Current digital tools in my work 

In my work as an office worker, I use a lot of digital tools. We hold a lot of confidential data and most of the tools are only used inside of Kela. I myself don’t use a lot of digital tools to keep in contact with outside collaborators. For that, we use phone or e-mail. Inside of Kela our main conversation tool is still Skype. We also use e-mail quite a lot. Microsoft Teams running is on its way, but it’s still not used widely.  

I’m not quite sure which platform we use, but it is the place where we share knowledge throughout the whole organization. For customer work we have OmaKela. That is the place where customers can contact us, for example by sending a message, a file or an application for example.  For us workers there are a lot of different internal programs that we use for our work. Skype is in reality the only social media that I use in my work if e-mail is not counted in.

Social media from both positive and negative side 

I can really only see positive sides of using social media in my work. And by this, I mean social media that I could use in our organization’s inner platform. As I stated before, my work consists mainly of using confidential data, and for that, I can’t really use social media in creating data outside the organization. But I do see the many positive effects that social media would streamline work inside our organization. I think using social media smartly, you can save a lot of money by diminishing inefficient worktime.  

I do understand the negative sides of using social media. You have to be aware of the risks, for example concerning copyrights and security. You have to be aware that you are working in an environment where you share things with others. What do you want to share? What are you allowed to share? What could happen if the data you shared got into the wrong hands? What’s the worst thing they could do with it? 

Tools 

Here are the five tools I chose that I think I could utilize in my daily work. 

Chat GPT 

This seems to be a really interesting tool with a lot of opportunities. It was really nice to get to test it in Digi society assignment. In my work there is a lot of knowledge scattered around and it takes too much time and effort to find the information you need. We need this type of tool in our work to help us navigate in this information mass. We don’t have the data stored away in one place and that makes it very hard to use. Chat GPT could work in our organization platform and find the answer a lot quicker than we can. It could collect all the knowledge in one place and from that compiled data we could utilize information more effectively. 

Google Chat (former Hangouts) 

We need a more updated tool to keep in contact with our colleagues than Skype. I think Google chat could be a tool for that purpose. We need a place where we can converse and exchange greetings. A place where you can talk one on one with somebody even about things that are not related to work. You can also use Google Chat for collaboration with multiple individuals. 

Mural 

Mural is a tool that I could use in teamwork. Nowadays we don’t have the necessary tools to do effective or, in a matter of fact, any kind of teamwork. The way we do team work now is through Skype only. We also sometimes use e-mail to ask people their output on things. The teamwork in my work is really slow and broken down into pieces. We need a functional place where to do teamwork. We need a platform that is literally made for that purpose like Mural is. We need a place to collect the data and to edit it. We need an opportunity to go back to develop an idea further. We need ways to create and visualize the work we are doing collectively. 

Todoist 

I think this tool is made for me. I’m a person that needs to have her tasks in order. Todoist seems to be a tool that would tackle just that. At this time, I use my e-mail as a way to keep track with my tasks. I use e-mail message drafts to list things that I need to do. This is not an effective way to keep track of what needs to be done and when things need to be finished. I desperately need a better way to manage my tasks. 

Vimeo 

I could use this tool to do instruction videos to use in my work. A part of my job is to hold training events so a good video tool could help me make my teaching material more visual. At this point I don’t use any other than Microsoft PowerPoint or Word as instruction tools. If I could decide myself, I would like to use different tools to make training richer and more engaging to viewers. 

The elements of successful use of digital application 

The digital application is useful to you when it makes your job easier to do. The application should lighten your burden, not increase it. In the beginning you of course have to study how the application works and what kind of features it possesses. And while you are using the application, you are getting more fluent with it. You need to keep the application updated, especially for the information security aspect but also because the applications are always under improvement.  If the application is not upgraded from time to time, you should get rid of that application.  

The important question you should ask yourself before downloading an application is: What is the reason you need the app? You should take time before using an application especially for work purposes but also for your own free time. You can often try different applications for a while for free to see if they are suited for your needs. Only when you are certain of your choice, should you take the application in full use. In this you have to remember to check your firm’s security parameters. Not all applications will be considered safe, especially if you are going to use them on the company’s internal grid. 

Self evaluation 

This task was a hard one, because at this time I use a minimal number of social media in my work, so it was really hard to think which social media I could utilize in my daily work in the future. I did enjoy familiarizing myself with different social media platforms. I must confess that I hadn’t heard half of them before.  

After this assignment I would be eager to improve the collection of applications that we use at work. Unfortunately, in a big government organization like Kela, I don’t have a say in what tools we use. I just have to hope that in time, Kela is also ready to use versatile tools in making work easier and more productive.