Google Calendar...A Mobile Student Organizer

The more I use Google Calendar, the more I think we should just replace all hard copy calendars and those bulky assignment notebooks with the free Google service. The best part is that not only is the Calendar service web-based and allows you to collaborate with others on a Calendar, but it is mobile! So students will always be able to have their calendars and schedules on hand (unlike hard copy assignment notebooks where they often forget these)...since they never leave home without their cell phones.

Here are a few reasons why the Google Calendar mobile features are so handy for teaching students life-long organizational skills.
1) You can have all of your events, assignment due dates, or meeting times sent to you as a text message reminder 24 hours or less before the actual due date (you decide how soon you want to be reminded).
2) You can retrieve your calendar information 24 hours before...therefore if you a meeting the next day but cannot remember the time or place (and you are not in front of the Internet) you can text message your Google Calendar, and it will message you back with all of your events for the next 24 hours!
3) You can create new events from your cell phone. Either by texting from your cell phone or using a service called JOTT (where you can create audio posts on your calendar from your cell phone).
4) Of course Google Calendar also links up with all other Google applications such as Documents, Sites (very cool way to wiki without advertisements), Presentations, and Maps. So anything students post to their Google Calendar can easily be retrieved and used in any Google Application or vice-versa. Anything posted in Google Calendar from a Google Ap, can be retrieved via cell phone.