It’s always fun to find out what other people use as their “go to” tech tools. That app you can’t live without? That website you have bookmarked? The best way to learn new tools is to ask other people what their favorites are. I’m not saying these will be your favorites… but they were good enough when I gave them a try that I just keep on using them.
Chrome Bookmarks Bar: If you use Chrome, be sure to click “Bookmarks” and “Turn Bookmarks Bar On.” You can drag any address to this bar and create quick links. I love storing quick links to Google Docs I’m using for the week, or sites I need to access daily. With a rightclick, you can easily cut things from the bar, too.
Open Clipart Online
It’s no secret that I love a great graphic. However, when creating quick document, there’s no time to PhotoShop up something to match the walls in my office. So, OpenClipart does the trick. A great standard base of over 50,000 images that you can add into your documents.
MindMeister
I love the ease in which MindMeister takes a bulleted list and turns it into a graphic web right inside your document. Bulleted lists are so… nineties! This is a great tool for organizing information visually.
Save to Google Drive Sometimes you find a great resource on the web that you know you will want to take a look at or share later. This add on to Chrome places a tiny drive icon that you can click and save to your drive in the blink of an eye!
PicMonkey When you need to quickly edit a photo, add some text, or spruce up a pic for your class blog, PicMonkey will do the trick. While I love the full-fledged power of PhotoShop, PicMonkey has plenty of power without all the complicatedness.
SaveFromNet: A built in tool for Chrome to download YouTube videos for classroom presentations or sharing. Excellent for those presentations when you just don’t know if the Wifi is going to hold out.
What are your favorites? Google Drive Add-Ons? Chrome Extensions? Please share. We can never have too many in our tool-box, right?