With technology being more prominent in schools, it is important that this technology is accessible to all. To make this possible, there have been many extensions and tools created that students can use in order to make learning easier. There are so many tools out there that are very helpful to students, here are just a few.
The first tool that I am going to be talking about is an extension on YouTube. This extension is called, “Turn Off Lights”. This extension allows for everything on your screen to be blackout, besides the video that you are watching. The purpose is to help students focus on the video that they are watching without getting distracted on the other things on the screen.
The next tool is an extension on google docs. On google docs there is an extension that allows students to translate a whole document into another language. This will help students who have a language barrier learn easier. This will also help them to try and pick up on some new words in the different language to learn.
The next tool is a Google Chrome extension that you can download. This tool is called Voice In. What this does, is instead of typing your essay or work, you can speak it. You just have to hit start and everything you say will get written down on the computer. This will help students who don’t know where to start writing if they don’t know how to write out their thoughts.
Another accessible tool is called Screen shader. Just like the YouTube extension, this tool shades out part of the page that you aren’t focusing on. This will help students when they are given an article to read and have to stay focused. With this tool they will not be distracted by all of the ads or other parts of the article. They will only focus on the one paragraph that they are reading.
The next tool on Google Slides will help students who have a hearing disability. When the teacher presents the lesson using google slides, they can turn on closed captions on the presentation. While the teacher is talking, google is taking everything that is being said and putting it at either the bottom or the top of the screen. This allows for students who can’t hear as well to follow along with the lesson.
Another great tool for in the classroom is Grammarly. Grammarly is an extension that you can download on your computer. Once activated, Grammarly scans your whole essay and looks for spelling, grammar, and punctuation. Grammarly would be very helpful to those students who have to write many essays and needs someone to look over it.
The last accessible tool that I am going to be talking about is Just Read. Just Read is a reading extension that works on any article. When you are on a website reading an article it allows you to customize your reading. You can change the brightness of the page, take away the adds, highlight and make comments and more. Teachers could also benefit using this tool because they can take things away from the article before giving it to students to read.
As listed, there are many tools that both teachers and students can benefit from. Having these tools are very important to have access to for those who need them. With these extensions learning gets personalized to the students needs, making learning accessible for everyone.