ChromeVis Can Make Webpages Easier to Read

ChromeVis is a Google Chrome extension designed to make it easier for people with vision impairments to read the content of webpages. When installed ChromeVis allows you to highlight the text on any webpage and have it enlarged and placed on an easy-to-read background. Your highlighted text appears in a pop-up box over the original page so that you can quickly go back to the original source if you want to. ChromeVis can be adjusted to meet your text size and text color preferences.

Applications for Education
ChromeVis could be a helpful extension for students and adults who need the content of a webpage modified in order to read it.

5 Things Students Should Know About Midterm Elections

CNN Student News is generally a good source of current events videos to use in middle school and high school classrooms. Today's episode of CNN Student News provides students with a short explanation of midterm elections and a run-down of their significance. You can find the video and transcript here. The video is also embedded below.

Create Instructional Videos on Your Chromebook With Clarisketch

Clarisketch is a free app that I initially wrote about back in July when it was only available as an Android app. Thanks to Jen Deyenberg, this morning I learned that it is now available as a Chrome app too.

Clarisketch allows you to add your voice and drawings to pictures or to a blank canvas. While you are talking about your picture you can draw on it to highlight sections of it. Completed projects are shared as links to the video file hosted on Clarisketch. You can share the link to your Clarisketch video and have it play on nearly any device that has a web browser. See my sample here.

Applications for Education
If you're looking for a tool to use to create flipped video lessons on your Chromebook, Clarisketch could be the tool for you.

Students could use Clarisketch to create short stories about their pictures. You could also have students use Clarisketch to explain things like how to solve a math problem or the significance of a place featured on a map.