Week 9: Google Chrome & Apps

We've made it to the penultimate week of TECHsplorations!  Are you getting that back-to-school feeling yet?  I have had so much fun TECHsploring and just keeping up with all of you over the summer.  We have 80 BMS tweeters as of this posting--that's fantastic!  Thank you for sharing interesting articles, videos, and resources all summer long.  Additionally, we've explored many new tools and discovered ways to use them in our classes AND we are having great online discussions about our summer reading selections on Edmodo!  Check in with yours if you haven't done so recently!

Even if this is the very first TECHsploration post you're reading, welcome!  It is never too late to get started!  I would recommend scrolling to the beginning of the blog and reading your way up/skim for tools that catch your eye.  You can learn all about joining Twitter by reading the links on the right side of the blog.

And remember, all participants, great and small, are invited to a special cupcake reception on Monday, August 27th from 12:30 to 1:00pm in the North Building Lobby.  We will also have drawings for three fabulous tech prizes for participants (as if you needed more incentive to join in the fun!).

On to this week's tool: Google Chrome Apps!  This is not a tool for students to use, but it is something that I think you will find useful for your personal and professional life.  Now that we are a Google Apps for Education school, we'll undoubtedly be using a lot of Google Apps.  Google Chrome is a web browser made by Google that offers a great user experience for those apps.  In fact, you can "sign in" with your BMS account (don't forget to add @brynmawrschool.org when it asks you to sign in) to Google Chrome and add apps from the Chrome Apps Store that will show up when you open a new window or tab in Chrome.  These apps provide quick and easy access to all the things you use most, as well as offering other fun games, organizational tools...you name it, there's an app for it!  Most of the apps are simply shortcuts to the sites you visit most frequently; others are unique to Chrome, like the virtual Lego builder app.

You can read all about Chrome here, as well as download and install it on your laptop.  After installing it, sign in (click the wrench in the upper right corner of the browser window), and then go "shopping" for apps in the Chrome store.  Once you've added some apps to Chrome, (I recommend Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Drive, YouTube, Blogger, Google Maps, Twitter, and Edmodo), you can drag them around to place them where you'd like on the screen.  It's a nice way to organize yourself as we prepare to embark upon the 2012-13 school year.

If you have a little extra time to play, I highly recommend adding the WebLab app.  It allows users to do "web experiments" both online and in real life at the Science Museum in London in real time.  It's hard to explain, but so neat!  If you don't want to download and use Chrome, you can still try out WebLab by clicking here (keep in mind that these web experiments were designed for Chrome, so they will work best there).

The best part about Chrome is that, if you log in to Chrome and set things up, download apps, bookmark things, etc., Chrome will remember all of your settings, preferences, apps, and bookmarks and keep that information in the cloud.  Now, you can log into Chrome on any computer and feel right at home--no more frustration over a bookmark being on another computer or browser!

So download Chrome and get started!  Tweet us your favorite Chrome apps, and as always, have fun!