
What if their first experience of it was documenting a science project in Kindy? A wise voice guiding how they word their posts together? An actual face-to-face conversation about how to choose photos to accompany the post? Photos that show what they'd created, rather than just what the kids themselves look like? Opportunities to share their own little voices, but in a supervised, moderated way that contributes to an online community that's very deliberately positive, constructive, and purposeful? How are those children going to approach independent online activity as they get older? Will they be as hot-headed and haphazard as the first group of kids I described?
This is where they need structure and guidance. Being social and interactive in electronic places is 99.9% ethics, critical thinking & social skills. What's left is the technology. Ignore it, it gets easier to use all the time. This post here by educator Kim Cofino when she was the Digital Literacies Facilitator at the International School of Bangkok is a brilliant starting point for some guidelines for blog use in schools - both for posting and commenting. Take it, share it, tip your hat to Kim, and modify it to best suit your school and your class.
Communication.
Think about the amount of communication you do daily. Communication with your students - verbally, visually, and through sharing. Communication with parents. Pragmatic stuff, purpose-driven stuff, interesting stuff, fun stuff. Why not bring that all to one central channel? Organise what you post into little categories to keep it neat, but otherwise it's a one-stop shop. It'll time and date stamp everything for you, which makes record keeping much easier.The best place to begin is to decide on how you want the people around you to communicate. Pick something that you can do by habit. Maybe you'll post your class plan for the following day with relevant materials linked every afternoon so kids and parents can be prepared every day. Maybe you'll take some time at the end of every week to reflect on what you've learned as a class. Maybe you'll share & follow an important news story each week, and open it to discussion.
Also pick a project to document. Something that can evolve over time, and that will benefit from being visible. Growing something in science? Building something in Art? Shaping & forming narrative?
At the end of the day, what this can do for you is make the learning in your class visible, enable communication & collaboration, and save you time. The trick is using it to replace things you're already doing, rather than add them on top.
Attach Yourself to People, Not Apps
A quick share today.
I've chatted a little bit with the staff I'm working with directly about the power and importance of building a professional network online. It broadens and diversifies the expertise you can access, and is a brilliant way to find colleagues with similar professional interests worldwide.
Rebekah Madrid (@ndbekah) from the Yokohama International School posted a wonderful little article this week about the importance of focusing on those human connections, not the apps we use in the between-spaces.
If you missed it in-line above, here's the link.
I've chatted a little bit with the staff I'm working with directly about the power and importance of building a professional network online. It broadens and diversifies the expertise you can access, and is a brilliant way to find colleagues with similar professional interests worldwide.
Rebekah Madrid (@ndbekah) from the Yokohama International School posted a wonderful little article this week about the importance of focusing on those human connections, not the apps we use in the between-spaces.
If you missed it in-line above, here's the link.
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