Web 2.0 and Emerging Learning Technologies/Calendars

What it is

Google Calendar is a free contact and time management web application offered by Google. This tool became available on April 13th, 2006. Users are not required to have a gmail account, but they are required to have a free Google account in order to use this software. With Google Calendar you are able to keep track of all your important events in your life and you can see your friends’ schedules next to yours.You can easily create invitations by clicking Create Events,send reminders (including mobile phone notifications) and add other interesting events that you find on line.

The interface of Google Calendar is similar to Desktop Calendar applications such as Microsoft Outlook. The interface enables users to view, add and even drag and drop events from one date to another without reloading the page. It has a variety of view modes, such as weekly, monthly and agenda views. Users can also set the number of days to show in their custom view mode. All events in a Google Calendar can be commented on by its users. Events can also be imported from other calendar applications such as '''Yahoo! Calendar and Microsoft Outlook'''.

Calendar Picture

Google Calendar is a quite colourful application and it is not difficult to use. Both caracteristics make Google Calendar a very easy-handle tool for children, adolescents and grown-up students and teachers who want to organize their course of studies effortlessly.

Other features:


 * Gmail now recognizes when messages mention events, so when you get emailed about an event, you can easily add it to Google Calendar.
 * You can create multiple calendars for different areas of your life.
 * You can subscribe to additional calendars. You can search for public calendars or even your friends’ calendars.
 * You can change the colour of the events from different calendars to get the right look.
 * If you have a website that mentions events, Google Calendar can help your users find this information and add it to their own calendar.
 * You can create a webpage where people can browse through your calendar, even if they don’t have a Google Calendar account. *You can also embed an interactive calendar of your events into your website blog with the "Embeddable Calendar Helper Tool".
 * You can set limits on the information you share with others. You control how much you share and who you share it with.

Google Calendar is integrated with other Google services:


 * Gmail, Google's webmail service. When a e-mail that contains trigger words ( such as meeting), an add to calendar button is automatically displayed.
 * IGoogle, the user-designed Google homepage, in which users can choose and organize content in the form of gadgets. For example if you need to know the weather, you can create time-sensitive mini-apps that can lie within your Google Calendar, with Google Calendar Gadgets.
 * Google Desktop, Google's desktop search software for Windows Vista, Windows XP and Windows 2000. The mini-calendar gadget allows you view your agenda without having to open your browser. you can place it on your desktop or leave it docked in the sidebar.

Teaching and Learning Possibilities

New web tools, known as Web 2.0 or Social Media tools are impacting all our lives. They are creating a new phase of learning known as E-learning 2.0 or Social learning.

E-learning is more than just self-paced on line courses. It consists of many continuosly updated free on line tools. E-learning is transforming teaching and learning.

Google Calendar is one of the most popular free tools in the top 100 tools for learning 2008 list.

Calendars (Google-Yahoo-Windows) are a fantastic tool that is available everywhere and promotes E-learning.

Calendars have not been originally created to "teach and learn", but now they are used in education. Calendars offer a variety of teaching and learning possibilities.


 * For a teacher, a calendar can be his/her diary and lesson planner.
 * For a student, a calendar may help him/her keep on track through his/her homework.
 * A teacher can put all the students assignments and other events on the calendar. Colour coding allows a quick visual cue so that students and parents can easily distinguish scheduled quizzes and tests, daily assignments and other events.
 * Mobile alerts (viasms) may help either teachers or students remember their responsbilities.
 * A calendar is a free way for teachers/students to organise their schedules, share timetables among them to make the lesson timetabling clear.

In conclusion, on line Calendars(Google-Yahoo-Windows) are an exceptional free tool that is nowadays used in the educational environment, promoting E-learning and helping teachers and students organise their work.

Example Links

These calendars include important dates of many conferences, focusing on education, advanced technology, innovations, English Language Teaching and others.

title: google calendar URL: http://www.google.com/calendar/embed?src=publicompu%40gmail.com&ctz=America%2FArgentina%2FBuenos_Aires ( Talks and seminars Computing School UCV)

title: google calendar

URL: http://www.google.com/calendar/embed?src=emege68%40gmail.com&ctz=Pacific%2FHonolulu

title: google calendar

URL: http://www.google.com/calendar/embed?src=openenglishlivesessions%40gmail.com&ctz=Pacific%2FHonolulu

title: google calendar

URL: http://www.google.com/calendar/embed?src=c67rceiksbtotop3m3hi9ti9j4%40group.calendar.google.com&ctz=Pacific%2FHonolulu