The fourth recipe tried and tested from the Web 2.0 Recipe Books was Google Calendar.
Google Calendar is a free time-management web application offered by Google. It became available on April 13, 2006, and exited the beta stage in July 2009. Users are required to have a Google Account in order to use the software. (Wikipedia)
Google calendar is a way to keep you organized at home and work. For me the best feature is that you can access the calendar anywhere that has an Internet connection. It is the colorful sprinkles on top of the ice cream, cupcake or cake.
I was very interested in using an organizational calendar for the simplicity of having my day planner from school on the computer and not have a paper copy,
however I still do have a large calendar on my desk that I use to keep notes and information as to what lesson I should be on for various subjects.
Learning About the Tool
Learning the calendar was very simple and straightforward. One must first sign up for a Google account and then locate the calendar option on the menu bar and then you are on your way. With most applications that are housed by Google using the tool is very user friendly. For my initial attempt I watched a YouTube video that was very simple and to the point. One mistake I did make is by having two Google accounts, so sometimes I am in the wrong account to access the calendar that I would like.
Advantages of the calendar continues because one is able to share their calendar to the entire world, selected people, family or friends. My friend’s mother shares her calendar with her children to let them know when and where she will be travelling to. Some teachers share their calendar with parents and students to inform everyone what is being taught for the day, week and if one is really scheduled for the MONTH. Something to keep in mind when publishing your calendar is to only add the details that are appropriate for everyone to see, do not add parent meetings with certain students, or any personal plans or appointments.
The features of this calendar never seem to end. One can search popular calendars and end up with a holiday calendar of your home country or the country you are currently living in. If you subscribe to that calendar all you have to do is click and that calendar will show up. Also there is a task button, you can organize what tasks you need to do for the day. Again, with the click of a button you can either show the tasks or hide them. Another great feature is that you can repeat events, for example you if have PE every Monday at 9.00, you can repeat it so that every Monday at that time your schedule would already be set.
“Like all tools, Google Calendar is only helpful when people use it. It doesn't magically organize your life, but it can make the task much easier for you.” Stickland (2008). Working with the calendar to organize your schedule can be extremely quick and easy if your schedule can be repeated and runs from Monday to Friday. Unfortunately, I work on a 6-day cycle, where every 6 weeks we have the same days, which means that I could not use the repeat function. Another set back was that our school does not run on 30 minutes to 1 hour periods, which the calendar uses, so once again when scheduling events one must change the times to match the school’s schedule. With these 2 inconveniences, planning on the calendar can be somewhat time consuming as every period must be added every time. One idea that I had was to not worry about putting in the classes that I do not teach, funny though I have a hard time not adding every period that my class has.
Positives
• easy to use
• color coding for subjects
• sharing to parents, students, staff
• no waste of paper
• everything in one place
• calendars can overlap professional with holidays (etc.)
• can be accessed from any internet connection
Negatives
• if you do not have a Monday-Friday schedule you cannot use the repeat option
• scheduling times are set for 1 hour and 30 minute increments
Teaching and Learning
I enjoyed learning this new application. I would find it beneficial to have all staff using the calendar to improve scheduling, meetings, and communicating teaching objectives. This calendar has so many uses and is very user friendly that it would be great to implement it into the school. Again the major draw back is the 6-day cycle that we work on, and if you need your schedule in a meeting, you would need to take a laptop. According to Ben Parr (2009) there are 9 essential tricks one should learn to keep organized with Google Calendar.
1. Take time to learn the interface.
2. Use quick add.
3. Turn on notifications.
4. Color-code with multiple calendars.
5. Share calendars with your team.
6. The task gadget is your best friend.
7. Use it with your Gmail.
8. Sync with your phone.
9. Use keyboard shortcuts.
References
Google Calendar. (n.d.). In Wikipedia. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Calendar
Strickland, J. (2008). How Google calendar works. Retrieved from http://computer.howstuffworks.com/internet/basics/google-calendar.htm
Parr, B. (2009). How to stay organized with Google calendar. Retrieved from http://mashable.com/2009/09/18/google-calendar-organization/
