By:
On:
In: Technology for Academics (archive)

Boomerang Calendar, a gmail addin, looks for date/time information in your incoming gmail messages, compares them against your Google Calendar entries, and lets you know if you’re free or not, and then lets you schedule a time. It also allows you to easily propose meeting times to individuals or groups. I sent this message to my gmail account. This is what it looked like when I opened it in gmail. Boomerang Calendar identified date/time information, and looked at those time slots in my Google Calendar. Green means I’m free, yellow means that the time is bumping up against another appointment, and red means I’m alreadyRead More →

By:
On:
In: Technology for Academics (archive)

As the term comes to a close and you slide into the break for a bit of a breather, consider checking out these tech tools. I know you probably don’t have time now to look at these, although if you’re looking for a good excuse to do something besides grade papers… If you don’t want to take the time now, bookmark this webpage, and take a look at these when you need a break from your visiting in-laws. (Yes, I know you love them, but that doesn’t mean that you have to spend the entire week with them.) Here they are (the tools, not yourRead More →

By:
On:
In: Technology for Academics (archive)

I bet you don’t schedule many appointments between 9pm and 8am. Yeah, me neither. Google Calendar now gives you the option to hide those hours, or whatever early/late hours you choose. To activate the option, go to your Google Calendar, and click on the cog icon in the top right corner. Select “Labs”. Click “enable” next to the “Hide morning and night” tool. Click the “Save” button near the top of the page, and you’re done. Go back to your calendar. On the far left, where the times are listed, some of the times will be shaded. Click and hold the little bar at theRead More →

By:
On:
In: Technology for Academics (archive)

[Update 12/15/2012 : Given the issues with Google Calendar Sync, I wasn’t surprised to hear that it was being sunsetted.  Use gSyncIt instead.] To users of Google Calendar Sync (synching Google Calendar with Outlook) [Everyone else can safely ignore.] Warning: Appointments added to Google Calendar may show up in Outlook one hour off for the next week. Possible solutions: Free option: Double check your calendars to make sure the times are correct. $19.99 option: Switch from the free Google Calendar Sync to the $19.99 gysncit for synchronizing Google Calendar and Outlook.  (http://www.fieldstonsoftware.com/software/gsyncit3/)   Why the federal government is to blame: It all started when theyRead More →

By:
On:
In: Technology for Academics (archive)

Of all the tech tools I’ve written about, there’s one that garners the most praise from my readers: YouCanBook.Me. There are three faculty members on my campus that, whenever I see them, mention how much they love it. Last month I was at the American Psychological Association Convention, and one of the attendees was a reader of this blog. She told me how great she though this tool was, and that several faculty on her campus concurred. What makes it so great? It automates a task that otherwise requires several emails and a lot of time. Without YouCanBook.Me: Student: I’d like to make an appointmentRead More →

By:
On:
In: Technology for Academics (archive)

[Update 12/15/2012 : Effective January 2013, appointment slots will no longer be an option.  Try YouCanBook.Me instead.] Google Calendar now lets you let others schedule appointments in your calendar. With YouCanBook.Me, any open time can be scheduled. With Google Calendar’s new feature, you decide which times are open to scheduling. In Google Calendar, click on an open time slot like you normally do to add a new event. Click on “Appointment slots”. Call it what you’d like, say, “Office Hours”, then I selected “Offer as slots of 30 minutes.” Change the time to another amount if you’d like, such as 15 minutes. That’s it. EditRead More →

By:
On:
In: Technology for Academics (archive)

Here’s some news for the Google calendar users. You can now change the color of an individual event. Click the top of an existing event, then select the down arrow next to the event title. Choose the color you’d like. The top bar where the time is will remain the same color as your calendar, but the section that includes the name of the event will change color. When you create a new event or click on ‘edit event details,’ you can change the event color there. You can now mark those especially important meetings in red and the less important in grey. What youRead More →

By:
On:
In: Technology for Academics (archive)

My readers know that I’m a big fan of YouCanBook.Me (see this post). In fact YouCanBook.Me has some new functionality since I last wrote about it, which means I owe you another post on that tool. In short, YouCanBook.Me gives others the power to schedule themselves into your calendar. Some of you let me know that you don’t want to give students that kind of power. For you, Doodle has a new tool. You may already be familiar with Doodle (see this post) because you’ve used it to get a bunch of people to agree on a time to meet or to vote on someRead More →

By:
On:
In: Technology for Academics (archive)

I’ve been a big proponent of Google calendar as a personal calendar clearinghouse, and I’m also a fan of Doodle for finding a time when everyone can get together for a meeting. While you can enter all of your free times in by hand when creating your Doodle poll, you can also let Doodle pull in your Google calendar and identify the free times for you. Go to Doodle.com. At the bottom of the page, click “Google Calendar.” On the next page, click “Connect with Google.” Doodle will ask you to log in. If you don’t already have a Doodle.com account (free), you’ll need toRead More →

By:
On:
In: Technology for Academics (archive)

There are two things on my computer I have open at all times: My email and my calendar. While I use the Outlook calendar, I sync it with Google Calendar so that any changes I make in one appear in the other. (How to sync Outlook and Google Calendar.) There are a few advantages to using Google Calendar, such as. It syncs easily with my Android phone. I can use YouCanBook.Me so my students can create appointments with me on their own. (See this blog post.) I can see all of my scheduled FollowUp.cc reminders. (See this blog post.) I can share a calendar withRead More →