I am so happy with Google Voice! If you haven’t tried it out, you may want to! First, it’s free!
Here’s what it does! You pick one number from Google Voice with your area code. What’s neat is that you can have Google Voice search for a word you like, a special combination of numbers, your first name, or just any combo and it will let you know if a number is available with that combination. Then, you control what happens when someone calls that number. For instance, if you are waiting for an important call from your spouse, you can have your mobile and your phone at work both ring when your spouse calls so you don’t miss it! You can have separate answering messages for each of your contacts. You can screen calls or have them go straight through or a mixture of both. You can have a certain contact get a notice that the line is disconnected…helpful for those pesky calls and you don’t even have to think about it! There are apps for your phones, too! The newly updated Droid app works great and there’s one for Blackberry and iPhone. So, when you make a call from your phone, the phone number shown is your Google Voice number. Google voice also gives you voicemail by text and my email. There’s so much available, you’ll just have to take a look at http://voice.google.com.
Here’s a short video for Google Voice
Carol Mortensen has nearly twenty-three years of educational experience. She began as a substitute teacher as she worked toward her degree. Upon graduation, Carol began teaching middle school Math and Algebra I and served as the technology liaison for her campus. She served as a teacher for 16 years and was lucky to have taught at Hillcrest Middle School, a 1:1 campus where every student was issued a laptop computer. She also worked as an Instructional Technology Trainer for her district providing training and technology integration support for campus and district staff, faculty and administrators. Currently, Carol enjoys her position as the Campus Technology Integration Specialist for Deer Park High School – South Campus. Before taking this position this year, she served for three years as the Campus Technology Integration Specialist at Fairmont Junior High in Deer Park Independent School District. In this position, Carol provides integration support and training to the students, staff, faculty, and administrators at the campus and district level. In addition, Carol is an online Math instructor for Aventa Learning and K12. The Texas Computer Education Association (TCEA) named Carol the Classroom Teacher of the Year for her innovative and creative use of technology to create a 24/7 virtual classroom using her classroom website. Carol has presented at school districts throughout Texas as well as state and local conferences on a variety of technology integration topics. Her article on the use of websites as an instructional tool was recently published in the TechEdge Magazine. In February 2011, her article, Lessons Learning In a 1:1 Classroom, was published by TechEdge. The article was republished in ISTE’s Learning and Leading magazine in August 2011. She was named Fairmont Junior High’s Teacher of the Year for the 2011-2012 school year. Carol is passionate about the positive impact that technology has on student achievement. Her presentations are packed with real-life solutions, quality resources, and humor. She has an ability to connect with her audience and motivate them to take technology integration to a higher quality level.
