Zoom

 This post is about Zoom, which is one of the educational tools found in Doctor Wang's previous T3PP presentation. Zoom is an online video chat tool that can be used in a variety of ways in an educational setting. This tool was at the top of the elementary software table in the presentation, meaning it has been widely used in elementary education.

Teachers can have class online using zoom. Students are sent a link to the virtual meeting room, where they may or may not need to enter a meeting code to join the zoom call. Once the code has been entered, students enter a virtual waiting room, and wait for the teacher to admit them into the meeting. 

Once students are admitted into the meeting, there are many views that students choose from in how they view their class. Below are some of the ways students and teachers are able to view their class during a zoom call. Gallery view allows students and teachers to view all participants at once, and speaker view allows the main screen to display whoever is talking. The green square outlines a participant when they are speaking.

Speaker view:

Gallery view:

In the image above, many of the Zoom features are highlighted in purple. Students are able to mute/unmute their audio, turn on and off their camera, see the other participants, and use the chat to send messages to the whole group or to just their instructor. In addition, Zoom meetings can be recorded and posted later for students who need to view the lecture, lesson, and other aspects of instruction.

Zoom can also be used to communicate and have virtual meetings with parents/guardians. In addition, Zoom is a tool that can provide opportunity for PD (professional development), and meetings with admin and other educators.

To learn more about some of Zoom's best features click here to read an article.

One of the mentioned pitfalls of zoom is the difficulty to approach classroom management. This is a typical pitfall with online learning platforms. Teachers have reported that it is even harder to gain student engagement and maintain student focus. Because teachers are not able to be physically with the students when using Zoom, management strategies such as proximity are not possible. In addition, the free version of Zoom has limitations. When using the free version, the zoom meeting can not last longer than 40 minutes. The meeting will end and participants will be kicked out automatically once the 40 minutes are up. Below is a basic outline of the features of each Zoom plan.

The ease of use of Zoom is a benefit, it is easy to learn and navigate. However, when there are factors such as poor internet connection, Zoom can be harder to use for effective teaching. I would consider the versatility of zoom to be good, but not exceptional. I can see myself using Zoom for teaching and in an educational setting, but I really hope that it will not be the primary means of instruction for my future classes.