Work-based Apps
In my job as a telehealth advice nurse, we use Microsoft Teams for brief messages between managers, peers, and staffing. For security purposes, these messages are automatically deleted every 30 days. On Teams, we also occasionally attend group ‘Townhalls’, where management informs us of new or changing information and is available for feedback. Managers meet with us via Teams audio call once a month to discuss our performance. Also once a month, I participate in a Teams audio call nursing quality committee meeting with management. I like Teams, it feels simple and authentic, has good audio and picture quality, and it is practical that people who are presenting information can share their screen for all to see. We are not allowed to access the work-related Teams functions, unless we are clocked in and logged in for an official work shift or special meeting.
All of our professional education happens on the specially designed intranet pages of our company. Since we are in healthcare, the use of social media related to work is discouraged. It could compromise privacy laws to use some public app that could leak information. Once in a while, I watch a Vimeo video embedded in an educational segment on our internal pages. Otherwise, our company makes their own proprietary slide shows or videos to keep us nurses informed and offers intranet feedback forms to report system flaws. Occasionally, we fill out a short Survey Monkey questionnaire to give feedback on doctors’ excellent or rude demeanors or to rate an e-learning program.
Microsoft (MS) Outlook is our official email program, used to communicate more or less pertinent messages securely. Since attaching external links is not deemed safe, we are held to use Microsoft 365 programs, such as Power Point, Word, or Excel to formulate or share our proposals and ideas. Also for staffing our company has an internal program.
To log onto our work computer, or to access Human Resources (personnel-related) functions from our home devices, we use an app called Ping ID, a 6-digit code creator that ensures secure log-ins. I think my company is doing a very good job at shielding us from predatory apps and unsafe programs.
Take Five?
It is difficult to choose five apps for a job that does not allow any. But I will take a leap into the future and envision myself in a different setting, after I graduate, now working as a project manager in a startup. Then I might use:
Doodle – an ad-free app that helps schedule 1:1 or group meetings of any size. Doodle advertises that it follows internationally accepted security standards and easily integrates with established apps, like Google calendar, Outlook calendar, Zoom, and MS Teams. Offering available date and time slots, as well as meeting platforms makes a lot of sense. Unfortunately, but understandably, the app is not free, after a 2 week free trial period. It costs from $6.95 per month upwards, depending on how many meeting hosts use the service.
Wix offers a way to create professional-looking websites to promote one’s business, for education, to publish one’s blog, or showcase one’s artistic creations. Wix’s website is its own best advertisement: it looks clean, modern, stylish, comforting, and promising, as if also I can easily make a good-looking website under their guidance. Design templates are offered, as well as functions one might want on their site, such as an appointment scheduler, or an online shopping cart and checkout system. Wix also offers assistance with promoting and marketing one’s sites for more visibility. A free version is available for basic users. All around a useful and appealing tool.
Open Badges provides digital badges for professional achievements. It is a lightweight way of earning educational competencies, giving both the earner and the awarder of the badge clarity on what competencies are required or desired for a given job, and where on the proficiency spectrum an employee is. I like that the company is a non-profit organization (.org), that their website is clear and calm, and that the benefit for all three parties involved, the earner, the issuer, and the developer of the badges is explained. If any learning is needed or expected for a job, it helps to know clearly what it is, and to chunk it into achievable steps. Open Badge brings transparency to work performance and chance of job retention.
Mural seems to be a hip and helpful whiteboard app, although it presents somewhat nervousing on its website, with its swiftly moving circles, names, and other components, as one scrolls down the page. The embedded pitching video shows numerous millennials effortlessly and joyfully solving ‘hard problems’ through the use of colorful shapes organizing tasks into appetizing mind snacks. It seems to me that there is almost a fad going on, promoting this work style, and whenever I overhear people at coffeeshops or in my neighborhood participating in whiteboard’ish meetings, I hear a lot of vain or fashionable statements without much content. Using the digital whiteboard seems to be a lot of busy work in itself, distracting from actually finding a solution. A whiteboard fulfills an important function, namely to unify and organize a team while brainstorming and during product development. I think I would look for a less cutesy version of a whiteboard app. It was interesting, however, to see how Mural works and that it is used by many famous, large corporations, such as GitHub, IBM, or AutoDesk. Maybe experiencing the app in action would convince me of its value.
YouTube would definitely be a tool I would use in my daily work. If a picture speaks a thousand words, then a series of moving pictures must tell stories really well. In my experience, YouTubes can can convey even complex information in an entertaining and engaging way and offers a diverse platform for an endless variety of new and historic presentations. Over time, genres have formed, for example TED Talks, or DIY (Do It Yourself) videos. Anyone can create their own channel to publish content and collect followers; successful creators can make a lot of money. YouTube allows content to be published as private, unlisted, or public. The first two produce a link that can be shared with someone, but not be found through a search; the latter version will create a searchable link and is subject to a strict copyright policy that is well-enforced: if any content is recognized as copyrighted by the algorithm, the video is taken off the air immediately until the situation has been corrected. I would use YouTube to provide work training in a non-boring way, creating more of an experience.
Social Media, a Love-Hate Relationship
Social media puts the tools of glamour, fame, and visibility into the realm of everyday people. Formerly reserved for newspapers, radio, television, and movies, now the stage can belong to anyone, even if they did not study political science, acting, journalism, production, communication, etcetera. New criteria why something or someone is interesting to watch, read, or listen to have emerged. A much larger world of opinions and perspectives has opened up. And now we are absorbed, caught in a sometimes addictive attraction.
A negative aspect is the onslaught of judgments; people not thinking it through before they post content, or being uncompromising in their views. And like a snowball, even unreflected or hateful statements can collect followers and create a large movement that can harm individuals or groups in unprecedented ways, annihilate their careers, ruin their lives. To evoke positive judgment, some people post narcissistic, often crass photos or videos of themselves, driving a culture that seems to care only about oneself, modeling an egocentric, superficial, mindless (but often loud) lifestyle to gullible younger generations. Advertisements have become very aggressive and disruptive on some social media platforms, and protecting one’s privacy from constant attacks on our data has become an annoying part-time occupation. With the invasion of Russia into the Ukraine I am painfully reminded that the most gruesome aspect of Social Media is its use for widespread misinformation. Easily, photos can be falsified and filmed footage snippets can be combined with misleading statements or catchy headlines to create false impressions on millions of people, justifying wars, influencing elections, and demonizing entire ethnic populations. This is where Social Media becomes a form of propaganda tool that can be unfathomably harmful, not just annoying.
On the positive side is the ease and speed with which we can connect to people all over the world, for fun, work, or education (like right now). No longer do we need to wait days or weeks for a letter to arrive, telling of old news. Young adults can move half around the world from their families and still stay closely in touch via Skype, Zoom, WhatsApp, or other video platforms. Texting can convey short messages that can be received during other activities, unlike a more disruptive phone call would. Yes, it makes us multi-task, but I consider that a good thing (unless it causes us to be a humanoid zombie from the prior paragraph). Finally, being isolated from one another during the COVID-19 pandemic has been buffered by remote work and social media. True, it is not the same as physically being around somebody, but it is definitely the next-best thing.
I use WhatsApp to stay in touch with my family and friends in different continents. Sending written or spoken messages to them any time of day or night and receiving answers back on their best schedule helps us stay connected, as do the phone or video calls. Skype used to be our favorite platform for video calls, but lately it has been ridden with unhelpful updates that make it less and less usable, much to our dismay. Without Skype and WhatsApp, my parents would not have seen their grandchildren anymore in the past 10-15 years, and I’d be so much more shocked at how old they’ve gotten when they open the door to welcome me for another visit. I love sending and receiving interesting links or attachments, what a miracle that we are able to send such things so effortlessly! I also use WhatsApp to maintain two work-based groups, one that affords us to offer up or trade work shifts and one where we help each other with work-related questions. Also for school we have a WhatsApp group, and it has been fun and very helpful to be in communication with one another.
My other favorite apps are SoundHound, ShareIt, and my iPhone’s voice recorder. SoundHound lets me record a snippet of a song that is being played near me, and it will with 99.9% likelihood identify it, so that I can revisit or purchase that song, or check out what other tunes that particular artist or group has made.
ShareIt has been a helpful app to avoid using iTunes, which I perceive as invasive to my privacy, as it will take my whole music library and organize it in an undesirable way. With ShareIt, I can download music from my PC onto my iPhone and make it into a playlist of my preference. I can’t stand it when companies are trying to force me to use only their apps. I want freedom of choice.
The voice recorder app helps me record snippets of song ideas that seems to overcome me mostly on walks. Once I get home, or sometimes days or weeks later, I can revisit these ideas and make them into music on my multitrack recorder.
IMHO
Successful use of digital applications is stimulating, emotionally enriching, convenient for both sender(s) and receiver(s), affordable, secure, as private as desired, fast, accurate, and efficient. It can be entertaining, informative, educational, exploratory, unifying, or soothing.
I think I said enough and shared my preferences clearly. I hope visitors will have a good experience exploring my page. Please leave me your feedback. I am curious. Thank you.
References
Doodle s.a. https://doodle.com/en. Accessed 20.2.2022.
IMS Global Learning Consortium Inc. 2022. Open Badges. https://openbadges.org. Accessed 20.2.2022.
Mural 2022. https://www.mural.co. Accessed 20.2.2022.
Wix 2022. https://www.wix.com. Accessed 20.2.2022.
Youtube. s.a. https://www.youtube.com. Accessed 23.2.2022.