Google Calendar is an often overlooked feature of Google Apps for Education (GAFE). Don’t overlook Google Calendar; it’s real and it’s fabulous.
Google Calendars can be private, shared, and public. Keep a private calendar for yourself, share another calendar with write privs to collaborate with a group, keep another public calendar for public events, and pull them all together when you view them in your calendar view. Too many events? Overwhelmed? Click off the view on the calendars not currently of interest. Want to pull in someone else’s public or shared calendar to your view? Click a link and add it as an “other” calendar. Need a month view? Click “Month.” Need to concentrate on individual events? Click “Agenda.”
Taking a look at the Google District calendar shows many of the advantages. The District Google calendar embedded into the District website and into Aspen is really several Google calendars pulled together into one view. Notice that every school has their own calendar, so when they add an event, it automatically shows up on this consolidate public calendar. Have private events? Keep them on a private calendar so only you (or your team) sees the private events.
Above is what an embedded calendar looks like… as in when you view it on a website. Here is what Google calendar looks like from your Google calendar interface, which is available when you have logged into your district Google account.
Some practical applications of Google Calendar
- Want to keep a calendar of important teacher deadlines and events? Create a new calendar called “Teacher Events,” make it public, embed it into a website, or simply share the link to it with your staff, who can then add it to their Google calendar. Any events you add, modify, delete, etc., will then be updated on the shared instances for anyone adding the public calendar to their view of Google calendar.
- Want to work with a small team? Make a new calendar and share it with write privs with all team members. Don’t make it public, so that only the invited participants can see it.
- Want other ideas? See Using Google Calendar for Appointment Slots.