If you’ve got a room with a projector, Smart Board, or a TV, you’ve probably used it to show websites to your students. If you use Firefox as a web browser, you also probably know that there are a lot of different helpful add-ons. The extensions listed below are must-haves for using the web in class.
Adblock Plus: This is one of the most common Firefox plugins, and is used to remove ads from a variety of web pages. You can also whitelist sites and set custom filters. Adblock Plus is pretty much the gold standard when it comes to ad blocking software. The downside though to blocking ads is that publishers earn revenue from their content, and if that drops too much, they may have to start charging for this content.
Image Zoom: Instead of having to zoom in the entire page, Image Zoom allows you to resize any image on the page that it appears. This is quite handy if you want to switch between full screen and a zoomed-in view of an image.
Dictionary Tooltip: Just like what it sounds, Dictionary Tooltip allows you to double-click and word on the page and a tooltip message will pop up that provides the definition of the word.
Pronounce: This add-on helps with pronunciation of words on websites. All you do is highlight a word, right-click, and then click “pronounce.” Through your speakers, you’ll hear how to pronounce the word.
Bonus Add-On
Cite This: Cite This is an automation citation plugin for Firefox that allows you to automatically generate citations for web-based sources and then copy/paste them directly into the document that you’re working on, such as in Microsoft Word.
While the basic functions of the Firefox add-ons are described here, you can learn more about each one by visiting the add-on page on Mozilla.org.
