Session 30: Calendars, Video Calls & Cloud Storage

At a glance: pupils plan a week on paper and then in a digital calendar, create events with reminders and invitations, join and run a video meeting with good manners, and manage files in cloud storage, ending with a whole team meeting planned end to end. · Time: 90 minutes (adjust the timings if your period is shorter) · Workbook pages: 6

Learning outcomes

By the end of the session, pupils can:

Create a calendar event with a date, time, reminder and video link, invite people, and accept or decline an invitation.
Join a video meeting by link or code, use mute, camera, chat, raise hand and share screen, and follow meeting manners (on time, muted, quiet place, safe background, links kept private).
Use cloud storage to make folders, upload and download files, understand sync and storage limits, and sign out safely on a shared computer.

Before the session

Prepare one Hub learning account (Google Workspace or Microsoft 365) per pupil or per pair, with Calendar, Meet (or Teams) and Drive (or OneDrive). Write a list of the team members' learning-account email addresses so they can invite each other.
Create a shared BIH Tech Club calendar and share it with all the learning accounts (see-only), with two or three real club dates in it.
Test a video call between two pupil PCs. Check webcams and headsets; headphones prevent the squeal of audio feedback when many PCs in one room join the same call.
Make sure each pupil can find their Session 27 poster (or any small file) to upload.
Test the Club Planner 3D lab on the projector PC and a pupil PC; keep the offline pack on USB.
Print a few spare copies of the weekly planning grid for pupils who finish Page 2 fast.

Running order

Time	Activity	Workbook	What the mentor does
0–10 min	Typing warm-up	–	Pupils open the typing trainer and do today's warm-up.
10–18 min	The noticeboard moved online	Page 1	Point at (or describe) the Hub noticeboard. "What happens if you forget to look at it?" Read Figure 30.0.
18–30 min	Calendars and invitations	Page 2	Live demo on the projector: create an event, add a reminder, invite a learning account. Show the shared club calendar. Pupils fill in the weekly grid on paper, then add two events.
30–42 min	Video meetings and manners	Page 3	Start a Meet from the projector; two pupils join and you show every button. Read the manners table; act out a bad meeting (unmuted generator, camera on the ceiling) for laughs.
42–52 min	Cloud storage	Page 4	Demo new folder, upload, download and the OneDrive icons in File Explorer. Pupils do the storage sum. Stress signing out.
52–58 min	Club Planner warm-up	Page 5	Demonstrate the first mission; pairs try all three.
58–80 min	Lab Mission: plan a team meeting	Page 5	Teams make the folder, the event and invitations, then the practice call. Run the meeting race from your own PC in the call.
80–86 min	Review	Page 6	Scenario decisions by show of hands; the two written questions.
86–90 min	Self-assessment, sign-off and sign-out	Page 6	Sign off using the evidence below. Check every PC is signed out.

Key ideas and how to explain them

The club noticeboard moved online: the calendar is the board that reminds you; the video call is the meeting room that comes to you; cloud storage is the shared cupboard you can open from any computer.
Event, reminder, invitation, reply: an event has a title, date, start and end time, and a place or link. A reminder (Google: notification) tells you beforehand. Invited people reply Yes, Maybe or No so the organiser knows who is coming. Always reply.
Plan on paper first: the weekly grid helps pupils see fixed things (school, chores) before planning club, study and fun. Weekly events use Repeat.
Join by link or code: link from the invitation, or a meeting code (Meet) or meeting ID and passcode (Zoom, Teams).
Meeting manners: on time, muted until you speak, quiet place with light on your face, a background with nothing private (no address, no uniform, no family members who didn't agree), raise your hand, never post a meeting link publicly.
Data: video calls use a lot of data on a phone; turning your camera off saves some data; audio only or the low-quality/data-saver setting saves much more (audio only uses a few tens of MB an hour).
The cloud is someone else's big computer: sync keeps one up-to-date copy on every device. Free space is limited (Google 15 GB shared with Gmail and Photos, OneDrive 5 GB on free personal accounts). Sharing was taught in Session 29, so only remind pupils of it. Online forms belong to Session 21 and are not part of today.
Team points: the meeting race, all six checks done, and helper points.

The 3D lab

Club Planner ("Schedule a club meeting and invite members, run a mock video call, and move files into the cloud cupboard.") is a safe rehearsal of the real lab mission: nothing is sent to real people and nobody's camera is turned on. The room shows the three tools from Figure 30.0: a wall calendar, a meeting-room screen and a cloud cupboard (with Hub PC-04 and a phone by a toy trotro). Demonstrate mission 1 on the projector, then let pairs do all three:

Schedule a club meeting with a title, date, start and end time and a reminder, then invite Kofi, Esi and Yaw. It ticks only when all of these are set; they reply Yes, Maybe and No (as in Figure 30.1) and the reminder bell rings. Ask: "Why does Yaw still reply No?"
In the video call, turn your camera off or on, raise your hand, say hello, mute again and share your screen. If a pupil stays unmuted, a cockerel, a generator or the TV takes over the call; speaking only works after raising a hand and being asked. The "Post the link on my public page" button shows a stranger joining.
In the cloud cupboard, make a folder, upload your poster, download a copy of a file, open the poster on your phone, then sign out. The folder name must follow the naming standard (e.g. TechClub_OpenDay_Team3). The Hub PC screen shows the three sync icons from Page 4 (cloud = online only, green tick = also on this PC, arrows = syncing now). The mission only ticks when signing out comes last.

It mirrors the end-to-end plan on Page 5, so pupils who struggle with the real tools can show the same steps in the lab.

Common mistakes and quick fixes

Pupils often…	Try this
Set the event for the wrong day or am/pm	Open the event again and read the date and time aloud before saving.
Forget to press Send after adding guests	Check the guest list: nobody has replied yet? Edit the event and send again.
Join the call on speakers and get a loud squeal	Mute and use headphones, or only one PC per team joins with sound.
Leave the microphone on	"Muted until you speak." Show the keyboard shortcut: in Meet, Ctrl+D toggles the microphone and Ctrl+E the camera.
Upload a file to the wrong folder	Open the folder first, then New → File upload; or drag the file onto the folder.
Think a file in OneDrive is "on the PC" when it is online only	Look for the cloud icon; right-click → Always keep on this device.
Forget to sign out	Make sign-out part of the meeting race: no points until the PC is signed out.

When things go wrong

No internet: do the paper weekly plan and the Club Planner lab from the offline pack. Act out a "video meeting" with pupils holding paper mute and hand signs. Show cloud sync with two USB drives as "devices" and a box as "the cloud".
Not enough PCs: one PC per team for the real mission; the organiser drives and the others check the record table. Swap the organiser for the practice call.
A PC freezes or the power goes: calendar events and Drive files are saved online, so nothing is lost; sign in again on another PC (and point out that this is exactly why the cloud is useful). With no power, finish the weekly grid and write the full meeting invitation on paper.

Answer key

Weekly grid (Page 2): answers vary. Look for at least one entry a day, sensible times and a reminder for the club meeting.

Your turn (Page 4): 5 GB is about 5,000 MB; 5,000 ÷ 100 = about 50 videos (a little less in real life, because some space is already used).

Lab table (Page 5): for example: folder TechClub_OpenDay_Team3 shared as Editor with the team; "Open Day planning meeting", Tuesday next week, 4:00–4:30 pm; reminder 30 minutes before; 3 yes, 1 maybe; used mute, camera, hand, chat and share; signed out.

Scenario Decisions (Page 6)

Ama adds a reminder one day before: Good idea.
Kofi posts the meeting link on his public page: Bad idea (strangers can join and disrupt it).
Esi stays muted until it is her turn: Good idea.
Yaw leaves the Hub PC signed in to Drive: Bad idea (the next person can open his files).
Naa turns her camera off on a weak signal: Good idea (saves data and keeps the call working).

Written Review Questions

Any two: you can open the files from any computer or phone; they are safe if your PC breaks or is lost; teammates can share and work on the same files; sync keeps one up-to-date copy everywhere.
Reply No (Decline), and add a short message if you can, so the organiser knows you are not coming and can plan, or move the meeting.

Support and stretch

Needs more support: focus on one tool at a time; let them be the "guest" first (accept an invitation, join a call) before being the organiser. Use the Club Planner lab to rehearse.
Finished early: make the event repeat every week for a month; add a second reminder; in Drive, make sub-folders (Posters, Notes, Photos) and move files between them; try a Zoom or Teams join screen with a meeting ID and passcode the mentor gives.

Evidence for sign-off

The pupil shows a calendar event they created with a reminder, guests and a video link; replies to an invitation; joins a call and uses mute, camera, chat, raise hand and share screen; makes a cloud folder, uploads and downloads a file; and signs out. They get at least 4 of the 5 scenario decisions right.

Safety and wellbeing

Use only Hub learning accounts and invite only teammates and mentors, never outside addresses. Meeting links stay inside the club. In the practice call, cameras are optional: a pupil who doesn't want to be on camera may join with audio only. Check backgrounds before cameras go on (no personal photos, documents or uniforms). Remind pupils that at home they should only join video calls their parents know about, from people they know. Every PC must be signed out at the end.