That Blue Square Thing

This is easy to do. Someone needs to set up outline documents for agenda and minutes. These should probably use the sorts of layouts shown in the example documents. They should then be saved as template files. This means that when the template is opened it can't be changed - instead it has to be saved using a new filename. This means the template is still available.

Templates look different to regular Word files:

It would also be a good idea if you made decisions about how files are going to be named and where they're going to be stored. Someone should probably write up some sort of document to tell people this - you can see an example of a file naming protocol in the screenshot. This helps to show evidence of standard ways of working (AO1 row 5).

Distribution lists allow you to create a way of sending everyone in them team an e-mail at the same time. This is a really helpful project management tool for people to demonstrate.

You can do this in Google Mail:

1. click on Contacts (on the left)
2. click on New Group...
3. name the group ("Team Biscuit" or similar...)
4. click on Other Contacts (or Most Contacted - or a combination) on the left
5. tick the people you want to add to the group
6. click on the Groups drop down button
7. select the group you just created and click OK

Now, to send an e-mail to everyone on the distribution list you need to go back to your Mail section and Compose a new message. In the To box simply type the first few letters of whatever you called the Group (tea for example...) and then choose the Group name.

Easy!

You can also add some detail to the contacts:

1. click on Contacts
2. click on the person's name
3. edit away - try the little button next to their name for instance, or add some notes. Or a picture of a duck

This is all good evidence for effective communication as well as using project management tools.

Google Docs can be an effective way to work collaboratively on a specific document, especially if it's mainly text based (Google Docs doesn't particularly like layout stuff).

It can also be a good way to share Office documents such as Word files. People can then download them and work on new versions. This is particularly useful if you need to get feedback on a document or if people need to write different sections of a document.

It's probably not a good idea to make documents public by the way. It seems easy to lose content if you do this!

Again, as a way of seeing what other people have said about your document, what people have added or what's been deleted, tracking changes is very useful - and an excellent feature of software to develop or new skill to develop.

This works particularly well for things like letters to clients that need checking or changing by others or if you're in charge of documentation etc...

Google calendars can be shared between multiple users. This might be a good way of keeping an update on meetings and other scheduled events.

There may be the possibility of reminders being sent as well, which could be Quite Interesting to play with as a project management tool.

When you get your google calendar thingy up and running you'll notice another bar on the left called Tasks. Hit it and you'll get a space on the right of the screen where you can record tasks you need to do. This is an excellent tool for using for monitoring your progress through a set of tasks - particularly your individual tasks.

You can reorder tasks by dragging them up and down and tick them off when they're done. There are buttons at the bottom of the sidebar which will do other things as well. Well worth playing with...

This is a really important tool. It shows you're using ICT to manage your aspect of the project - the key pointer for AO1 row 2. Use it. Now.

The project manager will need to use Open Workbench to deal with the overall project plan. This requires some learning of new skills and will probably be eased by arranging a meeting with a consultant of some kind.

Once they have a project plan it might be communicated partly via a shared online calendar.

It is entirely possible to use stuff like Facebook or Flickr to help manage your project. It might be helpful to use Chat features, for example, to ask for and receive help on something - Google Mail allows you to do this as well (and to save a record of the chat which might be helpful).

You might share an image - say a template for something - via Facebook or Flickr as well.

If you use it, and can find good evidence of having done so effectively, then it's worth thinking about including.