Infinite Internet Possibilities

Every time I get on the Internet, it seems like I only know how to scratch the surface of what is available and how to use it. This blog post was no different. I went to Teaching Like It's 2999 and read a post entitled "Ecstatic about Extensions." http://teachinglikeits2999.blogspot.com/2013/05/ecstatic-about-extensions.html

The post itself described a few of the extensions you can find (most are free) in the Chrome Web Store. https://chrome.google.com/webstore/category/extensions But let me warn you, if you go shopping here, it's like falling into a bottomless pit. I had no idea this place even existed, but the timesaving extensions you can add to your Chrome browser bar are endless. I tried for at least 10 minutes to get to the bottom of the list, and I'm convinced that more extensions are being added by the second to this store, and there is an infinite number available, ranging from "Shopping Assistant" with 4.5 million users to the Michigan football schedule (910 users).

I chose a couple to add to my browser bar, one called "Screen Capture" (used above) and the MLB.com scoreboard. I would also show this as a screenshot, but the screen capture won't let the MLB scoreboard stay open at the same time. I found that not all are available for Mac users, and one I thought sounded helpful for organizing my gmail account was not available. I found an Easy-Bib extension for creating bibliography citations as I was looking for things that would be helpful in teaching students, and then it hit me that our school computers do not have Chrome as a browser choice, so that is a definite drawback for the usefulness of this.

The other blog I commented on was Kathy Schrock's post "You Be the Judge." It was an interesting post about a type of Internet baiting that starts out with emails that appear to be from schools or libraries which want you to link to their page. The example she received was about safe Internet use. After they get enough links, then they switch their content to the real site such as a dating Website that Kathy got when she investigated the link.  http://blog.kathyschrock.net/2013/06/you-be-judge.html

The Internet can be a scary place full of different types of predators, so this just goes to show that you can't always trust the .org and .net domains. I used to teach students when researching that these were safe and that .coms weren't allowed. Now that has changed, but I know that some teachers still do not allow students to use .coms for research.