Google Voice
I should be sleeping or at least reading my nightstand book to get me into sleep mode. I have a workout method of getting up at 4:45 and to the gym by 5:00am.
But…I can’t stop working in Google Voice.
I love it.
And I don’t want to waste time talking about its features. There’s a video for that on Google’s page.
I do want to talk about use of this tool in our schools. I kind of posted a brief note on Twitter as I was reverse-engineering one problem and trying to fill the holes using Voice. The problem is district communications in emergencies. How can you contact all the major stake-holders as quickly and easily as possible?
You can Twitter or Plurk, I guess.
You can pay a yearly subscription to an SMS product that will do this via text message, email, and voice.
But can you setup Google Voice to serve as the one number to call?
Anyone else using GV yet? I would be interested to see if you have an idea for its use in your district?
I am considering adding the number to my signature in the district email. Let all staff have a number that can reach me?? That’s crazy and foolish!!
Not really. I don’t have to answer it and the messages are relayed via email. It is simply another method of receiving text messages.
Will it interfere with my time at home? Only if I don’t take advantage of the features that allow me to restrict times when the phone will ring vs. times the message goes directly to text.
And not only does it record voice messages but I can also record an entire conversation….which is converted to text and archived!
Makes me wonder with Google Chat and Google Voice (and soon to be Wave and other nice things); why I should be investigating Unified Voice Message systems and IP phones. We aren’t getting them for every classroom due to cost. But….with these types of tools, do IP phones and those systems start to become irrelevant?
Just thoughts. Anyone have ideas or comments?
I say at least get on Google Voice. It is a neat tool for personal use but I really wonder if it can be used for professional resources as well.
August 12th, 2009 at 1:18 am
I have Google Voice, though I don’t use it all that much. It’s great, and it’s the number that I have on the interwebs (210-338-0405 FWIW). Since it’s detached from any one phone, and since I can turn it on and off as needed, or send people to voicemail, or give different people different treatment, I have no qualms about using the number as a point of contact with pretty much whoever. By abstracting any given phone it allows for freedom to communicate on your terms. Which would work well in a business setting as well. 9-to-5 calls go through, calls outside business hours go to voicemail and get transcribed/emailed. Elegant.