Gmail and Google Calendar & Task Lists

Gmail

I just recently signed up a Gmail account for the purpose of our technology class, so I am still not familiar with it so I watched the tutorial videos provided in the class. I learned some really helpful and productive features.

The first feature is that Gmail recently updated to a new compose window. I found this new compose window is much easier to use compared to other email account I have. Instead of taking the whole screen to write a message, the new compose window locates on the bottom of the screen. So I can compose new message while keeping eye on my inbox. This makes easy to infer to my other message and I can also scroll to other messages.  In addition, I can open more than one compose window. This new feature enables me to write more than one new message at the same time. I can also reply to my earlier messages in the same screen, without closing my current message or saving as a draft. I like how Gmail offer two different ways to send pictures. If I want to send a picture through email, I can send the picture as an attachment or I can just drag the picture into the body of the email. I prefer just dragging the picture into the text body when I can see my pictures locate on the desktop, instead of navigating to where the pictures locate.

Another feature is to share with Google Drive. When I use yahoo email account, sometimes I will have problem with sending large pictures. It takes a lot longer to upload pictures and sometimes it fails to upload what I want to send. This really frustrates me. However, with Gmail, when I send files up to 25MB limit in Gmail, I can insert files using Google Drive. I actually did an experiment. I uploaded a 2 hours podcast with 110MB and sent to my husband. Guess what? It took less than a minute. This really eases me and highly improves the productivity of my life. I can envision myself using this feature to communicate with my future students, co-workers, administrators as well as parents.

The last one I found might be useful is the video chat. Recently I have been using Gmail’s hangouts. The hangout function is connected to the Google plus. I can start a hangout from Gmail account or I can just use Google+. With Hangout, I can hangout with up to 9 friends at once or hold free video conferencing for up to 10 people, sharing online videos and my screen with my friends, plus I can put different effects on the screen, such as dress like a superman. Gmail makes video chat much more fun. Couple weeks ago, when my husband and I tried to talk with our friends in South Korea on Skype, the quality of the video chat is not satisfying (The voice of our friends’ would be lost sometimes) so I suggested to use video chat on Gmail. It turned out that we couldn’t hear them at all, just like when we tried to talk to them on Facebook. But I think they work fine inside the States. I would like to see the long-distant video chat technology be improved in coming years.  But still I would like to use this function to connect with my students by talking to those who miss the certain class session or any other teaching related purpose. This helps break down the classroom wall, and makes learning occur anywhere and anytime.

Google integrates every part of its products to perform the maximum outcome for its users. Once you register your Gmail account, you share the username with the Google plus, Google drive, Calendar and more. I like how easy to access different services Google offer with one account. Google really works on how to integrate all its products to improve the experience of its users. I can see why the Google is integrated into the classroom and I am looking forward to be part of it. 

Google Calendar & Task List

My professor back to my university showed me how powerful and convenient Google Calendar is but I never took it seriously to use it, particularly after Google moved its server from Mainland China to Hong Kong back to 2010. Even I could access to Hong Kong server but it’s just too slow so most Chinese do not use Google as search engine.

But today I took a look at the Calendar and it turned out to be very cool application.  With all its features, including share my schedule, get my calendar on the go, never forget another event, send invitation and track RSVPs, sync with my desktop applications, word offline and its free (except when I want really customized service, I might have to pay some extra fee), out of all these features, I think share my schedule, customizable reminders and send invitations as well as track RSVPs will be quiet helpful for me as a future teacher. The Google Calendar offers many customized choices that I can make to choose to share my schedule with my co-workers, and other specific people.

Another feature is that I can set up the Calendar to remind me my incoming schedule via emails, SMS messages (which costs a little bit extra fee), or popups within Google Calendar itself.  In the future, as a teacher I might have a lot events and activities to attend, but with the reminder, I will not have to worry about missing any important thing. However, I am that kind of person who hasn’t had the habit to check my email account frequently but I am working on it, so I do wish I could add an alarm as some kind of reminder to the Calendar.

The last feature I think would be fairly useful is to send invitation and track RSVPs through Google Calendar. Since it is really important that teachers and parents work together to enhance students’ learning, I can use this calendar to invite parents to come to attend school activities or to have a meeting with parents concerned about their children’s learning situation or how to really involve in students’ learning progress.
I can also create different task lists in differing categories embedded into my Google calendar.  For instance, I can organize my school work in one list, and out school task in the different list, which can keep things more organized. But it does have its drawback. For instance,  I can only view one task list at a time. 

One thing I just found out today was that I could subscribe China holidays into my personal calendar. With this, I won't have problem in keeping track on Chinese traditional holidays, which I really want to celebrate. But I do wish Google offer Chinese lunar calendar (we use double calendars in China.) Well, you might say I am kind of old traditional person. Yes, I am. I am proud of who I am and where I am from!