We are citizens of increasingly digitalized society. Digitalized services make our lives easier or then make it such a nightmare. To me it is something between those I think. Good thing is that I can take care of things whenever it is appropriate time for me but the bad side is that I can not stand if something does not work properly. Digital problems are my worst nightmare.
KELA
In Finland there is a national insitute called Social Insurance Institution of Finland (KELA) that provides social security for Finnish citizens. When I was young and studying full time I got financial support from KELA for studies and residence. Later I had children and got parental allowance to replace work incomes. KELA provides also other benefits for family with kids. When having a child you can choose if you want to take the maternity package or cash benefit. I have been paid also child benefit of my children under 17 years of age. Now my eldest child is at the age when applying the support for studies from KELA is topical again. Actually I could also get some financial support for studying as an adult if I would take some time off from work. Nowadays all applications can be done in KELA’s digital service.
KELA provides financial compensation for the costs of prescription medicines too. That is a big thing if you have diseases that requires regular medication. I think somehow this service is familiar to all and everyone has used it in some point of their life. KELA also reimburses part of the costs if visiting doctors of private sector. Students in higher education have right to use the services of the Finnish Student Health Service by paying the healthcare fee to KELA. I have also paid the fee through the digital service but had no need to use this provided service yet. Abroad you can receive medically necessary treatment in all EU or EEA countries too when having the European Health Insurance Card granted by KELA with you. My children already have this card and after this assignment I will have my own too.
OMAKANTA
OmaKanta (MyKanta) is a digital service for citizens where you can view your own health data. You can for example check the x-ray examinations or results of laboratory tests, view prescriptions and make a request for renewaling them and read records related to your treatment. You can also express and save your living will and organ donation testament in the service as well as your wishes regarding the sharing of your data.
Access to the service requires identification which I did with my personal bank credentials. Logging in was easy and felt safe with reliable identification system. I have used OmaKanta service only a couple of times earlier. I got then my wishes considering organ donation and data sharing done quick and easily. I have also experience of renewal prescription by taking advantage of the service and that worked well too. I have heard that there has been some problems every now and then with the service and all data like laboratory test results are not always visible in OmaKanta like it should be. But this can be due to many different reasons.
KEVA
Keva is an independent community under public law that administers the pensions of public sector employees and aims to enhance work ability of the employees. Keva has also a digital service where you can for example check your pension record and the pension you have earned to date or estimate your pension using the pension calculator. I logged in to the digital service with my bank credentials again and checked my own information. My first opportunity to retire was at the age of 66 years and 11 months. I also estimated my pension if I would stop working at 63 years or alternatively at 68 years. Well, unfortunately the amount of the pension up to this point showed that I have to work still many many years. But if working until retirement age I think I will manage with my pension.
DIGITAL SHOPPING
I do rarely digital shopping and most of it is some bookings or tickets. It is true that you often get things cheaper from digital shops compared to local shops especially if you buy enough to get free delivery too. However I for example like to see and fit clothes before making the decision of purchase. There is always a risk with other things too that product does not correspond the description or the delivery will not show up at all. I have used Trivago and Booking.com and these have been reliable. On the websites there finds an adequate information and pictures to the customer and searching is easy with different kind of filters in my opinion. You can also choose the language you want to use on these services. On eBay and Amazon there was lots of stuff for sale and websites looked messy out. Not very attractive and did not gain much confidence. Finnish language was not selectable either and the prices were basically dollars. I think in the future I will continue my digital shopping in the same way and use digital shopping services only with consider and for certain things. It is also important to support local shops so that they remains too.
BOOKING AN APPOINTMENT TO THE LABORATORY ONLINE
I work in the laboratory and wanted to try how booking an appointment online works from patient’s point of view. First I went to the website of my organization. On the main page there were at least 3 similar icons at different points that guided you to the booking program. Icons were easy to notice because of a different color from others. On the main page it was also possible to choose Finnish, English or Swedish language. As I moved forward to the next step I had to choose area and location of the laboratory I wanted to visit. After that you were guided to the actual booking program. It was possible to book an appointment by signing in with strong authentication or continue anonymously. I chose anonymous booking. There were short instructions on how to choose the correct service and what else you should keep in mind. After making selections you were shown all appointments available according to your selections. By clicking you could select the time you wanted. Confirmation of the reservation was made by filling at least your personal identity code and name on the program. If wanted a reminder it was necessary to write your e-mail address or phone number too. Finally you could check and confirm your reservation and there were also short instructions on how to prepare for tests. All in all quit easy digital service to use in my opinion and as fast as booking an appointment by calling I think.
DIGITALIZATION AND DIGITAL CAP
Today it is increasingly common that everything is or getting digitalized. This is a challenge for those who lives out of the digital society . Everyone do not have the possibility to use digital services due to lack of necessary skills. Not everyone has either necessary devices to use digital services. With digitalization more and more offices are being closed or they are open only one or two days a week. This has made it difficult to take care of things in a traditional way. Often it is also chargeable or more expensive to have service from an office employee. Unfortunately this increases inequality between people and the risk of isolation too. Despite of my own digital abilities I like to have also interaction with people in certain things and that can not be replaced with digital service. In my opinion it is very important to remain alternatives for digital services in the future too.
MY DIGITAL COMPETENCE
The picture below reflects my digital competence. I did the Digital Competence Test and got highest scores for Data Protection, Identity Management and Law. All of these are related to safety. My weakest digital competence area was Production. In my opinion the result of this test was quite realistic compared to my own thoughts.
My total score of the test was 65% which is at the intermediate level. According to the Digital Competence Test it means that I am able to perform well-defined tasks and solve non-routine problems independently. I agree with that also.
SELF-REFLECTION
With this assignment writing in English was much more easier than in the previous assignment. The tasks were nice and made me think my own use of digital services. I have thought that I do not use digital services that much but after this assignment I realized I just don’t notice it. There was also some new digital service websites I visited in this assignment. Digital services can make our lives easier but they also put us in an unequal position and expose us to digital dangers like cheating and hacking.
According to the Digital Competence Test I should learn more about a digital production and communication. Digital production like creating and modifying automated solutions or staying updated on the digital developments do not interest me that much so that is why my competence in these digital areas is weak. I am also a little bit old-fashioned with communication I think and just learning my digital communication skills. In that respect this course is really good for me.
I commented on:
Kaisu’s blog by Kaisu Auvinen
Sanna’s site by Sanna Happonen
Titta’s site by Titta Haatainen