Current job and digital tools
I work in a city’s Information Management branch, so I use a lot of digital tools. I can roughly divide my work in two segments:
Guidance on educational use of digital tools/ digital pedagogy
Google Workspace for education and M365-products to make materials / guide material.
Wevideo and Quickchannel to make guide video material.
Myriad of apps used with children in ECEC (Lukulumo, Ekapeli, Mollan ABC etc.)
Lumio and Notebook software (making digital learning content)
IT and tech support:
Access and user management platforms (like Azure and Google Admin)
Device management systems (IDR, Intune, MobileIron, SMART remote management)
Chatbot (creating content, managing the chatbot’s paths)
Information security audit tools
There are more if one likes to get nitty gritty, but I feel that the list would just go on and on. So a ballpark of all the tools I use will probably do.
In addition we use Nepton as work time tracking system.
Social media as a digital tool
I think that social media is an easy way to promote something you want everyday consumers to see. In this day and age, people (especially the younger generations) get a majority of their information from social media. It pays to be where the customer as. For example,
It is unfortunate that fake news and facts seem to be a stable on today’s’ social media. A lot of people lack the critical media literacy skills, so they believe everything they see on social media. I think it is important that the social media enterprises take responsibility on moderating, but it is a slippery slope to walk on: what is too much and what is not enough of moderating? So social media can be tricky not only to consumers and businesses using it but to the platform’s owner as well.
Components of a Successful digital tool
So, what makes a digital tool good? In my experience, a good user interface and build in guide go a long way with a digital tool. Naturally the degree of guidance should be in context of user: if you are learning to use a device management software, you probably already know some basic stuff about IT. Another important thing is application security: It doesn’t bode well for the tool, if it riddles the end users’ machinery with viruses or malware. Security is also something that you should be able to check out on regular basis as a consumer. This tends to be very important with cloud-based software.
In my team we use WhatsApp and Teams for communication, and I use Canva to make materials from time to time. Below are some tools that would be helpful in my line of work:
Wix: was a new website creator for me. It seems like an easy user interface and the site included step by step guidance on creating your website. This could be a good platform to use when making your own website. I’ve made mine for work on Google Sites.
Doodle: My whole team works remotely on a regular basis, so I think that tool like Doodle would be a good fit for us. It would help organizing our schedules and it seems to meet our security requirements.
Evernote: This would be a good alternative to Doodle. I like the platform appearance and it seem to have rather easy user interface.
Blogger: This could be used to make customers and end-user more aware of the work my branch does. It its social media but I feel blogs are not as much attached to the idea of social media as for example Facebook is.
Open Badges: this I came across with in the previous assignment. I think this would be a good way to present your skills.
Self-evaluation
I would say I’m an avid social media user in my personal life. In my professional – not that much. I think social media can be a powerful marketing tool, but since I work in a city and my clients (the ECEC educators) work with children there are so many GDPR regulations, stakeholders, and opinions to consider that I try to guide the ECEC educators to tread lightly. A picture is personal data and when it comes to children’s personal data is under special protection. So, one needs to be extra mindful of how and whos’ pictures we use on social media.
The portion of social media made me evaluate also how I separate my work: could I utilizes social media more in other aspects of my work? I know many digital tutors who have social media handlers on many platforms like TikTok, Instagram, Jodel or blogger to showcase the work they do and to share tips and tricks of educational digital tools. I do think it also takes time to maintain social media handlers. and I do not think I would remember to post stuff on a regular basis.