Second Day of DFI

Today we looked at using hangouts as a tool to meet and explain things.
This seemed to be a good way to have mini-tutorials with each other, so you can show the others what you are talking about as you talk about it. This will be a good way to meet within our department when some people are not able to be at the meeting; we can share 'how to' as well as talk the other people through the skills that we are talking about.
Hangouts seem to also be a good way to have one-to-one contact with students; if they are not in the same room, or if they are at home revising and we are free. This also seems to be able to either add to our workload, or make it more flexible, depending on your point of view and how flexible you are allowed to be by management!
Learning about Gmail, organizing folders and setting up labels and filters was very useful, as it allows the inbox to become much clearer, and is an easier way to file information away, and recover it for later use. I think I will still keep emails unread in my inbox in order to remind me to read it and action it!
Google Keep also is a good tool - this can be used to set up reminders for yourself, or multiple people. Up to now I have tended to do this sort of self-organisation on paper in my diary, and will still probably do so, but the fact that others can be added into lists/reminders can enable tasks to be shared between people much more easily. I can see that this could be easily used when organising large events at the Fire Station, as we are now using a system called CIMS 4 which allows for much more organised and focussed delegation, and Google Keep can be used to break down tasks within each delegated group. Students can also use this tool to organise tasks within groups when doing large projects such as setting up a business, by setting up a list of individual tasks, sharing with the rest of their group, so that others in their group can see if everyone is doing the tasks allocated to them.
Calendar has been a tool that I have not used much up to now, as I have a paper diary which I use regularly. At the moment I am not entirely sure that I will ditch the paper calendar, but I can see the use of putting everything online. I find that I need to be over-organised, and plan each day rigidly, but usually remember to do everything I need to do. Getting into the habit of checking the calendar will be something that I can see that I need to do in future!