Do you use Google Calendar? Have you thought of adding a Google Calendar widget to your class blog to display important dates (thanks Kimberly McCollum and Bryan McDonald for recommending it as a ‘must have widget”).
About Google Calendar
Google Calendar is a free web-based calendar which you can use for keeping track of important events in one place from any computer anywhere. You create several calendars for different uses in the same Google Calendar and for each calendar you can choose to:
- keep private
- share with friends via email
- make public so others can subscribe.
For example you could create a personal calendar which you keep private (not viewable by others) and a PD calendar that you share with others.
You can also sync between other calendars (e.g. Outlook, iCal, your iPhone) and Google Calendar plus add it to your iGoogle personalized start page and/or embed it in blogs and web pages.
It’s also excellent for coordinating online meet up for global projects because it automatically converts the time to your time zone when you subscribe to the calendar. Check out how Google Calender converts the times by subscribing to Classroom 2.0 live meetups calendar.
Setting Up Your Google Calendar
- Create an Gmail account. Gmail is Google’s free web mail that you can access from any computer, anywhere. Ideally use a login name that people can identify easily as being you e.g. mine is my name with the s missing from the end of waters.
- Go to Google and select Calendar under the More option.
- Sign into Google Calendar using your Gmail account and if asked choose the time zone for your current location.
- Create events on your calender by clicking on Create Event or on a time slot.
- Complete all the required information and press Save.
- Click on Settings to:
- Adjust how the calendar is displayed
- Share calendars with others
- Make calendars public
- Set up automatic notifications
- Delete a calendar
- I use my Google Calender to manage my workload so have set up my calendars so that I get email notifications to my gmail account one day prior to the event.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Want to embed your Google Calendar in your blog? Check out:
Meanwhile if you haven’t set up a iGoogle personalized start page — why not set up iGoogle while you are trying Google Calendar? Here is how to set up iGoogle.
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Sue-
Thank you very much. This is going to come in handy considering the number of students I have on Edublogs now.
I’m looking forward to learning how to embed the calendar into our class blog to help my students meet the deadlines for assignments.
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I created a Google Calendar last week and wanted to use it as a widget on my blog so students can pick-up homework assignments and project due dates. The only way I could figure to do it was to change the calendar’s pre-set dimensions so it fit on my sidebar. Now that it is there it doesn’t work so great because I made it so small. When you click on a date for the notes, the note box opens only as big as the widget frame, so it can’t be read in any meaningful way. I am anxious for your follow up on making these calendars useable widgets.
@Ms. Martino
One idea might be to add a page for your calendar, then you can embed it on the page and it can be quite a good size.
@Sue
I’ve been using Google Calendar for about a year now. It has been a great tool to help my distance learning students stay on track. One of the nice things about the calendar is that you can view it by day, week or month. You can also choose to view it in an agenda format. If anyone is interested in seeing how I’ve used them with my kids, or if you just want to check out calendar and play around, see this link.
i have no idea how you get time to do all you do. you haz time machine maybe.
Hi Sue
Thanks for the step by step instructions – very clear once again. I have a little play with calendar but will need to organise it for the new iphone I am getting this week.
Thanks again
Jane
We’ve integrated Google Calendars with our WordPress MU-powered school site by using the WPNG Calendar plugin. We also use Google Calendars to manage resources through our Google Apps for Your Domain installation. I believe that this all has huge potential to make our lives easier.
Sue- I’ve been using Google calender for over a year now and have a public calendar embedded on my edublogs sidebar for parents and students. It’s really the best.
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Thanks Sue, thanks for the explanation. Thanks also for the link to live classrooms … just wondering if you could enlighten on the conversion times … I went round in circles trying to convert the set times to my times using the link on the page http://wiki.classroom20.com/LIVE+Conversations which took me to http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/meeting.html
I found it easier just to google in convert 4pm New York to Brisbane!
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p Glad it will be helpful. How many students do you now have using Edublogs?
@mrshartjes Hope the instructions in the next post for embedding helped.
@Ms. Martino I agree with @Claire Thompson Embedding it on a page may work better for your needs. I hope to write how to embed in a page later this week.
@Claire Thompson Thanks for helping out @Ms. Martino and sharing the link to your calendar.
@Dean Groom Wish I had a time machine
@Jane Lowe Hope you are feeling better. Exciting about the new iPhone — so many cool applications you can use on it.
@Ben Chun Unfortunately we can’t install plugins.
@Ken Pendergrass Thanks for telling me you use Google Calender in your class blog sidebar. I’ve linked to it from my next post.
@Marie Converting time zones also drives me crazy which is why I love it when people use Google Calendars because when I add their calendar to mine it automatically converts the time to my time. I’m like you I often end up googling the time conversion. No problem re-link.
Thank you Sue, for your easy description of using Google Calender. I have been using in my workplace for some time but am know trying to get my work colleagues to embrace this fantastic tool. Love igoogle as well. Thanks again for sharing your knowledge
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@Su Bowing Glad my explanation has been helpful . I really love iGoogle too. Loved how Claire Thompson explained in a comment on a later post how she is sharing Google Calendar with other teachers to coordinate activities and ensure that students aren’t overwhelmed by too many tests at the same time. Now that is a great idea.
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