Clubs, schools, churches, mosques and businesses all need to answer the same three questions: When do we meet? Where do we meet? Where are our files? Today you will learn the three online tools people use to answer them, and at the end you will plan a whole team meeting online, from the invitation to the shared folder.
Think of the noticeboard outside the Hub. It shows the meeting dates, and someone has to remember to look at it. The meeting itself happens in a room you must walk to. And the club's files sit in a cupboard you can only open when you are in the building.
Now imagine all three moved online:
The two most common calendars are Google Calendar (calendar.google.com) and Outlook Calendar (in Outlook or outlook.com). Both work in the same way. An event is anything with a date and time: a meeting, a match, a birthday.
A shared club calendar is one calendar that several people can see (and some can edit). The club secretary adds every meeting, match and holiday once, and everyone sees it on their own phone or computer. In Google Calendar, a new calendar is made under Other calendars → +; your mentor will share the club one with you.
Before you type anything, plan your own (fictional or real) week. Fill in at least one thing a day: school, chores, Tech Club, study time, football, rest.
| Day | Fixed (school, chores) | Planned (club, study, fun) | Reminder? When? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monday | |||
| Wednesday | |||
| Friday | |||
| Saturday |
Then copy two of these into the calendar as events with reminders. Use Repeat (Google: "Does not repeat" → "Weekly") for things that happen every week.
The best-known video meeting tools are Google Meet, Zoom and Microsoft Teams. You can join in two ways:
Click the link in the calendar event or the message (for example meet.google.com/abc-defg-hij). Check your name, microphone and camera, then click Join now or Ask to join.
Open the app or website and type the meeting code (Meet), or the meeting ID and passcode (Zoom and Teams). The organiser gives you these.
| Do this | Why |
|---|---|
| Be on time (join 2 minutes early) | You can fix sound problems before the meeting starts. |
| Stay muted until you speak | Background noise (a generator, a cockerel, the TV) drowns out the speaker. |
| Find a quiet place with light on your face | People can hear and see you clearly. |
| Check your background | Nothing private, no family members who didn't agree, no address or uniform. Use a blur if the app has one. |
| Raise your hand; use chat for links | Only one person talks at a time. |
| Never share meeting links publicly | A link posted on a public page lets strangers join and disrupt the meeting. |
Cloud storage means keeping your files on a company's big computers (called servers) instead of only on your own PC. You reach them through the internet, from any computer or phone, by signing in. The two you will meet most are Google Drive (drive.google.com) and Microsoft OneDrive (onedrive.com, and built into Windows 11).
| Job | How (Google Drive; OneDrive is almost the same) |
|---|---|
| Folder | New → New folder. Name it with the BIH naming standard, e.g. TechClub_Meeting_Team3. |
| Upload | New → File upload, or drag a file from File Explorer into the browser window. |
| Download | Right-click the file → Download. A copy lands in your Downloads folder. |
| Sync | In Windows 11, OneDrive appears in File Explorer. A cloud icon means "online only"; a green tick means "also on this PC"; arrows mean "syncing now". |
| Share | You learned this in Session 29: Viewer, Commenter or Editor, and share with named people, not "anyone with the link". |
Free cloud space is limited. A free Google account gets 15 GB, shared between Gmail, Drive and Photos. A free Microsoft account gets 5 GB of OneDrive. (School and work accounts can be different.) Remember Session 6: 1 GB is about 1,000 MB.
Your turn: Selasi's phone videos are about 100 MB each. About how many fit in 5 GB of OneDrive?
Open the Club Planner 3D lab on your session page. Schedule a club meeting and invite members, run a mock video call (mute, camera, raise hand, share screen), and move files into the cloud cupboard.
Your team is planning the Tech Club Open Day. One pupil is the organiser; then swap so everyone has a turn.
TechClub_OpenDay_TeamN. Upload one file from today (for example your Session 27 poster). Share the folder with your teammates' Hub learning accounts as Editor.| Check | What I did or saw | Done |
|---|---|---|
| Folder name and who it is shared with | ||
| Event title, date and time | ||
| Reminder set for | ||
| Replies (yes / maybe / no) | ||
| In the call I used: mute, camera, hand, chat, share | ||
| Signed out at the end |
| Scenario | Good idea | Bad idea |
|---|---|---|
| Ama adds a reminder one day before the club meeting. | ||
| Kofi posts the class video meeting link on his public social media page. | ||
| Esi stays muted in a meeting until it is her turn to speak. | ||
| Yaw leaves the Hub PC without signing out of Google Drive. | ||
| Naa turns her camera off on a weak phone signal to save data. |
Question 1: What are two advantages of keeping your files in cloud storage instead of only on one computer?
Question 2: You receive a calendar invitation for a meeting you cannot attend. What should you do, and why?
Tick the column that reflects your confidence at the end of Session 30:
| Online Organising Competency | With Help | Almost Alone | All By Myself! |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. I can create a calendar event with a reminder and invite people. | |||
| 2. I can join a video meeting and use mute, camera, chat, raise hand and share screen. | |||
| 3. I can follow meeting manners and keep meeting links private. | |||
| 4. I can make folders, upload and download files in cloud storage, and sign out safely. |
BIH JHS Tech Club · a Bozoma Innovation Hub programme · Your answers are saved only on this computer.