GMAIL

Gmail is a resource that I have been using for a long time now.  While being a student there haven't always been that many things that I need to organize with email but I have definitely explored a ton of options with my limitations of what Gmail is capable of.  Some of the options that I find really helpful are filtering or labels, chat, and more recently the tasks list.

I remember signing up for a beta invitation to Gmail and being able to be one of the first to test it out and personally invite others that I knew to the program.  I've seen many features added and remade over the years and since the integration of Google and mobile devices, specifically Android, they have really stepped up their game to make it part of the best application suite.  Google is now known for its wonderful, seamless integration of its different applications and this is what makes it powerful.  As teachers we will need many resources at our fingertips and through Google we are able to send messages to parents, students, and other teachers while being able to easily sort each type of message with Google's labeling function.  This way we can filter addresses that we know into their proper folders and can easily split up our work load to deal with each one at a time instead of all together.

Google's chat feature has also been around for a while now but has seen more use within the past few years. Google offers a program called Google Talk which allows users to chat via instant message in the same way AOL, Facebook, and Skype does.  More recently Google has added in a video chat feature so that it may keep up with the more popular application, Skype.  While the chat feature should be used in a limited manner with parents and students it is a great way to keep in touch with other teachers during the day without having to send emails back and forth.  It allows for quick information to be shared, even in a group so multiple people chat at the same time, and it keeps conversations archived so they can be read like emails if you need to at a later time.

The tasks list feature has recently peaked my interest.  I got a smartphone about 3.5 years ago and as soon as I got it I started trying to incorporate as many features of it into my organizational habits as I could.  The first thing that I did was organize my Google Calendar with my class schedule and made reminders for every single class and homework assignment so that I would always be up to date.  While it was helpful for me I never was able to organize calendar events with others until my family got smartphones as well.  I can easily see tasks being shared between teachers or even students to keep up with meetings, gatherings, assignments, due dates, etc.  There are so many different options that a task list can be used for and I think once a person learns how to organize their life it is hard to break away from wanting to keep it up.