When should I use this?
- When should I use this?
- Features
- Focus student attention to your video
- Share Recorded Videos with Students
- Non-verbal Communication (ex. Raising your hand)
- Polling
- Screen Share & Annotation
- Breakup my class into smaller groups
- Create a Document Camera
- Attention Tracking
- Sharing Computer Audio
- Welcoming Students
- Transcription (Paid Feature)
Learning Management Systems are great, however, many teachers want to gain back more of their personal connections with their students. There are many uses for video conferencing which might include:
- Run your class virtually
- Virtual office hours
- Participate in facilitated group activities
Features
Cost: Free and they will remove the 40-minute limit for K-12
Site: https://zoom.us/education
Once you create your account make sure to remove the 40 minute limit
While there are many video conferencing software, Zoom has done a nice job at introducing some very interesting features, while still maintaining a relatively intuitive experience for your students and other participants. I've aggregated a few videos that show some of my more favorite features on Zoom.
Focus student attention to your video
By default Zoom will bring a full screen view of the person that is speaking. In a class of 20 1st graders that could be everyone all the time making for a distracting experience for both the students and instructors. 2 ways of handling this is as the instructor Muting everyone so Zoom will not pick up any audio from anyone but you
You could then individually unmute students as they "Raise their hand" either in video or using the Non-verbal button that is discussed later in this article.
Alternatively, you could allow everyone to. be unmuted and allow for the natural flow of conversation from the group but make sure that your video is the "Spotlight Video", this way everyone will see your video no matter what noises and rustling is happening in the background.
Share Recorded Videos with Students
If a student is out sick or missed a Zoom lesson for what ever reason you could find that video in your account and Share or Download it. In order for this you need to remember to press record before starting your class.
If you always want to record you could log into your setting and hit the Automatic Recording. I am not sure if there are any limits to that.
If you decide to record manual, all you need to do is click the record button on your screen at the bottom.
Once you wrap up your meeting, the file will be processed and show up on your account as demonstrated in this video.
I recommend recording in the "cloud" so you don't need to store large files on your computer
Sample snippet that you could share via email, google classroom, or however you are communicating with your students.
Sample Message provided by Zoom to send to students
Topic: March 24th Match Class Start Time : Mar 24, 2018 03:59 PM Meeting Recording: https://macmillanlearning.zoom.us/rec/share/[SOME_ID] Access Password: student1
Non-verbal Communication (ex. Raising your hand)
Zoom allows you to have your students raise their hands and other non-verbal cues that you normally have in a regular classroom. You and your students could find these option under Manage Participants.
On the participant list you will see all your participants with a mute and video button, as well as a notification of what non-verbal communication button they clicked.
Once the student clicks a button, such as "raise hand", you will get an alert on your screen, as well on the Participant List.
Polling
When doing a lesson you may want to sprinkle in some polling questions to make sure students are paying attention during the class, check-in at the beginning the class if you need to build on the knowledge, or at the end if you want students to reflect on their learning or identify their Muddiest Points.
Zoom's polling is pretty standard. If you want something more full-featured you should check out Kahoot! for K-8 or iClicker and use that in conjunction with Zoom. Both have mobile and web-based interfaces and are pretty easy to use.
Screen Share & Annotation
If you want to present slides while you talk, write math problems on a white board, or allow others to collaboratively annotate an image
Breakup my class into smaller groups
If you are looking to integrate group work into your distance learning such as Think, Pair, Share or 1-3-6 protocol, a great feature to look into is Zoom's Breakout Rooms.
It could get a bit hectic trying to do this real-time, especially if you want to have specific groups. I would suggest you use the "Breakout Room pre-assign" feature and do that beforehand.
Create a Document Camera
This is mostly important for teaching math or science
Related Page
Drawing and writing math on virtual whiteboardsAttention Tracking
Check to see if your students were paying attention. You could find this in your web admin page under the Reports menu.
Sharing Computer Audio
Sometimes you might want to play a video, audio file, or some other media that has sound. If you want that sound to be transmitted to others on the call you need to first "Share Screen", and then select "Share computer sound" on the bottom of the modal. You will also see the ability to just share computer audio in the Advanced settings.
Welcoming Students
Here is a how-to video that could be shared with students to get them started.
Transcription (Paid Feature)
If you have students that are deaf or hard of hearing, you are able to have Zoom automatically create transcriptions after the recording is over. This is an accessiibliiy requirement that schools will need to adhire to, although I am not sure where that stands durining the current emergency. Also, this is not real-time and only gets created after the session is ended and the video gets processed.