Dropbox is a file syncing and sharing, cloud storage service.
Current known uses in the sector
Dropbox can be used in Citizenship Preparation, Community Connections, Employment-related, Information and Orientation, Library Settlement Partnership, Settlement Workers in Schools, Pre-Arrival as a document sharing tool with clients and communities.
According to DropBox, “By default, Dropbox is in the language of the device you use to access your Dropbox account.” You can change the language if you wish.
Google Drive is a cloud storage and file syncing service. Google Drive also includes Google Docs, Google Sheets, and Google Slides, which are a part of an office suite you can use for collaborative editing of documents, spreadsheets, presentations, drawings, forms, and more. Files created and edited through the office suite are saved in Google Drive.
Current known uses in the sector
Google Drive can be used in Citizenship Preparation, Community Connections, Employment-related, Information and Orientation, Library Settlement Partnership, Settlement Workers in Schools, Pre-Arrival as a document sharing tool with clients and communities.
When creating a Google account, a valid name, email address, username, and password are required. It is also optional to provide a phone number to recover your account if the password is lost. Upon creation of your account, Google closely tracks your searches, bookmarks, and location services, among other data. These underlying data collection practices and Google’s sharing of your information with third parties make the use of Google tools for personal purposes unsafe.
Sync.com is a file syncing and sharing, cloud storage service.
Current known uses in the sector
Sync.com can be used in Citizenship Preparation, Community Connections, Employment-related, Information and Orientation, Library Settlement Partnership, Settlement Workers in Schools, Pre-Arrival as a document sharing tool with clients and communities.
Service Context and activities with descriptions about how it could be used in each context – from simple uses to more complex
Ease of use & Accessibility
Sync.com has a simple and easy to use interface. Sync.com does not have information about accessibility features.
Mobile friendly
Sync.com is mobile friendly and has Android and iOS apps.
Privacy/security features, including data security and message encryption
Sync.com has strong Security & privacy, including data storage in Canada. Sync is 100% PIPEDA compliant, and also complies with PIPA, FIPPA, ATIPPA, PHIPA and more.
You can use Microsoft Forms to create forms, surveys, and quizzes as well as to collaboratively edit and share the forms with other people. Use Microsoft forms for intake, pre-workshop or program assessment, program, session, or event evaluation, and more.
Forms is part of the Office 365 suite. Forms can be accessed directly from Teams so you can setup a Forms tab, add an existing form to gather responses, create a new form, show survey results, create notification from your form, collaborate on a form, or conduct a quick poll within a team. All these functions occur within Microsoft Teams. You can link your Microsoft Forms Survey or Quiz to an Excel Spreadsheet. You can also access Forms from a web browser.
Current known uses in the sector
Microsoft Forms can be used in Citizenship Preparation, Community Connections, Employment-related, Information and Orientation, Library Settlement Partnership, Settlement Workers in Schools as a tool to engage with Newcomers capture Newcomer feedback, ideas, insights, suggestions, comprehension, conduct pre- and post-session evaluations and assessments, etc.
Video overview
Pricing
Forms is available to Microsoft 365 with Microsoft Teams for Nonprofits, as well as business and educational accounts. Microsoft have also made Forms available to anyone with a personal Microsoft Account.
Ease of use & Accessibility
Microsoft Forms is a easy way to prepare forms, survey, and quizzes, especially if integrated into your Office 365 suite.
Surveys and assessments created in Microsoft Forms are accessible on mobile devices.
Privacy/security features (including data security and message encryption)
Microsoft Forms is part of Office 365 which has robust data security settings. However, Microsoft 365 Business Premium (Nonprofit Staff Pricing) appears to have more advanced security features according to Microsoft.
Multilingual capabilities
You can access forms in multiply languages. To do this simply click “settings” then “multilingual and select “add additional language”, it will provide a drop-down secondary language you can select from.
Google Sites is a Google web application that allows users to create simple websites. Google Sites is free to use (with a paid option that offers more storage capability) and is included in
Google Sites is a Google web application that allows users to create simple websites. Google Sites is free to use (with a paid option that offers more storage capability) and is included in the Google Workspace which offers discounted rates for nonprofits (including a free tier). If you’re looking for a simple drag-and-drop web design tool for developing class websites, student project sites, or encouraging students to show their knowledge in different ways, check out Google Sites.
If you’re looking for a simple drag-and-drop web design tool for developing class websites, student project sites, or encouraging students to show their knowledge in different ways, check out Google Sites.
Google Sites can be used in Citizenship Preparation, Community Connections, Employment-related, Information and Orientation, Library Settlement Partnership, Settlement Workers in Schools, Pre-Arrival as a tool to share information with Newcomers.
Make sure you do not use a personal Google account. Your organization should have an account, or you should create a separate account that is specific and only for work-related websites or pages created on Google Sites.
Privacy/security features (including data security and message encryption)
When creating a Google account, a valid name, email address, username, and password are required. It is also optional to provide a phone number to recover your account if the password is lost. Upon creation of your account, Google closely tracks your searches, bookmarks, and location services, among other data. These underlying data collection practices and Google’s sharing of your information with third parties make the use of Google tools for personal purposes unsafe.
Canva is an online graphic/image, video, and slideshow design tool you can use to create professional-looking posters, slideshows, images, event flyers, resumes, cards, certificates, infographics, and other media.
Current known uses in the sector
Video overview
Pricing
A basic Canva account can be created by anyone for free. Canva Pro, with more options and access to functionality and resources (such as many more paid templates, images, etc.) is free for Nonprofits, with up to 10 Canva Pro users for free.
Service Context and activities
Canva can be used in Citizenship Preparation, Community Connections, Employment-related, Information and Orientation, Library Settlement Partnership, Settlement Workers in Schools as a tool to create visuals that help in your work.
Ease of use & Accessibility
Canva takes time to learn, but once mastered is easy and fairly intuitive to use. Make use of their tutorials, Design School, Design courses and other useful resources offered by Canva itself.
Mobile friendly
Canva has mobile apps you can use to create and edit your designs.
Privacy/security features (including data security and message encryption)
Canva has security features which can be reviewed here.
Canvas is a Learning Management System (LMS) created specifically for education institutions.
Current known uses in the sector
Canvas can be used in Citizenship Preparation, Community Connections, Employment-related, Information and Orientation, Library Settlement Partnership, Settlement Workers in Schools as a tool to create online courses, engage with Newcomers visually, brainstorm ideas, capture Newcomer feedback, ideas, insights, suggestions, comprehension, etc.
Vimeo is an online video sharing and social media platform. It is a free video sharing website that makes it easy to watch, create and upload your own videos to share with others. You can also use it to curate other people’s videos to share them with Newcomers. Videos can be embedded in your website, and you can create YouTube playlists of your own or other people’s videos to share.
Current known uses in the sector
Webinar recordings
Introductions to programs and services
Livestream, via YouTube itself or through Zoom and other livestream/video conferencing tools
Orientation, explanation, and how-to videos
Simple “talking head” videos where you share information or provide orientation
YouTube can be used in Citizenship Preparation, Community Connections, Employment-related, Information and Orientation, Library Settlement Partnership, Settlement Workers in Schools as a tool to share a variety of types of videos with Newcomers, created by you and others.
Vimeo is mobile friendly via its smartphone app or mobile web browsers on smartphones.
Privacy/security features (including data security and message encryption)
According to Vimeo, you can share videos “with an unlisted link. For added security, you can lock your videos with a password. You can also specify which websites have permissions to embed your videos… We never sell your data to third-party marketers, we protect your account with enterprise-grade security, and we let you control the privacy of your videos on and off Vimeo.”
YouTube is an online video sharing and social media platform owned by Google. It is a free video sharing website that makes it easy to watch, create and upload your own videos to share with others. You can also use it to curate other people’s videos to share them with Newcomers. Videos can be embedded in your website, and you can create YouTube playlists of your own or other people’s videos to share.
Current known uses in the sector
Webinar recordings
Introductions to programs and services
Livestream, via YouTube itself or through Zoom and other livestream/video conferencing tools
Orientation, explanation, and how-to videos
Simple “talking head” videos where you share information or provide orientation
YouTube can be used in Citizenship Preparation, Community Connections, Employment-related, Information and Orientation, Library Settlement Partnership, Settlement Workers in Schools as a tool to share a variety of types of videos with Newcomers, created by you and others.
Video overview
Pricing
YouTube is free to use, upload, and share videos and playlists.
There is no login required to view videos. However, if you want to upload videos, create a YouTube channel, and create your own Playlists and take advantage of YouTube’s advanced features, you should create an account with Google and login. YouTube also offers a paid service (YouTubeRed), which allows you to watch videos and listen to music without advertisements. YouTube also has a Nonprofit program with additional benefits.
Ease of use & Accessibility
YouTube is a simple and well-designed website. The help page (see YouTube Help Center) allows users to find an answer to their questions.
YouTube supports a pop-out button, expand/shrink button, and screen reader, TalkBack, full page zoom, high contrast settings, and chrome accessibility extensions to increase accessibility.
Mobile friendly
YouTube is mobile friendly via its smartphone app or mobile web browsers on smartphones.
Privacy/security features (including data security and message encryption)
Videos can be set to:
Public, which means the video shows up on YouTube, in YouTube and other web searches and can be viewed by anyone
Unlisted, which means that the video won’t show up in YouTube searches and someone needs the direct video link in order to view the video. These videos can still be shared and embedded on websites.
Private, which means that the video is not public or shareable in public. Only people the video is shared with can view the video.
If you do not want to allow a video to be embedded by others onto other websites you can restrict video embedding.
In order to upload videos and create playlists you must create an account on YouTube. You can sign in YouTube with your Google account. Google services ask for your personal information (e.g., name, phone, birthday, age, location,and username) and want you to make your profile publicly visible. Google uses cookies to identify your browser and device and to present appropriate ads, remember search preferences, and offer options based on user data. In addition, they also use people’s information to maintain and develop Google services, and protect both users and Google from malware and spam. See Google Privacy Policy.
Make sure you do not use a personal Google/YouTube account. Your organization should have an account, or you should create a separate account that is specific and only for work-related videos.
Multilingual capabilities
Videos can be created, shared, and viewed in any language. YouTube also allows you to create and add captions in any language to include with your videos. YouTube also uses speech recognition technology to automatically create captions, including translations, for your videos. These are generally not completely accurate and should be reviewed before encouraging Newcomers to view the translated captions.
Screencast-O-Matic allows you to create and edit screencasts/how-to videos with or without narration.
Current known uses in the sector
Screencast-O-Matic can be used in Citizenship Preparation, Community Connections, Employment-related, Information and Orientation, Library Settlement Partnership, Settlement Workers in Schools, Pre-Arrival to create visual and video information to help inform and engage with Newcomers visually.