Gmail Has Some Great Options

This week we looked at Gmail and the many different options it has for keeping people organized and in touch with friends, family, and co-workers.

When you and out-of-town or across town and want to have a face-to-face conversation with someone, the video function of Gmail is great. As long as the person has a Gmail account you can use this function. This function would a great way to have an expert talk to a class about a particular. For instance, if you are discussing marine life in a science class it would be great for the class to be able to talk to a Marine Biologist who is doing research on the effects of oil spills on the ecosystems in Louisiana. The chat function is good for when you need a quick answer to a question. This function is like IM on other systems. Where I work we use IM to ask a manager or CEA a quick question about a product when we are on the phone with a customer. I can see the chat function working the same way in a classroom setting. Like other e-mail programs, you can send attachments and pictures. While selling my house and getting my divorce,  I was able to receive documents by e-mail and not have to make appointments to go down to offices to review them. Plus once all papers were signed and approved, I was able to receive PDFs and saving them on my laptop. I will always be able to find them.

The calendar function is very comparable to iCalendar for the Mac, which I use on my iphone, ipad, and laptop. I synched my gmail calendar to my phone so I can have the calendar with me all the time. I like the tasks function for big projects. Something nice about this program is the ability to share the calendar with other gmail account holders. When working on a big project there can be a master calendar for everyone to view and mark of the the tasks they have finished. It is also a great way to keep everyone up to date if the schedule changes. Everyone can see it and not have to make notes somewhere else. One can print the calendar to post in a classroom. I can also see the ability to e-mail a calendar of classroom "events" like book reports, tests, and big projects to the entire class. This way parents and students can know ahead of time about projects that a student may have to work on over breaks or the days before breaks that a student really can't miss. This could also be used for volunteer opportunities in the classroom, like science labs and computer labs.

As teachers we need to develop ways to use technology to keep us organized and at the same time keep parents and students informed.