My new gadget is on the right hand side of my blog at the top and the icon says "call me"
I just got my Google Voice number. For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about (that would have included me a couple of weeks ago) Google Voice is a service, free of charge, from Google that acts as a virtual operator. The official Google blog with info can be found here
Currently you can only get Google Voice by invite and you can find a link at the aforementioned link.
Now like I said I just got it but I know about some of its capabilities. You can use it to tie all of your phone numbers (cell, home, work, and others) to one number that you can select. When someone calls that number it can contact all, or non depending on your preference. You have the ability to either take a call or send it to voice mail, which you can pick up later on your computer as text, if that is what you desire.
The first use that comes to mind is I can give out ONE number and screen my calls without giving out any of my PRIVATE numbers. The implications for education are obvious, see how I cleverly bring it back to the goal of this blog ;-) namely I can give my phone number out to my classroom, or parents, or even put it on my blog and facilitate communication with my students without risking my privacy.
Pretty Cool!
Give me a call :-)
bf
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2 comments:
That is pretty cool! I like the idea of this one number to answer or not, but I'm always fearful of new technology. I guess it's because I don't know if I'm working it correctly or not. And what I'd be fearful of hear is accidentally not getting a phone call from a parent of one of my struggling special education students (mostly the most needy/demanding one right now) and then hearing about it from my administrator (oh yeah this has happened with my "old school" phone system). But other than that, it sounds pretty cool. I could try it with my personal calls first? Thanks for letting us know about this technology!
Hmmm....I was just playing with the icon and It is interesting....when you enter the number it asks for (the phone you want to connect from) you have a choice to keep your number private or not. It then connects to your phone and subsequently connects to mine. I then have the option of taking the call or sending it to voice mail.....As long as Google provides this service free of charge I think I will use it....who would have thought Google was going to snatch world domination from Microsoft? ;-)
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