I was actually somewhat skeptical about the usefulness of exploring the browser settings, but was pleasantly surprised about a few things that I know I will use. The first thing that I had fun playing with were the themes. This was a good discovery, because I realize that students spend lots of time playing with this, and I had never really taken the time to find out how they were making these changes. There wasn't a library or book theme though! This could become a huge time waster too- I found myself getting lost in the search (so easy to get caught up).
The next setting that I found very interesting was with the "Advanced Settings" under "Privacy". This is something that I will share with students when I am teaching about filter bubbles and the effect of your search activity being tracked. Tracking the effectiveness of this "Do not track" option will be interesting. It had a disclaimer that different websites respond to that request differently. Good to know about!
The final setting that I found interesting was under "Downloads", and I'm glad to know where that setting appears now. When I download things they automatically go to my "Downloads" folder, but I know that I have seen other people unable to find things that they downloaded because they didn't know where it saved. Knowing where this setting is, I will be able to help people with this dilemma now, and it is always nice to be able to give people an answer to their questions.New Extensions
I have used extensions in the past, but did some exploration to try out some new ones. I know that I have gone through and deleted extensions in the past because they were slowing down my browser, so I am anxious to see what happens with these. I just added ones that are connected to tools that I use frequently:
Pinterest- This one I have already used today, finding immediate use for it, as I am always adding things to my Pinterest account. I think I had this in the past, but it was one of those I disabled when my browser was moving slowly.
PicMonkey- This is such a great and easy to use photo editing tool. I am not sure that I need an extension to grab pictures and open directly into PicMonkey, but the option is interesting. I will keep it on for awhile and see if I find it useful.
AccessGrid- This provides a drop down grid with easy access to letter accents, which I am always struggling to remember. I know that I will be using this- simple but helpful extension. 
EasyBib- This one has the most direct application for student support and instructional purpose, because our students use EasyBib throughout all grade levels. I like that this extension helps them identify both the credibility of the site and opens a pop up window to create the citation while still on the website.
No comments:
Post a Comment