Showing posts with label google calendar. Show all posts
Showing posts with label google calendar. Show all posts

Google Calendar for Educators

Posted in Labels: , ,

Google Calendar

Google Calendar is one of Google's many free resources that I use. It has some features that make it very useful.

It's accessible on any web browser and integrates and syncs with smartphones, Outlook, Apple iCal and Mozilla Sunbird.

I have all of my appointments, due dates, deadlines, etc. on it. I color code them based on school, blog, degree program, meetings, fun, etc. My wife and I share our Google Calendar's with each other so we can easily see each other's schedules. If you use Google Tasks and set a due date for the task, it will show up on your calendar for that day. I also have US holidays and the Yankees schedule on my calendar.

The reminders feature makes sure you don't miss an appointment or forget to do something. You can set it to just have a pop-up reminder (which also triggers an alert on your Android Phone), send an email, or send a text message and set a time for the reminder.

You can invite people to an event you have set up and then they can RSVP via email or Google Calendar.

It also makes it easy to set up appointments. This is great for administrators or educators who want to make it easier to schedule appointments with staff, parents, or students. The Appointment Slots feature lets you set time slots on your calendar that other people can sigh up for. This is great for office hours and parent conferences.

You can also share your calendar on blogs and websites. Create a calendar for your school or classroom and post it on your site with upcoming events.

Google Calendar is very powerful, easy to use, very useful, and free.








0 comments

Google updates image search, goo.gl, and gmail with new features

Posted in Labels: , , , ,


Google has been busy this week with updates and new features to many of it's products and services. They updated Google Calendar's favicon to display the actual date instead of just "31", A Google A Day puzzle, and Google Docs received pagination and native printing. Now, there are three more updates from Google. These updates will be rolling out over the next few days. 


1. Google Recent Image Search - Google's image search has increased the speed of indexing of images and highlights recent results by showing a small label below the image with the date the image was posted online. This can help when searching for a timely or newsworthy topic and wanting to see the newest images. 




2. Goo.gl URL shortener gets new features - goo.gl is Google's URL shortening service. It has a lot of great features, described here, and just got some improvements. When you create a new short URL on the goo.gl site, the new URL text will be automatically highlighted to make it easier to copy to the clipboard. 




One of the cool features of goo.gl is the dashboard where you can see past url's you've shortened and how many times someone has clicked on that shortened url.  You can now remove items from the dashboard to only keep the ones you really want to track visible.



You can also now report goo.gl URLs that are for spam sites using goo.gl/spam-report. 




3. “Don’t forget Bob” and “Got the wrong Bob?” are two Gmail Labs features that help prevent you from forgetting to include someone on an email, and sending a message to the wrong person with a similar name to the person you meant to email — like emailing Bob (your boss) instead of Bob (your friend). 

As you type in your recipients, Gmail will automatically make suggestions based on the groups of people you email most often. When you see a suggestion to add a person you’ve forgotten, all you have to do is click on their name to add them.



Similarly, if you click on a suggestion to replace a mistakenly added recipient, the proverbial “wrong Bob” will be replaced by the right one.




All of these updates should make users of Google's products feel comfortable and reassured that Google will continue to support and improve the products that they've come to depend on. 




Reference: Official Google Blog (and images are from here also)


(I've written a lot about Google's apps. I do not get paid or compensated by Google for this. I have found their apps to be well designed and easy to use.)

0 comments

Google Calendar - get organized for free - great for education too

Posted in Labels: ,

Google Calendar


Google Calendar is a great, free resource from Google. Everyone needs a calendar to stay organized and on schedule. Google calendar is free, easy to use, and accessible from any web browser and is also available on mobile browsers on smartphones. Many smartphones, like Android, iPhone and HP/Palm webOS, automatically sync the device calendar with Google Calendar and there is syncing available for other phones too.  It can also sync events with Microsoft Outlook, Apple iCal and Mozilla Sunbird.


You can easily create new events, set up reminders (pop up, SMS, or email), set up repeating events and more. One of the features of Google Calendar that makes it very useful is the ability to share calendars with other people. You can share the calendar with read only access, or grant someone else the ability to edit your calendar too. You can share your classroom or school calendar with others for easy viewing and a team (or family) can share their calendars with each other or even use one calendar.


You can set up your calendar to see other shared calendars on it. For instance, my wife and I share our calendars so we know when the other has an appointment or schedule change. You can even display set calendars, such as US Holidays or team schedules on your calendar. Each will have a different color so you can tell things apart.


It also allows you to send invites for events to others and they can RSVP via email or via Google Calendar.


You can also display your Google Task list on your calendar page and if you set a due date for a task item, that task will show up on your calendar for that day.


Google Calendar is a great resource for anyone looking to stay organized and on schedule and is also great for schools, teachers, and teams to use.







Related Articles:


Taking organizing and planning lessons from Ben Franklin - great tips for educators too


0 comments

Google Calendar Icon now displays actual date

Posted in Labels: ,


Google Calendar

Google Calendar's favicon (the icon in your tab on your browser) used to just display "31". Starting today, Google is rolling out a new feature: the favicon will now display the actual current date. Not a huge change, but one that makes it a little more useful. Just look at the browser tab and you can check the date.

It will be rolling out over the next few days, so don't worry if you don't have it yet.



This is the second update to Google products this week, with Google Docs now having Pagination and native printing from the browser. 


0 comments