I’ve blogged about how much I love Pocket before, but haven’t given much thought to its many classroom uses. And there are MANY!
First of all, if you’re not familiar with Pocket, here’s a quick rundown of the basics of this great app:
- It is FREE!
- It’s available on iOS and Android devices
- The Chrome app is AWESOME and runs offline!
- Easily add articles, videos, and almost anything you can think of to your Pocket!
So, how would I use this in my classroom?
- Pinterest-like tool for teachers
- I use my Pocket app to compile ideas for this blog, research neat ideas for my classroom, crafty type ideas to use with my kids, and so much more!
- Student research
- Some students have difficulty compiling and managing a list of resources for research papers, etc. Pocket can help! Students can easily copy web sources to their Pocket, and choose from a list or thumbnail view. Some people, myself included, would rather “see” what their resource is instead of looking at a text description. Enter…Pocket!
- Since there isn’t an option to create a “board” or “collection” like Pinterest or Edshelf, students can utilize the search feature to quickly locate sources.
- Storage for flipped videos
- Students can save videos to their Pocket, as well as text based articles. If your video is found on YouTube, for example, students can save the URL in their Pocket instead of searching YouTube for a specific video. We all know how that could turn out! Of course, flipped videos could also be saved and shared in Google Drive, but Pocket provides an alternative option!
- All those times when I say, “hey guys, I want you to check out this article…” and then the bell rings.
- When we all have Chromebooks next year, I can direct students to a specific webpage or video, and then when we inevitably run out of time in our class period, I can simply say, “put it in your Pocket!”
Here’s a glimpse of my Pocket!
The educational uses of this great, FREE tool are endless! I hope you give it a try!
Thanks for reading 🙂
INFORMATION ADDED 4/27/14
If you’re having difficulty accessing your Pocket content offline on your Chromebook, please follow these steps:
- Open your Chrome Pocket app
- Select an article to view
- If you are unable to view the article, try switching the viewing option at the top of the page. These viewing options are..
- Article View
- Web View
- I have found that if my articles don’t load in “web view,” switching to “article view” allows me to read them
Hope that helps!
Bethany, have you found a way to view content off-line in pocket on your chromebook?
Hi, Mike!
Yes, I have found a way! I've found that it helps to switch the viewing options from article view to web view or vice versa. I've included a screenshot example and explanation above. Hope that helps!
Thanks for reading!