Adopt This Technology: The NEW Google Calendar

Readers,

I admit, I am a Google Calendar addict. My life operates from two Google Calendars, my personal calendar and my husband's work/school calendar. Through Google Calendar, I am able to view any gaps or overlaps on the calendar well in advance of the event.

Yes, I also admit that I plan my life at least six to eight months in advance. When someone asks me if I can meet on a certain day, I can tell them with a high level of certainty whether I will or will not be able to meet on a particular day.

Here are some ways that I use Google Calendar:

- Publication Deadlines: I add the publication deadline to the calendar and then I use the reminders feature to send an e-mail to myself when the deadline is three and two weeks away.

- Collaboration Opportunities and Meetings: When I need to work with others on a project and/or publication, I add all of their e-mail addresses to the calendar event and we are able to keep ourselves accountable during this time period.

- Task List: I use the task feature to organize my tasks by the day the tasks are due. For example, if I need to open a Blackboard test for a student tomorrow, I add this "task" on my list on tomorrow's date. Not only does this task appear on my calendar, but it also appears on my Gmail account task list. I can print this task list OR I can glance at this task list on my iPad between classes.


- Embedding the Calendar on a Website: This year, we embedded the Google Calendar on our Environmental Communication Week website. This was very neat for the Google users, because they could just add the events to their personal calendars.


Here's a recent post from Prof Hacker about the new features on Google Calendar - LINK.

Here are some of the new Google Calendar features - LINK.

Millennial Professor - Jennifer T. Edwards, Ed.D.

Become a fan of Millennial Professor on Facebook - http://goo.gl/gnN41

Wandering Wednesdays - Communication in Higher Education Blog

Readers,


This week (Independence Week), I am PROUD to feature the Communication in Higher Education Blog for Wandering Wednesday! This blog's author, Dr. Lora Helvie-Mason, is one of my best friends and research partners in higher education. 

Although our journeys are very different (she is white and she works at an HBCU and I am black and I work a predominately white institution), we have a wealth of similarities! Last March, she spent quality time with my students and I at the Southern States Communication Association Conference and we had a great time riding the Little Rock Street Car and dining at one of the local eateries. This summer, she invited me to meet her students during one of their monthly "Pass It On" poetry slam events at the George and Leah McKenna Museum of African American Art. Her students' poetry was simply amazing! Here's a sample:

Throughout the past few years, we compared and contrasted our tenure track journey, which may be coming to an end very soon! I have enjoyed sharing my higher education experience with such a wonderful woman! Okay, now to her blog, Communication & Higher Education: Life on the Tenure Track at a Teaching Institution.


Through her blog, she explores life on the tenure-track at a teaching institution through the following lens: faculty life, socialization, issues faced by faculty, teaching and pedagogy, and technology in higher education. Her blog candidly explores trends in higher education culture, access, information flow, and faculty life.


Enjoy!


Millennial Professor - Jennifer T. Edwards, Ed.D.

Become a fan of Millennial Professor on Facebook - http://goo.gl/gnN41

ACRL Presentation: Millennials and Beyond - Student and Faculty Voices

Readers,


Thanks for bearing with me! Here's my presentation from the ACRL conference:




Enjoy!


Millennial Professor - Jennifer T. Edwards, Ed.D.

Become a fan of Millennial Professor on Facebook - http://goo.gl/gnN41

Reflection from the TXDLA Conference - My Presentation/Review of Centra/Review of the Conference

Readers,

*I wrote this entry a few weeks ago after the TXDLA Conference and I never posted it to the blog. I always like to write a reflective blog entry after every conference (usually this occurs on the airplane on the way home).

Currently, I am en route to the DFW airport after attending the Texas Distance Learning Association Conference in San Antonio, TX. This was my first time attending this particular conference and I had a wealth of negative perceptions about the attendees. For example, I thought that this conference was just for techies, but after attending the conference I realized that I was a techie as well. I teach online and hybrid courses, but I am a complete techno junkie and I understood all of the jargon utilized at the conference. 

I attended and tweeted during each of the sessions. The first session I attended was presented by administrators from Texas A&M University. This particular session was simply amazing because it focused on Centra, which is a web conferencing software utilized by the Texas A&M System and my university has FREE usage of the software! Wonderful! This three hour session was very interactive and every participant had access to a laptop computer. We watched videos, completed polls, and maintained a great discussion about the features of the software.

After this hour long session, I was ready for lunch (which was provided for all conference attendees). Slightly before the conference session ended, I received a text message from a colleague at my university and she heard that I was attending the conference. I was so excited to hear from her because I thought that I was the only conference attendee from my university. So we met by the ballroom doors to enter the lunch/vendor room.

I wish that I took a picture of the set up for lunch, because it was very organized and the participants had a chance to interact with each of the vendors during lunch (because the lunch tables and the buffet lines were located in the middle of the ballroom). This provided the conference attendees and vendors with a great "bang for their conference dollar". I always interact with conference vendors because I realize how conference need to maintain positive relationships with each of their vendors to keep the vendors interesting in purchasing a booth space for next year's conference. 

During lunch, I had a great conversation with my colleague and we had time to plan an amazing project for next year. Yes, readers...this project will make a BIG impact on the state of Texas and perhaps the rest of the  nation! :) I am too excited about this project and both of us are extremely goal oriented! I will post more information soon!

After lunch, I had time to look over my presentation one additional time before delivering the content at 3 pm. My presentation was focused on one of my passions, Google Applications (Google Documents/Google Docs). I was so excited to see 20-25 session attendees at a later session because more sessions only had two to three attendees. Everyone seemed excited about the content and they really liked the Google Voice program. Several tweets from this session were:

@agozuna: Attending the google docs in online courses session. #txdla-339 #txdla2011”

@agozuna: Jennifer Edwards uses google docs for all course-related materials, including the syllabus. #txdla-339 #txdla2011

I distributed several business cards and I hope to have a few workshop opportunities in the next few months. :) After attending this year's TXDLA conference, I will DEFINITELY attend the conference in Dallas! :)

Sincerely,

J. Edwards

Millennial Professor - Jennifer T. Edwards, Ed.D.

Become a fan of Millennial Professor on Facebook - http://goo.gl/gnN41