The first two sessions I attended were about Google Apps. They were offered by George Santos and Laura Tolone. Even though I usually use gmail and some google features, it was nice to have the time to explore Google a bit more and find useful features for my everyday management at home and at school. I'll jot my notes down...
The morning session took only 1 hour and I learned a few new things:
• Gmail attachments can all be downloaded all at once as a zipfile. (I had done this before, but was not aware that it was always done through a zipfile)
• exe files cannot be emailed through gmail
• google calendars can be synced with the iphone
• google calendars and ical calendars can by synced
Using what I learned...
• our lab and laptop online calendars could be managed as google calendars so that teachers can directly book times. This process is usually done through online calendars that are NOT interactive. The teachers needs to check the online calendar, find a spot, email the person in charge (tech teacher or it dept) and then this person in charge books the lap or laptop cart. Same procedure applies for USB headphone sets and can also be enhanced with google calendars.
• I could sync my ical with google calendars and be able to see my schedule and my updated agenda from anyplace outside of school.
Afternoon session for Google Apps (2 hrs) -
In this session, we had more time to explore and work with google apps. We started with labels. It was a good reminder and now I have it clear that labels are only for classifying. I sometimes confused the feature with Groups.. groups works for organizing my contacts.
The next thing was the use of filters. Filters were new to me. We can create and modify them under Settings. There are a few options to choose from and they are all quite clear and easy to use. This feature might be quite useful when organizing my incoming email.
My computer neighbor showed be google analytics. It is used to see statistics on how much a webpage is being visited. He showed me his school's website and how much it had helped to clean it up after he had started using google analytics.
The presenters then focused on google docs and spreadsheets showing examples. I'm already familiar with those two. They also mentioned a third one where drawings could be made. I'd like to explore that one. I'll have to add it to my to-do list!
An attendee that came from Colombia showed us how his school used google apps in different situations. The had created teacher and student accounts for everyone in school. One thing that caught my attention was that their student accounts could be managed and had Google Talk disabled from student use.
A quick and useful explanation was given about syncronizing google calendars. To sync calendars every so often, we need to download the Google Exchange folder
At the end, we were given an overview of Picasa. It can be found in gmail up on top under MORE --> photos. It's a fast way to upload photos using my gmail account and shares the photos with only the people who I want to share with.
Using what I learned...
• The school is already giving us google teacher accounts. We might be able to create the student accounts and use them for e-pals or for special projects that need communication within students.
• Student behavior forms may be google docs. It is a good way to keep track of them and to share them with homeroom teachers as well as admin.
• I'm already uploading my photos into PIcasa. I had some in dropbox.com which is a good place to keep them, but it's also a slow place to watch them!
• Google analytics is something I would like to try on my schoolworld webpage.
The morning session took only 1 hour and I learned a few new things:
• Gmail attachments can all be downloaded all at once as a zipfile. (I had done this before, but was not aware that it was always done through a zipfile)
• exe files cannot be emailed through gmail
• google calendars can be synced with the iphone
• google calendars and ical calendars can by synced
Using what I learned...
• our lab and laptop online calendars could be managed as google calendars so that teachers can directly book times. This process is usually done through online calendars that are NOT interactive. The teachers needs to check the online calendar, find a spot, email the person in charge (tech teacher or it dept) and then this person in charge books the lap or laptop cart. Same procedure applies for USB headphone sets and can also be enhanced with google calendars.
• I could sync my ical with google calendars and be able to see my schedule and my updated agenda from anyplace outside of school.
Afternoon session for Google Apps (2 hrs) -
In this session, we had more time to explore and work with google apps. We started with labels. It was a good reminder and now I have it clear that labels are only for classifying. I sometimes confused the feature with Groups.. groups works for organizing my contacts.
The next thing was the use of filters. Filters were new to me. We can create and modify them under Settings. There are a few options to choose from and they are all quite clear and easy to use. This feature might be quite useful when organizing my incoming email.
My computer neighbor showed be google analytics. It is used to see statistics on how much a webpage is being visited. He showed me his school's website and how much it had helped to clean it up after he had started using google analytics.
The presenters then focused on google docs and spreadsheets showing examples. I'm already familiar with those two. They also mentioned a third one where drawings could be made. I'd like to explore that one. I'll have to add it to my to-do list!
An attendee that came from Colombia showed us how his school used google apps in different situations. The had created teacher and student accounts for everyone in school. One thing that caught my attention was that their student accounts could be managed and had Google Talk disabled from student use.
A quick and useful explanation was given about syncronizing google calendars. To sync calendars every so often, we need to download the Google Exchange folder
At the end, we were given an overview of Picasa. It can be found in gmail up on top under MORE --> photos. It's a fast way to upload photos using my gmail account and shares the photos with only the people who I want to share with.
Using what I learned...
• The school is already giving us google teacher accounts. We might be able to create the student accounts and use them for e-pals or for special projects that need communication within students.
• Student behavior forms may be google docs. It is a good way to keep track of them and to share them with homeroom teachers as well as admin.
• I'm already uploading my photos into PIcasa. I had some in dropbox.com which is a good place to keep them, but it's also a slow place to watch them!
• Google analytics is something I would like to try on my schoolworld webpage.
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