First time users to Zoom

Faculty meeting through Zoom to prepare for remote learning

Helping teachers connect, collaborate, and support their students through video conferencing tools like Zoom gives me hope for the future of digital, blended and personalized learning in our schools. 

Although the circumstances that have led us to this point are unfortunate to say the least, it is exciting to see so many adapt to digital communication channels like Zoom. 

Some getting started tips and best practices:

• Zoom.us - get a free account or reach out to Molly at ESU 8 if a Zoom Pro account is warranted. 
• Teacher Tutorial for Using Zoom for Online Teaching (created by a student!)

• Zoom Task Cards shared graciously by Jenna Reeh of Papillion LaVista Schools. 
• UPON ENTRY in a Zoom meeting: Show people how to mute and unmute themselves. As meeting host, you can Manage Participants and Mute All, but allow for others to unmute and show them how to do so, so that future interactivity is seamless. In the Advanced Settings online you can also check a box so that all participants are automatically muted upon entry. Because this is a user-controlled setting and not a default, teach your participants how to do it themselves so they get comfortable using anyone's Zoom rooms. 
• ZOOM FROM HOME: Because our home internet connectivity isn't as good as at school, consider turning off your video and/or telling participants to do the same. It is far more stable when just sharing audio. However, turn your video on from time to time to add that human connection when at all possible. 
• RECORDING ZOOM SESSIONS: If you Record a Zoom meeting and you are looking for where that recording went, the default is a folder in your Documents called Zoom. You can control where the Recordings go in your Pro account by going to Zoom.us > Preferences > Recordings. You can also have them saved automatically to the cloud (then you don’t have to upload) and a whole bunch more advanced settings when you go to your Advanced Settings online in your Zoom account.