The Electric Educator: Get your MeL Chrome Apps!

MeL is now available in the Chrome Webstore

I'm excited to announce to my fellow Michigan Educators that the Michigan eLibrary (MeL) has published six of their databases as Chrome Web Apps! It's now easier than ever to give your students access to high quality research databases.

Six different apps are available in the Chrome Webstore:

MeL.org

Access the entire Michigan eLibrary which features all of your favorite MeL databases and resources including MeLCat.

MeL Teens

Access to resources specifically for grades 6 through 12+ including homework help, recommended books, and college planning and test prep tools.

MeL Kids

Resources specifically designed for young learners, pre-K through 5th grades, including homework helpers, stories, games, and information about the state of Michigan!

MeL College Bound

Resources to help you select, prepare and pay for college.

MeL Michigana

Michigan is a great state! Learn more about it with access to 15 diverse research digital collections, giving access to primary resources such as photographs, family history, and podcasts.

MeL Business

Support and resources for entrepreneurs and small businesses as they contribute to the Michigan and global economies.

MeL and Chromebooks

The MeL Chrome Apps make it easy to access MeL resources on Chromebooks. Schools that are taking advantage of Chromebook management features can automatically push out the MeL Chrome apps to all of their students and pin them to the shelf for easy access.

Access MeL apps through the Chrome App Launcher (search key)

Instructions: To push out apps to students, a domain administrator will need to log into the Google Apps Management console and visit Device Management > Chrome > User Settings > Force Installed Apps & Extensions. Search for and select the MeL apps you wish to push to students. Apps will appear the next time your devices sync with the management console.

Pin MeL apps to the Chrome shelf for instant access!

Instructions: Make accessing MeL apps even easier by pinning favorite apps to the Chrome shelf. After deploying an app (see above) have a domain administrator use the Google Apps Management console to visit Device Management > Chrome > User Settings > Pinned Apps & Extensions to configure the pinned apps.

Place all of the MeL apps into a folder to keep them organized!

Instructions: Create collections of apps by dragging and dropping apps on top of one another. These collections can be named (i.e. “research tools”) for easy identification. Collections can only be created by individual users and can not be centrally managed by domain administrators at this time.