As part of my inquiry project, I am going to be working through the Basic use of Google Workspace for Education Fundamentals online course. I plan to take the Level 1 exam once I finish the course. The first bit of the course talked about using google drive (see previous post). The next bit is talking about using Gmail and Google Meet to communicate.

Google Meet is a great way to meet virtually with parents and families. It is a great way to meet and talk about an issue at school and could be more personable than a phone call, as you have the video feed as well. I also appreciate that you can schedule a time. I feel like this would be a good option for the parents to meet the teacher at the beginning of the year or attend parent/teacher/student conferences if they are unable to attend the in-person event. I think that it functions in very similar ways to Zoom, and choosing between the two programs could be down to personal preference, privacy concerns, and district policies.

Now, Gmail is super useful. I particularly appreciate the ability to have multiple inboxes, colour code emails, sort emails into folders (you can set it up to do this automatically for emails coming from certain email addresses or via key words), to star emails to come back to and so much more.

screenshot of gmail inbox settings

Multiple inbox setting

Most features are controlled by clicking on the gear at the top and clicking on additional settings. Another cool setting is the ability to clump emails into “conversations” to keep track of replies etc. I also really appreciate the ability to have an automated “out of office” message which can be set up for a particular amount of time.

vacation auto responder setting

I also really appreciate that Google Keep (next week’s topic) is available as a sidebar in the desktop Gmail. This is a great spot to jot notes, or add to your to-do list.