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What digital tools do you use to communicate with team members for group work? Why do you use these tools and what are their advantages and shortcomings?
Google hangouts and Discord are the most versatile in my opinion. A specific advantage to using these softwares are the fact that they are web based and any device with a front facing camera and internet access can use them. Hangouts is available to anyone with a google account and allows for easy conferencing between multiple people discord offers similar options.
communicating with a group to complete tasks is extremely important. It allows for communication lines to remain open and ideas to flow in an efficient manner. One tool I find useful is google docs. Not only does this application allow for multiple users to edit at the same time, it also allows for live chat and sharing abilities. The work that has been written and edited among the group is then automatically saved to your personal google drive account without the need to constantly hit the save button. This is another useful aspect about google docs that ensures that no work is lost during the process of writing and editing.
Aside from sharing and editing work, an application called whatsapp allows for a group to create a conversation. this is a helpful tool when communicating with group members about due dates, tasks ideas, etc. The good thing about this application is that it is available to both android and apple mobile devices. Some downsides included the constant need for internet access to maintain connection to load new conversation material. Another shortcoming is the need for a mobile device. users need a mobile device that suports application processing. this is because whatsapp is attached to a cell phone number which is used to create your account. There are come people who do not have a cell phone which is where this application can be useless.
Google doc, text message on our phones (Samsung and iPhone) and Facebook messenger are the three digital tools we always use to communicate. Google doc has the advantage of allowing another person to see the changes in details. If members are making changes in the document, changes can be saved immediately. However, one shortcoming is limited features compared with Microsoft Word, such as fonts, photograph options. Furthermore, the text message is convenient that it did not need the internet to send out messages; however, one shortcoming is that the text messages were not free. Facebook messenger is another tool that we use, it comprises many features, such as audio recording, image, location, plan, games and other features that were in the messenger app. I can also use it both on my mobile phone and the web. The disadvantage for Facebook Messenger is they need internet connections to access. Seeing from the above response, it is evident that digital tools have both advantages and disadvantages. When choosing the communication tools at the beginning of the term, we have never realized benefits and pitfalls of the digital tools, as the only “characteristic” of the tool we focused on was to see which tool we can both reply the quickest.
In order to communicate with my group members I used google docs. I find this extremely effective when doing group projects because it is easy to use. This tool allows multiple people to use the same document at once. It also allows people to see the recent changes and add to them as needed. Google Docs also has a group chat option so people can discuss their work on the document. However, this feature is only offered to those that are online. If not a notification will be sent to your gmail or your phone indicating activity on the document.
In terms of communicating with team members Google chat is the main tool I use. Google chat is activated when there is more than one person accessing a file within a shared Google Drive. If all, or even some, members are online at the time we are all easily able to communicate. You are also able to leave comments and notes on things throughout a Google Docs sheet which then sends an email to all those who are connected to that document. You are also able to reply to comments made, similar to track changes on Microsoft, so that members can communicate thoughts/issues to each other as well. Another digital tool that I was introduced to last year as a means to communicate with team members is Zoom which allows users to video or audio chat to each other. I personally like Zoom because, like Skype, it does not matter what kind of device you have (phone or laptop), you can login and begin a chat, unlike FaceTime which is solely for Apple users. These tools are advantageous because they are able to virtually connect team members who are not altogether in one place physically. However, a shortcoming of a chat based web communication tool is that sometimes you cannot articulate yourself as well through chat as you can through talking. This is why I brought up Zoom, even if you are not able to find a quite corner at school or at home to hold a full video call, you can hold an audio call which enables you actually speak to each other. Instead of opening up a shared document to comments like “what?” or “huh?” and having to constantly comment back and forth to each other, you can work through what is required of the group and communicate altogether.
Great suggestions for this topic. I too like Zoom! It’s excellent for video conferencing and collaboration. Anyone with a Passport York login can access a basic license for Zoom here:
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