HuskerBoard

I'm not a teacher but I've seen some rough stuff popping up on the internet over the last week or two from other teachers i.e. students making funny noises in the chats to disrupt everything. You may have also seen that a politician's recent Zoom town hall was ruined by one of the participants playing porn on their vid screen.

There are also some other students trying to be clever by putting video recordings of themselves in the chat and then doing other things off screen.

I guess you can't really police a lot of that stuff so the only advice I would have is to set expectations and an understanding off the bat.

Awkard, and audio is an issue.  You can't hear half of your students.  Our students have Chromebooks and the mic in the computer isn't suitable for Zoom.  Unless a kid has a headset with a mic, assume your communication will be through the chat window.

Teaching Industrial Tech through Zoom is very interesting...

Yes, everyday and so far it has been great.  During the afternoon when more people are using it you might (I stress might) notice a difference.  But so far I have loved it.  The share-screen feature is great.  You can record all your sessions if you want.

You can do break out groups, so it will create groups for your class and you can put 2-3-4-5-6 people in a group, however many you want.

I would get to the settings and turn off "Private Chat" so they can chat with each other.  I would also have them muted when the enter your room, it just seems to help. 

You will have some that put a picture of themselves up so that it looks like they are there but that really isn't a huge issue.

You might get some strangers in your room, so be ready for that or password protect your room.  

Used Zoom just yesterday with about 9 participants. Thought it worked really well. Didn't use some of the "raise your hand" features etc. I would think it could work very well as long as students don't interrupt while you're talking and if they wait their turn until called upon. Not sure if there are controls to mute audio or video of specific persons if that becomes necessary.

We use ZOOM almost exclusively at UNMC for executive meetings and (when they were in session) classes, so far the response from all using it has been overwhelmingly positive.

The stock has gone bonkers...up 35 dollars in the last 2-3 months.

Spent all of the last two weeks in zoom meetings and testing features. Taught two classes with it today. Msg me if you want

The host can mute everyone else, can't they? I wouldn't think that would be a big deal.

Yes they can...you can also set it up so they are muted upon entry.  Honestly, we have been doing it for close to two weeks now and my students are great with it.  But, I am also an exceptional educator (I am not) that has won a lot of awards (I have not)

Really, most of the 'problems' are probably with teachers being new to the system and unfamiliar with how to use it. Not surprising, really.

Yep...and some subjects just don't work all that well over Zoom.