Teachers are busy no question: meetings, due dates, professional devleopments, and conferences. Sometimes I hardly have the ability to stop and write down dates and notes into a PDA or computer, but I know I will need those reminders in an email, calendar, or todo list.

Then comes Jott. A service that with one phone call you can record your reminders and have them sent to an email, calendar, blog, or text message. I have never been a fan of voice services. Most of the time they don’t work, but with this service, I have had a great deal of luck. If you are afraid Jott won’t get it right, you can spell it.

Of course, there are many ways a teacher can use this. Here is how I have used it in just a short time.

• A quick text message to a student for an assignment: Yes, I know my students’ cell phone numbers.
• A quick email message: Even though I am always connected with a laptop, desktop, iPhone, Jott can save minutes. My campus communicates mostly from email. This is a great way to make a quick note.
• Calendar: This is the biggest reason for me using the service. Typing on the iPhone takes much longer than a quick Jott to my Google Calendar. Using Spanning Sync, I can sync to my iCal on my MacBook, then to my iPhone. Making one call, I have my appointments in many places.

This is a beta test, so it may not be perfect. I have had just a few slip ups, but it was about 90 percent accurate.