8 Google Add-ons for Educators

These G Suite add-ons increase productivity, and make your life easier.

What are Google add-ons? A Google add-on is a customized extension to the G Suite (Gmail, Google Drive, Google Docs, Google Forms, Google Sheets, and the many other Google tools). Developers create add-ons to add functionality to these tools. You can learn more about add-ons and how to use them here, in Google's Help Center.

We have a few different training sessions on add-ons inside the Teacher Learning Community. Check out some of our Google training here. Here are some of our favorite add-ons for teachers.

1. EasyBib – Create bibliographies directly inside Google Documents. “The Bibliography Creator by EasyBib allows you to easily create a bibliography for your research paper. Automatically cite books, journal articles, and websites just by entering in the titles or URLs. Format citations in MLA, APA, Chicago, Harvard, and over 7K other styles. When you're finished creating your bibliography, click Generate Bibliography and we'll alphabetize your citations and add them to the end of your paper.” – Easy Bib overview
2. draw.io Diagrams – Everything you've ever needed for flow chart creation. “draw.io is completely free online diagram editor built around Google Drive(TM), that enables you to create flowcharts, UML, entity relation, network diagrams, mockups and more.” – draw.io overview
3. MindMeister — A simpler version of draw.io but, depending on what you need, this may work better. Turn a bulleted list in Google Docs into a basic mind map.
4. JoeZoo Express — Grade faster! A fantastic tool for peer and teacher feedback.
5. Kami — The top add-on for document mark-up (think PDFs) in G Suite. Integrates with Google Classroom, Canvas, Schoology, and a host of other applications.
6. Pixton — Digital storytelling with comics, right in Google Chrome. “Pixton is an award-winning tool that gives students a fun, new way to express themselves in the colorful graphical format of comics. Design and control fully posable, expressive characters, speech bubbles, backgrounds, photos, and even voice-over. Print, download, and embed comics. Perfect for summarizing a reading, applying vocabulary, re-enacting events, demonstrating comprehension, explaining a concept, and developing critical thinking skills.” – Pixton overview
7. Read&Write — Read text aloud, along with many other things. This powerful texthelp accessibility tool is free for educators. Register here for a free educator account. “Open PDFs in Google Drive, the web, or your local device, then use the Read&Write tools you know and love to do things like read text aloud, look up words in the Dictionary and Picture Dictionary, translate words, add text annotations using Word Prediction and Dictation, highlight text, build vocabulary lists, and more!” – Read&Write overview
8. Math Type — Type and handwrite mathmatical notations directly into Google Docs. Google Docs isn't just for English anymore.

Hope you enjoyed learning about these add-ons. Did I miss anything? Let me know in a comment on this article.

Check out SimpleK12's award-winning Google training inside the Teacher Learning Community.

About the Author
Kimber Thompson is a Lead Moderator for SimpleK12 webinars and a Contributing Editor for SimpleK12.com. She writes frequently about education topics and is passionate about tools and techniques that inspire young learners. You may reach her with ideas and comments at editor@simplek12.com.